FROM THE ; M. emment is a Re- public, not a man a Monarch, it cannot eat, hence it does not need to own, it cannot, is not competent to own man only can own. Combine ownership is actual American ownership and not a mere figure of speech Bellamy dreamed of a Qovemment Ownership, but relief comes from exactly the opposite direction. Every American will naturally want to build and own his own separate and peculiar home as distinctively as a bird its nest. Please read the seven illustrations consecutively and then read them into the story. THE TRUST TRUSTED CHAPTER I LAST OF THE COMPETITIVE'' AGE It was the evening of the ninth day of July, 1904. America had just learned of the nomina- tion of Judge Parker as a Democratic candidate for President, and had sat down in the darkness to think what it all meant; until then, America had supposed that Combine (the personified money Power), could be defeated by politics, if we, the people, wanted to defeat it. The hus- band had come in from the competitive field, his hands red with the blood money of both friend and foe. The wife, anxious to hear of his losses and profits in trade, and together gloat over the profits or mourn over the losses. "Parker is nominated," eclipsed everything, and was on the lips of everyone. "We expected 14 THE TRUST TRUSTED Roosevelt to be nominated, the Republican Party is the party of Combine, but amazement! has Combine, this personified money power, really captured our Democratic Party and with it taken the Goddess of Liberty, the apple of our eye 4 ? bought our daughter? bought the government? #..*.: >K * * * * * yo.u really think we can't break it off?" " ; '*N0; : wi'fe/I am afraid it's a real love affair; matters have already gone too far. I know God- dess really loves Combine, and nothing stops love." "What! and reject us?" Be patient, friends; doting parents are entitled to our most profound sympathy; paternal love completely encases a daughter. They look with the green eyes of jealousy, even upon a worthy lover and insist not only on their daughter's un- divided love, but ascribe to her all kinds of possi- bilities which she does not possess, and accom- plishments foreign to her nature. The paternal love of Americans, for "of, for and by all the peo- ple," this the lineal descendant of the family that came over to America in the Mayflower is no ex- ception to this rule, and Liberty, their favorite LAST OF THE COMPETITIVE AGE 15 child, has been actually deified and openly called a Goddess, the Goddess of Liberty. We would not have them love her the less. Matters had progressed so far that Combine and Liberty now kept company in the open, the blushing stage was rapidly passing away. She had invited him to attend an "outing" with mu- tual friends, to be held in Chicago, June 21, for the day only. The convention was formal, the business was "cut and dry" and would not detain them. The father, half in jest, said to Goddess in parting, "go, daughter, but be sure to return to us heart-whole and fancy-free." The convention was composed of business men, as it were, on an outing; so, introductions and drawing-room courtesies, business formalities, in a word, it was a mutual admiration society. They very properly kept business hours and adjourned on time, and the anxious parents welcomed their daughter home again, no mention being made of Combine or of her infatuation, this being a deli- cate subject. Goddess, emboldened by the silence of her par- ents, made another "appointment." To this, the parents objected and reminded Liberty that she stood as the representative of her family "of, 16 THE TRUST TRUSTED for and by the people" ; in fact, v/as the govern- ment, and surely must not be corrupted, even by the mere association with Combine, and that it was immodest to invite him to her conventions; "your brothers are quite enough." A little petulantly she pled, "why do you ob- ject to St. Louis?" "Oh, well," retorted the parents, "the Chicago convention, my dear, was different." "How different?" "Well, don't ask impertinent questions, daughter; it was just for a day, but this St. Louis convention is not "programmed," and it may last over night, yes, and for days. Just think of it, and our daughter among bearded men without a chaperone?" "Yes, we know Combine will be there, but 'there are others. 5 Bryan and Hearst may get into a fight with those New Yorkers." "Yes, we know you think Combine will be there and to take care of you, the more is the pity." "To be plain, daughter, we do not approve of Combine, and if he goes to St. Louis on business, he will get into a fight surely, and then it does not look well for our daughter to 'go with' a stranger, LAST OF THE COMPETITIVE AGE 17 a man on purely a business trip; it looks as if she were becoming his 'confident,' entirely too fa- miliar, as if she were going to become his wife. What need you care, daughter, about Combine's business matters; besides, you have been reared to believe in free competition and, like the Ephe- sians, believe competition came down from Jupiter, and cannot be spoken against." "But, mother, if I may speak one little word for myself, the level headed town clerk on that occa- sion said, c Ye ought to do nothing rashly. These men are neither robbers of churches nor yet blas- phemers of your Goddess.' Father can turn to this unique speech of the town clerk in a moment, we have it in the house. But what need, anything that I or Combine either might say could do no good, so please let me go." "No, child, wait a moment; just answer why did you say 'I or Combine*?' The mere associa- tion of your names is significant and is repulsive to us." * * * "Our daughter is grieved, mother, at your vehe- ment manner and language." "Well, why did she not answer me?" "Why, as I see her predicament, she could not answer you, and going to her room was quite the 18 THE TRUST TRUSTED proper thing. I have turned to the old book and will read the text you unfortunately referred to in your determined effort to defend Competition. We may find it proves too much." "I don't understand your inference, but please read the text aloud to me." "I will regretfully do so, but will begin at the twenty-first verse of the nineteenth chapter of Acts and read to the end of the chapter." (Quotation from the Bible.) "I am waiting for your comment, mother." "Well, it does seem up to date in more particu- lars than one. The leading one, however is, it shows up Competition, which I was lauding so highly by calling it free, etc., as but a heathen idol, like Diana after all. Do you think the time will come, husband, when we will be disgusted with it, as these Ephesians were with their idols after they became really Christians?" "Ha! Ha! It may be so. I must tap on Lib- erty's door and tell her I did not intend to grieve her." "That is right, mother. It is well to always have a path open along which we can retreat, can make amends; for I am really sure after what I have seen and heard tonight, that we will yet be LAST OF THE COMPETITIVE AGE 19 compelled to accept Combine (as repulsive as he now seems to be) as our son-in-law. May it not be that we have misunderstood Combine, and so have seen no good reason for our daughter's in- fatuation"? Combine may be right after all. What if he should?" "Impossible, impossible, for if so, Competition is wrong." "Keep cool now, you that have gently chid me for enthusiasm must not get excited, for I say this whole business is a love affair." "But Combine is a horrid, big lubber; contrast him with the beautiful symmetry of our daughter, the trim figure of the Goddess of Liberty; and then he is a say-nothing, as close-mouthed as a clam he don't explain himself; how can we un- derstand him?" "To explain himself would have been useless." "Don't get nervous, mother; as I was saying, this is a love affair and in such affairs there is no accounting for tastes, else how could you have ever been 'struck' by me? "So here, brother, ha! ha!" "That's right, let us resolutely put ourselves in, and keep in a good humor at all hazards, for it is absolutely no use to get mad about a love