the advance should be made. They merely had instructions from their superiors. Meanwhile I was losing money heavily.

"My fellow victim and competitor dropped in to see me one morning as he was bound for Cincinnati. I greeted him warmly and took him to my private orice. One of my first questions was this: 'How can the trust cut prices. when freight rates are so high? And how long can they keep on losing money this way?"

"Losing money!' he exclaimed; 'Is it possible you believe the trust is losing money? And he looked at me a few moments.

"Why, they are coining money. They are getting rich,' he said. 'Don't you know that the trust owns and controls the railroads?' was his next question; 'and all the money paid for freight charges is given back to the trust. monthly?'

"He said, 'I thought everybody knew that. It is called "the rebate system." You are a hundred years behind the times. Have you never heard how the rebate system is worked?'

"I frankly confessed I hadn't. I was dismayed and sickened. Cold drops of perspiration started from my forehead. Here I had thought the trust was paying the same freight rates (which in my business was a most important item) that I was; when lo, and behold; they were only paying one-third the amount; perhaps even less. I

had thought they were losing money as fast as myself, when in fact they were coining it.

"Reader, perhaps this is not new to you. If so, I trust it did not cost you as much to find it out as it did me. If you have not heard of it before, I'm glad to tell you about it. It is one of the strongholds of the trusts. The railroads raise freight enormously at the instigation of the trusts and then give it back to the trusts in rebates; all because the trusts and railroads are owned and controlled by the same capitalists.

"I went to law. I brought suit against both the railroads and the trust.

"Before long another agent of the trust came to see me and offered to buy me out again. This offer was about half of the first. I refused again.

"I lost both suits and appealed to a higher court. It would be tiresome to tell how the cases were continued and postponed and maneuvered in every way imaginable to bring delay and expense. This was kept up a long time. My lawyers' fees were very high. To make a long

story short, I was finally and completely beaten at every point.

"In 1894 I was ruined. All my money and real estate were gone, and I gave up the fight. I felt I could do no

more.

"But I took up the battle again in another and indirect way. From the beginning my case had attracted considerable attention. The newspapers had taken it up

and discussed it. Public sympathy and favor were mine, and I received many letters of well wishes, encouragement and condolence. In 1894 some friends asked me to run for Congress. I at first declined, saying I was no statesman or lawyer, only a plain business man, but they insisted I was also an enemy of trusts, and just the man they were looking for.

"My whole attitude changed. Here was my chance. I might go to Congress and raise my voice in protest against the cut-throat policy of the trusts. For though it was too late for me to secure justice, I might prevent injustice being done to other intended victims. I accepted, had many friends assist me during the campaign, and finally won the election.

"My experience in Congress opened my eyes and started the investigation which I have kept up to this day. I learned rapidly because my heart was in it and because things that once appeared dull and uninteresting, I saw were of vital importance. Books and lectures that once failed to attract my attention I found fraught with ideas and revelations that every man and woman in America should try to understand and possess.

"But this will never be done. The 70,000,000 people of America, though conscious that strange things are happening and that they ought to be bestiring themselves, yet fail to think, agree, act or vote harmoniously for their own good. They always seem to be divided. And 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.'"

CHAPTER II.

TRUSTS.

Their Origin; Their History of Corruption and Oppression, and Their Diabolical Purposes Exposed.

"After being elected to Congress, I lost no time, but immediately began to study the trust question; there was no other question to me but that. I read, investigated and studied, and in every way sought to post myself on the subject.

"When the session opened I was on hand. The incidental sights and experiences through which I passed were many. But aside from those which relate to the main subject I will say nothing, though to me they were interesting and exciting enough.

"In spite of my previous experiences and investigation, my real study was to commence now. I soon saw and learned much about the inside workings of these institutions; things that a busy public never dreams of. And I wish to give the people the benefit of my discoveries. But that none may say I am narrow and give only my own views, I propose to corroborate all I say by public and legal records, reports of commissions, magazines and

newspapers, together with the opinions of leading statesmen, lawyers, business men, etc., etc.

"Before touching on the wrongs and abuses of trusts, a brief history and analysis of them is necessary.

"The close of the Civil War found the country taking on great industrial and commercial activity. Wonderful business opportunities presented themselves, as the demand for goods and labor was unlimited, owing to the horrible waste of war.

"At this time the first large and successful trust was projected, namely, the Standard Oil Trust, the forerunner of many more, rich and powerful, which were to follow in its footsteps. With almost universal success, these trusts have sprung up, flourished and grown to such enormous proportions that our entire industrial system has beer. changed.

"The trust is a perfect organization, with a perfect system, that operates with the least friction and expense, because it makes use of a fundamental economic law. That law is as follows: The larger the scale of production and distribution the less the friction and cost.

"This single economic advantage is perhaps the only thing that gives them the least claim to life. Were it not for this it is possible they would have been wiped out of existence long before this. Their numerous wrongs and gross injustice would have more than warranted it.

"Volumes might be written in regard to their method of procedure, showing that almost every crime in the