or even a loss of occupation, to many of the business men interested in the deal. If a prospective industrial consolidation is of such scope as to require the concurrence or consent of many business interests, among which no one is very decidedly preponderant in pecuniary strength or in strategic position, a long time will be consumed in the negotiations and strategy necessary to define the terras on which the several business interests will consent to come in and the degree of solidarity and central control to which they will submit.
It is notorious, beyond tlie need of specific citar tion, that the great business coalitions and induBtrial combinations which have characterized the situation of the last few years have commonly been the outcome of a long-drawn struggle, in which the industrial ends, as contrasted with I business ends, have not been seriously considered, and in which great shrewdness and tenacity have f commonly been shown in the staving off of a setI tlement for years in the hope of more advantageous terms. The like is true as regards further coalitions, further consolidations of industrial processes which have not been effected, but which are known to be feasible and de.sirable so far as regards the mechanical circumstances of the case. The difficulties in the way are difficuUies of ownership, of business interest, not of mechanical feasibility. These negotiations and much of the strategy