affair, 20 THE TRUST TRUSTED for Combine has got her, I am beginning to think, he has got her as absolutely as you have got me signed, sealed and delivered." "It is too serious a matter to make a joke of, besides I am the one that usually plays the role of a joker." "Why, my dear, the fact that you have got me is no joke, is it?" "No, and I am rather proud of the fact." "Ah, and may she not be proud of it, proud that she has got Combine*?" "Ahem! But why all this talk, husband; you seem disposed to endure Combine, I can't endure him." "Listen, mother; must we not endure what we can't cure, without heat, without prejudice, if pos- sible*? Is there not something here to make us really ponder, to make us think 4 ? The facts are, there is much that is good in Combine and we can't deny it. He is the greatest power in America today. Democratic party controlled, Republican party is in his grasp, governments bought, yes and to him there must be a reason for buying. May it not be a good reason, what we have been calling and are wont to call criminal conspiracy, between him and our Goddess of Liberty, our daughter, LAST OF THE COMPETITIVE AGE 21 may be criminal only in the seeming. The stand- point from which we view a human life makes a great difference in regard to the judgment we form; it makes all the difference in the world whose baby is under discussion, for example Eng- land has said that our Goddess of Liberty is a spoiled child. "How dare they! Yet I must admit parents are prejudiced as a rule, but I claim Goddess is an exception, and also that to get all I can from who ever I can is fair. I believe in free compe- tition. "Yes, but kindly, may not Combine be as 'fair' a child in his mother's eyes'? In the face of Com- bine's great achievements in America, we are hardly in a position to be unfair to him; besides, 'a soft answer turneth away wrath' today, the same as it did in the days of Solomon. You will agree with me that Labor can no more 'win out* in a fight than can Capital; neither can stand alone, they ought to be allies. It is just as insane for either to fight as it is for you and I as man and wife to fight; and what is Competition but fight- ing." "Hush, husband, be still ! I have known that, to be true all along, but we must not speak it 22 THE TRUST TRUSTED out loud, somebody might hear it. It has been the skeleton in the closet, something to keep to one's self, an affliction, a deformity, impolitic to mention, only ignored, quietly endured, no way to help it, we just had to starve or compete. Why bring out this skeleton at all*? This old world has never known a way to prevent competition, yet we all know it's inconsistent." 'True, mother, but because it never has, are we to conclude it never can be prevented? Now if Combine has found a way to prevent industrial competition, are we to hate him, simply because we don't understand him, or because a hardship has come to us for not being a shareholder. Our daughter does understand him, and loves him be- cause she understands him. May it not be that if we understood him better that we would love him better*? But if not, can't we respect him on our daughter's account?" "Yes, that would be policy, I admit, and it would secure peace in the whole family in case they marry, and the more graciousness we can hereafter show Combine, especially as I, too, am convinced that daughter is really engaged, the happier will our daughter feel. If I am bereft of my children, I am bereft, and if she will not stay LAST OF THE COMPETITIVE AGE 23 with me, I must go with her. I see I must endure what I cannot cure." "Thoughtful wife, we have lived together a long time and seen many troubles. Some of them have turned out to be blessings in disguise. You have been my courage heretofore, now listen to me. This seeming trouble, I am beginning to believe, is to prove to all of us a real blessing. Thoughtfully, the government of mankind that Goddess personifies, is not a simple thing, but af- ter all it is not everything. Combine has also struck our love for free competition a fatal blow, just where David struck the Giant of Gath, and so the bald selfishness of the Competitive will, must give place to the general self interest of the Combine will, thereafter, all working together agreeably, for a living. That's my prophecy." "That sounds reasonable, husband, and it is clearly correct, as a theory, but men practically carry their fighting instinct into industry, as they do into the ring. Yet, I ask myself why should they? I cannot answer. I abominate fighting between equal weights, but it is brutal for a strong man, strong either mentally or physically, to crush another, aye, it is contemptible." 24 THE TRUST TRUSTED "Ha! Ha! If our daughter should hear you and so know how you are coming along, mother, how fast we are both approaching reconciliation, coming to Combine's standard, she would not only quit her grieving, but cheer up, and perhaps begin to think of 'setting the day/- a matter (so I un- derstand), that Combine has left entirely to her." "Well, I must talk until I get straightened out a little. If I must consent, I must frame a good reason for it. I have often wondered why com- petition is called free. I suppose because free is a praise word. We Americans like the word free." "Yes, I can see if we call Competition by some 'cussword' we would soon get to hating Compe- tition more than we now do Combine, but as it is we just have to make ourselves like Competi- tion; to take the best in a trade is a habit." "Yet, it does seem to be a contemptible way to make a living, or save up a little for a rainy day, to do so, by cheating whomever we can. Some are so wily that you can't cheat them, and so if we get on at all it is to cheat, to deceive children and women and ignorant men, and ruthlessly take some or all of their hard earning, for these igno- LAST OF THE COMPETITIVE AGE 25 rant, mentally weak ones are likely to and fre- quently do actually produce more of the necessa- ries of life than you do, and yet free competition permits you to deceive them if you can and take what they produce. Custom, habit makes it right, but conscience makes it all wrong. I must quit this kind of musing and cheer you on, husband, you are a good trader; what need we care? "Yet I confess, I dare not think of it when I pray, especially in secret prayer, for I very well know that God does not approve of competition; it destroys Christian consistency to compete. It can't be His way. I read where He says, 'what- soever ye would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them,' and I am sure that I would not like to have a wiser or more unscrupulous man take advantage of your ignorance or your actual necessity. Yet we must compete? There is no other visible way except to do as Combine does. It makes me shudder." "Now that you have spoken musingly of Com- bine, I find I yet also dread to even mention his name, for I am convinced that he loves our daugh- ter, and that she loves him, and yet how can we consent?" 26 THE TRUST TRUSTED "Horrible, is it not? What were you about to say?" "Only this, that he really has a way of being perfectly fair with his own shareholders, I must admit." "Yes, but all the people cannot become share- holders, and that ends it." "Thoughtfully now, I am not so sure of that. Your very question carries with it a significant doubt, but as you say, we must not speak one little word in his favor, lest we be persuaded, be he ever so clever. For I am afraid we have admitted too much already. Yes, I know that Goddess loves him, and we are to blame. We must ignore him hereafter, we must, if possible." "Yes, and I know he loves Goddess, and if we don't break it off somehow it will cause us trouble yet. I wish we had never let them play together when they were children." "True, and yet we could not consistently help ourselves, for we named him, don't you remember, wife, we named him, called him 'Corporation Act*?' Combine is only a nickname; 'System' is his real name. Wall Street calls him very aptly, 'System.' " LAST OF THE COMPETITIVE AGE 27 "We must take a little more time to think it all over and talk about it. I see that it is not so much what we have done in the past, are doing now, or prefer to do in the future, but it is a question of what we can and should do. We must, willing or not, adjust ourselves to Combine's ways and learn to love him (if what we suspect is true). And may it not be that we shall in the very near future succeed in finding him to be a physical ath- lete, a really worthy and lovable character?" "I must confess I tremble helplessly between my hopes and my fears. I will talk it over with Goddess tomorrow, and try to break it up." CHAPTER II COMBINE AGE BEGINS The husband, reluctantly, had fought through another day of competitive business, feeling guilty of taking the best in a trade of well, of every- body that he could. He had retreated to his hiding place behind the kitchen stove this corner of the room, the pleasantest place in the house, because of the presence of his wife, still busy with house- hold affairs. She looked remarkably pleased to- night and seemed about to speak, but was stu- diously awaiting a more opportune time when her kitchen was in perfect order. Her appearance per- plexed him. The remarkable change on her face from the night before made him fear to hear her speak; he feared that her smile betokened success. What if she had succeeded in "breaking off" the engagement that her daughter undoubtedly had made with Combine*? The facts were, now that he had allowed himself to think for just one day, 28 COMBINE AGE BEGINS 29 that he had begun to admire Combine. Combine had a way of doing things that appealed to him, even in spite of jealous Papa's and Mama's; of actually accomplishing things which the "faint heart" of competition never had or could have had. These invincible ways appealed to the man- liness of a business man. If he could not comprehend the smiling face of the wife, neither could he the unexplained absence of the daughter (absent for prudential reasons proposed by the mother and agreed to by the daughter). Ah, a wife soon learns that she can manage a husband best in a great crisis to take him alone. By the time the evening work was rounded up, her smile had become agony to him. He continued to ask himself, what if she has suc- ceeded in destroying Combine, or in driving him away forever 1 ? And now, as she took her com- fortable kitchen chair and was about to recite that she had locked her daughter in her room and was smiling over her savage victory, he trembled in the contemplation of such a dire disaster; for, though it had been a puzzle how best to deal with Combine, he saw it was death to do without him. Now, when up against the test, he actually loved Combine, and could not think of Combine any 30 THE TRUST TRUSTED longer as an enemy, but rather as a son on whom to lean a son who, no doubt (as it now appeared to him), intended to bring home and plenty to the whole family (after all no young man can hate the parents that bring him a lovable wife). These moments were excruciating, the very dark- est of his life, but the darkest hour was just be- fore the day that now dawned, for the wife be- gun: "I have gladly surrendered to the superior judgment of our daughter and have agreed with her to persuade you to become reconciled to Com- bine." Instead of an ordinary dawning, the light of high noon filled that kitchen. Of what need to persuade a man who was already convinced? Yet, she set about her task and nothing was left for him to do but to sit still and listen. "Observe, husband, that our daughter is no longer our baby, but a woman grown, a compan- ion now, having loves of her own; yet, she is as dear to us and we to her as when we held her in our arms and called her 'Goddess,' her baby name. It's an old saying 'Love matches are made in Heaven.' I now believe this one was. Today, for the first time in my life, I have talked to daughter as one woman talks to another her equal. I realize I have lost my baby, but gained COMBINE AGE BEGINS 31 a friend, a comrade, a counter-part. She under- stands Combine perfectly; and explained to me that he had the kindest feelings for you and me. How that he had seen the trials and hardships of eking out a miserable living under competition as you have always been compelled to do. How that competition had always not only made pugi- lists, but slaves of all of us. And how that the great designer had designed that mankind should only work for a living not fight for it. That God had not made man just to have somebody to punish by a stern sentence to hard labor for life, but that to eat bread by the sweat of the brow was only the kindliest possible guarantee to the one who sweat that he or she would have abundance of sweet bread to eat, and that he who tried to get bread some other way was a thief and a robber; and that he, Combine, did not belong to the robber class where we so unjustly had placed him, but emphatically to the American class who all alike sweat to eat. That Combine had explained to her how that the settlement of the vexed Labor ques- tion, together with the entire industrial problem, was not a reform movement, not a moral or re- ligious sentiment, not a political question, but essentially and strictly a business matter and natu- 32 THE TRUST TRUSTED rally every business matter must be managed by business measures and methods." "Did Combine tell her why he had not tried to settle the Labor question?" "Yes, exactly our prejudice (the reason of reasons it may be called) that I entertained but yesterday we were so jealous and prejudiced then and did not try to see any good in Com- bine, and 'it is impossible to convince mankind against his will.' The human will, led on by force of competitive habit, would not listen, and of course could not have heard even the sweetest music, supposing, (from the force of habit), that any proposition that did not have a fight in it was no good Labor fighting Capital and Capital fighting back, employer squeezing the employee and the employee squirming for dear life, even lit- tle corporations fighting other little corporations like children it was no use to remonstrate with them as long as they insisted that there was no other way but for one to down the other, appar- ently ignorant of the fact that all men must eat to live, and one man about the same as another. He also pointed out the savagery of competition; how that any man who took the best in a trade thereby to deprive another of the necessaries of COMBINE AGE BEGINS 33 life, actually amounted to an effort to deprive the other not only of a fair share, but of life itself, and thus made clear to her that competition was murder." "The young man reasons well, but why did he not turn reformer himself and tell the people sooner?" "Daughter was also surprised at his seeming in- difference until he had explained to her over and over again that it was not a matter of reform at all, but one of business common sense, that share- holders in a corporation are not reformers, but a business association organized to help, not to hin- der one another, being logically the exact antithe- sis of competition; hence, how can an antithesis be a reform*? Reform means amended, that's all; Combine means set agoing in exactly an oppo- site direction." "Did he give the reason why moneyless men, such as I am, could not enter his incorporation?" "Yes, he explained that moneyless men had made a dreadful mistake themselves in supposing that they were not wanted, or could not enter a corporation in America. Corporations, he said, had always been made up of a few kindred minds business men who could see a mutual business 34 THE TRUST TRUSTED interest and aim at it, sometimes only a few men, at other times thousands of men and there was nothing in the world to hinder all Americans from entering one and the same corporation except their own blindness. And now that a corporation de- signed to include all Americans was proposed, he believed that every American, rich and poor, would see that it is to his or her financial self in- terest to voluntarily rush into it." "What a stupendous corporation." "Yes, but as I see it now, no more stupendous than a government of, for and by all the people, of which said corporation will be but a counter- part, though, as he explained, by no means a part. While daughter was telling me all this today, I saw that Combine would naturally be willing to admit us, to admit all Americans for then all opposition to him would naturally be taken away, as all opposition naturally came from the outside ; and by all being included, would logically take away all antagonism to Combine. Don't you think so too, husband?" "Yes, but I am especially pleased that you argue all these points so well you, of all others, that I feared would be hardest for me to convince for I must tell you now, that I am not only con- COMBINE AGE BEGINS 35 vinced of the rectitude of Combine, after I have permitted myself to ponder over his real charac- ter, but also of his business discretion in not recommending a corporation of, for and by all the people. I see now if he had offered the least argument for such a corporation his motives would have been impuned, misconstrued and his well meant effort would have defeated the end in view or been worse than useless, so his only way was to be quiet and show by object lessons how well he could succeed by following a plain common sense business system; and later the suc- cess of the full fledged idea would show to all the people that they too could succeed, not only as well as little corporations had done, but far bet- ter than even Standard Oil or any other of the greater corporations, as much better as the whole is greater than any of its parts. I have heard you, now I must hear daughter speak her piece, plead- ing for a lover as you have so well done for a daughter and prospective son-in-law. Just say to her that on her account I will agree to listen to what she may have to say for Combine tomorrow night." "Very good; no doubt she will have another phase of Combine's character, a view in which 36 THE TRUST TRUSTED there is no prejudice, to offer you in reconciliation. Rest assured she will make the greatest effort of her life, because she still thinks as I thought when I began to try to convince you tonight, that you endured Combine only on daughter's account. That you respected him for his own intrinsic worth never occurred to me." "Let me say, wife, that no man that has hon- estly tried to understand Combine's ideas for a day can possibly refrain from admiring him on his own merits." "Well, let her plead for him then and we both will listen." "Yes, and would it not be instructive to after- wards hear him on his own behalf and hers^" "Agreed; this part of the program must be your secret and mine, and then after that, hus- band, we all will want to hear what you have to say in Combine's favor." CHAPTER III GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE "Daughter wishes to see us together in her room this evening." "Does it not seem strange a little formal for you and me to put on our company clothes and manners to call upon any one in our own house - much more on our own daughter?" "Yes, it does seem strange to us, but it's passing strange to her she never trembled at our pres- ence before." "Does she think us to be mad?" "No, not that, but she feels that we must be reconciled to her marriage her future happiness, her fate depends upon our consent. She feels the crisis has now come ; she realizes now, for the first time in her life, that she stands alone apart from us, and yet, not where the gallantry of Combine can give her his helping hand. [There comes to each of us epochs in life where we must stand 37 38 THE TRUST TRUSTED alone.] We must not delay to give her a chance to defend her infatuation for Combine and gain the reconciliation from us that she so much de- sires." "My voice almost fails to come and if I could speak I do not know what to say first yet I feel encouraged to believe by these warm kisses and tears that you do not hate me, even if you can never love me again ; but if, after you have heard me stammer through, you then decide to send me away without your blessing, I will go loving you still. I tried to make my defense to mother, with what effect I am still unable to tell. I only know that I tried to tell her something of the nobility and gallantry of Combine, but I am conscious, father, that this view of his character will not particularly appeal to you. I somehow think you will appreciate another view point, 'Home' his financial ability to make and maintain a home. Do not ask me, 'have not mother and I given you a home*? 7 or chide me for seeking to leave it for another, though it be more elegantly furnished. I know it does seem ungrateful to you, yet if I can get my voice to tell you that I am grateful, GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE 39 and get you to see how, and believe me well, I must do it. # * * * * # * "I, girl like, have thought out a home of my own it has frequently been my day dream. I do not know that this is unusual for girls and wo- men, but as for me I have returned to it as a bird to its nest, one of its own building and that of its mate. Just why I have associated Combine with my home building I cannot explain, or why I per- mitted myself to love him at all, without first ask- ing your permission as I did in other things, I can- not account for it. I cannot tell whether I loved him because he was so very able to help me build a home, or because loving him first inspired me to want to make a home for him. I have entirely failed to analyze my own feelings; certain I am only that my longing was for him, in a home of our very own, but safe from a competitor. This safety Combine only, of all men, can ever guar- antee. Pardon me, father, for reminding you and mother of what I have so frequently heard you complain of, namely, that never while compe- tition endured, can any man be sure of continuing to own, his home. I need not grieve you and mother by referring to the loss of our beautiful 40 THE TRUST TRUSTED home some years ago, or of the frequent recurring of losses in business from competitors, who could and did out scheme you, I mean only to assure you that this kind of grief can never come to me after our marriage. Combine makes me sure of my home, by making every other American sure of a home; one that pleases each of them just as well as my home pleases me, then you see, Father, no one will want my home, any more than I will want theirs each bird will love its own nest best, and no bird has any use for more than one nest." "Are you sure, daughter, that you are not at- tracted to Combine only because he is rich and sure, as you say, to ever keep his wealth, rather than by his innate manliness?" "It is not easy, mother, for me to tell just why I do love Combine, yet I somehow know that I do; and the fact that he has wealth and financial ability and mental accumen to always be able to keep his wealth, together with his innate manli- ness makes him all the more lovable, so it seems to me. Cannot I love him even better, mother, if the fear of poverty is removed, which you have told me frequently, has been the bane of your life? With Combine by my side and competition a thing of the past, I cannot have this bane of pov- GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE 41 erty to haunt me, as it has haunted you and father. Now, father, if Combine can and does eliminate competition and can stop industrial war- fare and bring about industrial peace and good will to all Americans, then cannot my parents permit their daughter to bring to them such a son?' "Yes, if she can fully show that these claims for him are true." "I feel assured by that YES, it is your admis- sion that you do not hate me for loving Combine and encourages me to believe that before long I will succeed in persuading you to love him too, at least you have made it easier for me to pro- ceed to show that the hardships of which we have suffered is because of the savagery of free compe- tition and not because of Combine's meanness; and I am sure the moment that I can get you to see Combine as he really is, you will admire him. He is acting financially on the very best au- thority. "What authority?" "Pardon my confusion and want of voice, father, but does he not get his authority from the government from us we gave him corporation papers, did we not? Is he not doing business un- 42 THE TRUST TRUSTED der our name and by our consent and is not his success in business his only crime (if crime it may be called) ?" "Do you mean to infer, Goddess, that simply because Combine succeeds in everything he under- takes better than we have ever done under free competition that we are only jealous of him?" "Excuse my stammering, mother; you put the fact more harshly than I would have dared to do. I am only sure that Combine wishes you no ill, and is doing business just as every American would do business if he were in Combine's place; and that Combine really longs to give every American the same equal chance ; and that having us already in his power is not cannot be jealous of us. Then, mother, would it not be un- becoming a great strong athlete that he is to be jealous of helpless infancy, defenseless women, or feeble men? Through the timid ignorance of the first and the force of habit of the last, still refusing his offered becoming hand Combine surely proposed to secure future abundance for all not a part but all Americans and that without financial loss to any. Combine means just that I know he means just that though you may not yet understand him or me." GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE 43 "I put the question again, that I may be sure of your answer are we to believe that Combine really prefers to have all the people to become shareholders?" "Yes, father, he certainly does; I told mother so today, but she did not seem to comprehend me or him." "I confess now that I believe you, but this point is incomprehensible to the people and had been to me until today and we will have to repeat it time and again." "Yes, I know; it seems like an idle tale to the poor man to tell him that Combine's only propo- sition is, that the now poor is to become an equal shareholder in all the productive property of America. But, father, is it not equality that the word American stands for, and have we not had political equality for a long time? Why not now take another step and become financially equal, yet not touch communism. Does not each and every American in himself possess now equally all the protection that the government can pos- sibly give? We understand that we are politi- cally equal without regard to wealth and that on election day one vote stands for as much as another, does it not? Being now equal politically 44 THE TRUST TRUSTED and this equality as an object lesson, can we not all see that financial equality is similar to that political equality, a counter-part of what we al- ready have? I must confess that I did not see this similarity or the resemblance of financial equality with political equality until Combine went over the matter with me at the Democratic Convention in St. Louis. I asked him to tell me plainly why he was so anxious to control that Convention and prevent Hearst from being nomi- nated. He kindly made it plain to me that all financial inequality had grown out of competition that is, the effort of one man to get more than an equal share of property and I remember how a simple question he asked me opened my eyes it was : 'What if one American tried to get more than the equal protection of the flag?' I then saw that our safety positively was in our equality and that it must become our safety financially, and also it must be an absolute equality. If one little overweight was allowed to one American the beam of the scale would be turned, and then there would be nothing to hinder one man from getting it all if he could and leaving nothing for the other. After I saw this fact clearly, as every American, so it seems to me, must see it, and that the very GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE 45 moment (I speak respectfully) he takes off his green spectacles 'prejudice' I saw another fact quite as important. That no American, no matter how good socially, religiously or politically, was advocating this equality but Combine, and he by his actions only. He knows that the settlement of the labor trouble does not come before any of these tribunals, nothing will satisfy the American spirit but this financial equality, nothing more is re- quired." "You see, father, that instead of each Ameri- can striving to get a fair division of property by the individual owning literally nothing, as the socialist proposes, that is letting the government or the municipality the public own it all. Combine proposes that the individual, own every- thing distinctively, as the individual citizen owns all the protection that the flag can give." * >jc * iK * ^ * "This industrial equality of individual Ameri- cans will be consummated by our marriage. I wish to remind you, mother, that marriage is more than partnership ; it includes everything. A simple partnership might be broken; the real in- terest of each partner in a business is not the en- riching his partner particularly, but to get rich 46 THE TRUST TRUSTED himself, and if need be at the expense of his part- ner. Not so in marriage what belongs to the wife, belongs to the husband; and what belongs to the husband belongs to the wife; this is, this must and will be exactly true with both, and all the individual shareholders after Combine and I are married. I repeat, each of us will own all the productive property in America as certainly as we now own all the protection of the flag. Each of us can truthfully say our R. R., our farms, our stocks and feel the ownership, not so if the gov- ernment owned it and we play make believe. There is no make believe about ownership in mar- riage or Combine, it's actual; it's all in the fam- ily ; cheating or taking the best in a trade becomes unthinkable; graft becomes impossible; the wife cannot cheat or steal from her husband, can she? Neither can one shareholder from another in Com- bine. A man will not bruise himself, will he? It would be suicide to cheat an actual shareholder. Combine shareholders dare not cheat each other any more, mother, than for you to cheat father. In doing so you would only cheat yourself. What belongs to one, very properly belongs to the other, as in marriage ; so in this great corporation, gover- ment ownership is false ownership. I am not tell- GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE 47 ing you these things, father, for you already know that Combine ownership is real ownership and a home becomes a real home to keep ; it can no more be taken away from us than our American Liberty. Thus, I am only reminding you, that Combine is not as bad as you and mother have been thinking him to be; but good, very good as good as I am and will ever try to be. When once you get to understand him. You will see he is not only able but willing to give every American a home. I want to assure you, mother, that Com- bine has no planning that does not include you and father; his intention and delight is to help all equally, and equally is the American way that is to gently and agreeably put us all where we are secure and abundantly able to help ourselves, which each American prefers to do. Let me also remind you, that our marriage dispenses with com- petition, and the moment we dispense with com- petition, that moment we dispense with the necessity of charity; and no American wants to be an object of charity. I can see how you both misunderstood Combine and I. You fondly called me 'Goddess,' The Goddess of Liberty/ Liberty enlighting the World.' When a child I may indeed have acted like a spoiled child 48 THE TRUST TRUSTED (as England called me), with all this mild flat- tery, but I know somehow that I have now passed the childhood age, and I must now act the part of of woman grown. Combine and I have grown up under two distinct roofs, yet associate with and by your consent and approval even until now, when we have arrived at marriageable age. I refer to this fact that you have permitted us to associate, not to chide you, but to excuse us for falling in love. We understand each other and our future marriage has run through our minds since childhood; and just previous to my Republican Convention (mine up to that date 1904) in Chicago our betrothal was then finally consummated, I yielded to his proposal and my Convention became our Convention then and there. We afterwards attended the Democratic Conven- tion in St Louis, hand in glove; and feel as com- pletely one now as we will after the usual nuptials for which we are bound to wait for your consent." "Do you not yet think, Goddess, that it would have been more prudent for Combine to have stayed away from the St. Louis Convention and let Mr. Bryan and Mr. Hearst, and old line Dem- ocrats, run that Convention?" "No, mother, it was simply a matter of expense GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE 49 to shareholders. Combine saw that it would cost less to buy the Democratic Convention as he had the Republican Convention and ever after own both." "You amaze me, daughter, with the noncha- lant, conclusive way you speak of buying men women Conventions, etc., as though everything was for sale. Do you infer that Combine has bought our Goddess and now proposes to buy Mother and me?' "Do not be offended, father, and let me ex- plain as softly as I can. Christian civilization is approaching the industrial problem from exactly the opposite direction from what anti-monopolists thought it must. Monopoly was not understood and supposed to be bad. May it not be a good thing, even if it included all the productive prop- erty in America? Providing, of course, it also included all the people as equal shareholders. I tried to make this fact plain once before tonight but state it again here, to say, to gently quiet your misapprehension and in connection, that as Com- bine is engaged only in making a living, it clearly must be a matter of business to look at the cost. With just that purpose in view and in just that sense Combine undertook to buy immunity from 50 THE TRUST TRUSTED unjust persecution with the outlay of as small a sum of the shareholders' money as possible, so I meant by buying, not the human body, but the influence of those Conventions in the interest of the shareholders. And now that the majority of Americans have got far enough advanced in civil- ization to see and say there is no harm in buying, that they w r ould do so themselves, it is not very far until all Americans can see and say there is not only great, good business sense in it, but the ful- ness of commercial wisdom in it; and then a legal corporation of, for, and by all Americans must come to pass as immediate, as instantaneous as a marriage ceremony. Your 'Goddess' of Liberty has nothing to fear from this ascendency of indus- try up to where she now sees to be, its proper sphere. The greater the industrial combine, the greater the need of a great and reliable govern- ment. Combine needs a strong government, much more than a lot of barbarians, or property-less people, does he not? They would need no gov- ernment at all; anarchy and poverty are twin barbarians, but proprietors, Americans, of vast property will ever need your Goddess as a help- mate, so never fear that Combine wants me to destroy me. And if he buys Conventions and men, GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE 51 rest assured it is to make better men of them, to teach them not to fight like savages as so-called civilized Americans have been doing in all busi- ness affairs, but to help each other up to position, to home, to plenty, financially able to be fair. So, father, you must not longer be amazed at my frank admission that Combine bought both the great political Conventions bought me, I say yes, certainly, but not to make a slave of me or to destroy me but to be his wife his equal. "I love Combine for all that he is really worth to me; and know that he loves me, for all that I am really worth to him ; and we are convinced that it will pay us both to get married, then self- interest will put each American in the niche where each can be the most helpful in making a living. To place all Labor and all Capital under one and the same industrial management that is Com- bine management." "Please make it plainer, daughter, answer it over again to me: Does that mean government or public ownership?" "By no manner of means, mother; it means just the opposite that is, it does mean individ- ual ownership, each individual American will own all, will have all he or she needs govern- 52 THE TRUST TRUSTED ment is not a man that it can own; it's absurd to say government ownership, but America has made all the people equal citizens, and America now proposes to make all the people equal share- holders. Nothing less than absolute equality could have satisfied the people politically, so nothing less than absolute industrial equality can now or ever in the very nature of things satisfy Americans. Combine and I, when married, father, will work together; we will make each American a bonafide shareholder. It will be American to do that; it will be to Com- bine self interest to do that. I naturally would want him to make them equal industrially, seeing that I have made them equal politically. When all Americans become not only proprietors, but equal proprietors, Collectivism government ownership public ownership will be no longer thought of as desirable and will fade away like a will-o-the-wisp. In my faltering way I have gone over my defense for Combine, and have given you all the reasons I can now think of in my flustration for falling in love with him." "I must say that your loyal defense of your lover, whether he be worthy of you or not, en- dears you to us all the more; and we feel that GODDESS DEFENDS COMBINE 53 whatever be the result of your infatuation, you are and will ever remain, not only our grown up daughter, but enshrined in our hearts the 'God- dess of Liberty' that we cared for from infancy to this adult life. And though she now accepts a new relation we see that she still retains the old relation. We believe she does it that she may the better perpetuate her loved ones she now seeks to care for by marrying one who is able to care for all. She is sincere. Now we only want to be satisfied of Combine's sincerity; to feel sure that we can TRUST HIM. Sometime in the near future we desire to hear Combine speak for him- self." "It may be embarassing to him to meet you un- less I can assure him that you are no longer bit- terly prejudiced against him." "You can assure him, for us, that because of the scarlet thread connection between our family and his family, known as the 'Corporation Act,' of which you have spoken, we will give him a friend- ly reception, and at your appointed time and place." CHAPTER IV COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF "I am always ready to speak when spoken to, and come when I am called, and am ever prepared to give a reason for my past and present conduct and intentions, always with the provision that people are willing to hear me. Of course it would not be an act of discretion on my part to thrust myself forward before being invited. Words of wisdom would then be received as mere chattering, or considered an intrusion unwel- come and surely misunderstood. "Your daughter has told me that you are now ready to hear me, to hear what I have to say for myself, so that you may determine whether I am a worthy mate for her. I know enough of your character, and that of your estimable wife, to understand that cringing sycophancy or a beg- ging attitude would not appeal to you, or obtain your approval or consent to wed your daughter. 54 COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF 55 I think myself happy because I am thus permitted to speak for myself. In listening to me personally you will be much better informed in all that you ought to know of my character and intentions than through listening to what others, prejudiced against me, are pleased to say about me, heresay evidence is the cause of much of your prejudice and jealousy. "Permit me to say first that I stand for the sep- arate, distinct, individual man. I need but to remind you that Christ deals with the individual, government deals with the individual. Each man naturally stands apart and alone, eats and wears, that is, a separate and distinct individual. We must preserve this individuality at all hazards. Any proposition that in the least degree endangers or compromises this individuality as does pro- posed government ownership, public ownership, socialism, communism, etc., that is, if you please, considering people as a flock or herd, is not only a going in the wrong direction, but fun- damentally wrong in itself. To secure united action in making a living, that is cooperation of effort of all Americans, and yet preserve a sep- arate and distinct individuality, is what I am in America for, and what I am called upon to bring 56 THE TRUST TRUSTED to pass, that is, a marriage, not an amalgamation, but a marriage of industrial interests with politi- cal interests, is a true solution. This was intro- duced by our fathers and crystallized by them into a law now known as the 'Corporation Act.' This was and is a sacred pledge of business fealty, and a lineal descendant of that 'whatsoever ye would' law, on which America itself rests. I mention this fact to show the relationship between my family and yours (Industry and Politics). This 'Corporation Act' was passed not only as a better way of business procedure than competi- tion, but the only way possible to extend the in- dividual from self to five separate individual men, who might thus be enabled to incorporate and act together as one man, sue and be sued ; that is, become responsible both 'going and coming.' This was pertinent, and does show an easy way for all to become one as owners of all the pro- ducing property. It is an axiom to say that man only is competent to own property, as for example, brutes do not own property. A figure, an inani- mate object, an idol, anything that man can make certainly cannot own property. Clearly then a man made government, either city, state, or na- tional, as good, as necessary and as useful as they COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF 57 are in their places, can never be made competent to own property. I repeat this fact because it is the special point I want to emphasize and have you see clearly, for my life is wrapped up in this one fact. The question before the fathers, if you please, was : What plan can be devised, brought about by which Americans can help each other to 'making a living,' avoid competition, 'get together' and still each retain, individually, all of his or her own property that is in his or her very own indi- vidual right, so that no one under the flag could become lost in the maze of Communism, that is in public, collective or government ownership, that is lose, partially or entirely, their individual- ity? The Corporation Act was the answer, and I that speaks to you am that answer in active operation, helping all who are willing to be helped. Our forefathers built better than they knew, when they thought out and introduced me, this Corporation Act. If two men can act as one, five can merge and act as one if so, then five thousand men, aye all Americans, can merge and act as one. Now, if when five men incorporate, does not their self-interest de- mand that they select the most competent one of the five to manage? So that self-interest natur- 58 THE TRUST TRUSTED ally will with the five thousand, just so it will do when all Americans are in the same corporation. The financial self-interest of every American will then demand it. "What power is stronger than financial invest- ment 1 ? Take a case in point. Your daughter, up to the time of the Chicago convention, had been timid about entrusting so much to me, but finally agreed that it was best for her to let me manage that convention. I did so in the interests of all corporations, that is as an investment. Then I set the matter so clearly that it was also to her best interests to let me manage the St. Louis con- vention. Finally, she permitted me to manage that also. This done, the combine age, was in- augurated. All that is now lacking to complete it is for all Americans to become active shareholders and enter fully into their own inheritance. There is no longer any question but that I am to control hereafter all political parties as I would an in- vestment and distinctly in my own financial in- terest, the interest of corporation. This para- mount place is the proper place for industry to occupy. The moment that Judge Parker was nominated for President, that moment all Indus- try took this, its proper place, thereafter to be COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF 59 superior to politics, as it naturally is and should be, that is outranking government. Combine is now the most potent factor in American affairs, and government will naturally be administered for shareholders. This is not self-praise, it is fact, and that you may understand me fully, I am getting these unvarnished facts before you. Love and affection do not count, are not to be con- sidered here. These will spring up and grow in the soil of a fair square deal, but they cannot spring up, much less grow in the hearts of com- petitors. Lovers do not continue lovers very long; no, not even friends who try to cheat each other or take from each other the best in a trade. My first and only object is to prove to you that I am intent only in bringing about a system of business affairs in which every American will have a fair and square business deal. This gives brotherly love, salvation, and politics a fair chance, which they do not have now. The proper adjustment of the Combine idea, to make it fit the person of each and every American will take time; but where there is a will there is a way. The self in- terest of shareholders takes away all stubborn- ness, but we have now passed this crisis, and are emphatically in the Combine age, regardless of 60 THE TRUST TRUSTED who is hereafter elected to any political offices. Everything, both political and industrial, must now bend before a 'system,' the Combine man- agement, as before a decree of God, for which all the people inwardly say 'Amen.' Proof of this, my prophecy, is seen in the fact that every American now really wants and has for a long time wanted, to be in the corporation, so the thing to do is for every American to step quickly into his place for a general uplift of Americans." "You amaze me by the authority with which you speak." "Cannot I speak with authority when I am con- scious that I have now, and am hereafter ever able to keep that authority. I recognize the lovely, feminine, delicate character of your Goddess of Liberty that I hope to marry in due time. I see in her a creature that is to be protected rather than to protect, else why do we intuitively call politics 'her,' and think of politics as feminine in charac- ter, as a goddess, a Goddess of Liberty. Of course, it falls to industry, i. e., to Combine, to one that is able, to one, who is by the very nature of things created by the God of American progress to sustain her, to shield her, to protect her, to defend her. Does it not rationally follow that if COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF 61 I am a defender, I must need have a tangible ob- ject to defend? So I am not complete without her any more than she is complete without me; she ranks naturally in the capacity of a helpmeet. I have said enough." "You have sustained your claim. I admit that you have won your case. Your plea is unanswer- able. I am surprised that I have not seen you in your true character before." jji^*^*^**^ "My first question, now that we are on speak- ing terms, is: Has not our prejudice against you, Combine, seemed very strange to you?" "Your greeting is somewhat embarassing, but as I have now won your confidence, this fact gives me a freedom of expression that was impos- sible until now, and now, only because you will listen to me as your son, it becomes worth while now for me to speak. Each and all of us will naturally hereafter have a family interest in the smaller as well as the larger matters. I must, also, be less abrupt, more courteous in my behavior, and kindly in my language, and tone of voice. Now, to answer your question. Your long con- tinued opposition to me has indeed been a stand- ing wonder. I have seen that government was 62 THE TRUST TRUSTED but a helpmeet to industry, and that you were deifying Goddess, the brilliancy of po- litical liberty to the shameful neglect of industry, who in his everyday plodding, in the garb of a workman, making a living for you and her. But his love for her and his own bread and butter kept him faithfully at the mill, ever working, until such a time as the present, when you would not only listen to him but see for yourself, for such is the perversity of human nature that man cannot be driven. So I had to patiently abide my time, and wait until I was financially able to offer you a money inducement. There is an axiom that says 'every man has his price, 3 a money value. That has been practically true under competition. It can have no basis in an age where men are already equal, can it 5 ? Yet it is to the interest of the shareholders to speak of price. I take it, however, to be the interest of the shareholders to take and use every apt expres- sion, and 'to buy' is one of them. 'Money' is another. The thought behind the expression is all important. The sense in which I wish to be understood is better expressed by the word 'in- ducement.' All success has come to me by offer- ing inducements. I expect to win the hearty co- COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF 63 operation of all Americans by offering them suf- ficient inducements. That is the way I won, or bought, the price I paid for the Republican con- vention in Chicago, and afterwards the Demo- cratic convention in St. Louis, and when won, or bought, I, for the first time, was sure Goddess was mine (of course I was as certainly hers), such was the confidence we had in each other. We boldly came out into the open together. By inducement we secured the endorsement of Judge Parker. So discreetly did we behave ourselves that Mr. Bryan and Mr. Hearst, who led the opposition against me, acknowledged that our inducement was suf- ficient to justify them in coming out in favor of Mr. Parker, my candidate. "I said in the beginning that I was ready to give a reason for my past and present conduct as soon as you or the people were willing to listen. "Yes, after the two great political parties both publicly indorsed me, it was a matter of indiffer- ence to me whether Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Parker were elected. No; it would not be proper for me to say that Capitalists are the brainiest Americans. I can only say they act like it; they obtain the chief financial good by helping each other. 64 THE TRUST TRUSTED Yes, certainly; with no one of the smaller parties able to make a significant issue against me, I feel now that never again will there be a politi- cal party to oppose me. The Democratic party was my only antagonist. It may make a demon- strative bluff here and there, but it will never actually want to oppose me again, as it now be- longs to me, and when it is understood to be my true disposition to help all Americans, they too will all comprehend why your daughter, the bright, clear-eyed Goddess of Liberty, accepted my proposal of marriage. "Yes, ma'am, when all Americans are ready to accept my inducement of an assured home of their very own, a cottage and land, a home of their own designing, a home that is assured to each and that as surely as citizenship is assured to each, and let me add and in much the same way and for the same vital reason, my marriage with Liberty presages this and it is possible, probable and ob- tainable only by my ability to help, to designate the niche that every American will be enabled to select for himself. "Yes, sir, this is assured by my methods of definite business planning, that is to find wherein he or she can best help maintain the home and the COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF 65 little ones there, weak either physically or men- tally, children of any age or size yet children en- titled to be 'helped up,' and not downed by a merciless competitor, trampled upon and their in- capacity, be it either mental or physical, taken ad- vantage of by vicious competitors as has been done and would logically ever continue to be done as long as competition endures, that is, until I have completely supplanted industrial competi- tion much as America once destroyed monarchy by substituting its antithesis, a republic. "Yes, some well-meaning Americans have pro- posed to drive, they have not understood that all men are free, moral agents after all, hence cannot be driven to do things, no, not even a thing that is clearly to their own interest to do. Men can be led by inducements only, and that inducement must be so great as to overbalance the force of habit inherited from a competitive or barbarous age. Take the Prohibition party. The appalling fact that drink claims a hundred thousand victims annually and makes inebriates of good men and women, appears to them, and has caused that party to say, and to think, too, that it can stop the evil by sheer force forgetting that one force may neutralize another. The manufacture and 66 THE TRUST TRUSTED sale of intoxicants is one upon which millions of people depend for a living, and that men opposed to Prohibition say that it is not fair to turn these people out of their livelihood, to crowd into other avenues of life for which they are not fitted or to invade fields of activity already crowded. Thoughtfully, the manufacture and sale of in- toxicants is wrong, but it is a business matter, and as I am the synonym for business, I must take hold of the entire temperance problem as soon as possible, and deal with it as a financial business proposition and clearly and definitely establish its meets and bounds." "Please go on and tell us definitely your plans." "If partyism cannot reach the case, neither is it a religious prerogative. It requires a business board of health operating for all, not a part of, but all the people. Not only has the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor enabled many thou- sands to 'get a living,' but it has also prevented many thousands from getting a living. "I have seen that up-to-date society has had no supervising hand to restrain and guide, only to punish. Now, seriously, what could be said of a parent that set traps all around, and then told their children not to touch them 4 ? Is it enough COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF 67 to tell them not to touch them ; or to punish them if they do*? Goddess and I can, and we will, take the traps away and set no more. Why 1 ? Be- cause it becomes the self-interest of every share- holder (and every American naturally becomes a shareholder) . A temperate life is necessary to good health, is it not? And good health is not only an asset, but the best paying asset of this American corporation. It also becomes not only the duty, but the delightful privilege of the Great Corpora- tion to find every American a job that he will like better than making or selling intoxicating liquors for a living, and at the same time take away the temptation from the drunkard, who is to be pitied more than despised. If liquor is not made it will not be drank. "But, Combine, is this not too radical a change? Too radical to be popular?" "Thoughtfully, I answer no, because all hope of relief from the ordinary restriction or reform sources have ignominiously failed. So to indus- trial combination and to Combine alone can we look for relief, and this kind of relief is both im- mediate and agreeable. When it once dawns upon Americans that I (Combine) am actually married to Goddess (the government) and that we have 68 THE TRUST TRUSTED the blessing of Him who gave the law that impels both of us to come to the relief of all the family, the change will be popular and as popular as radi- cal, aye, popular because it is radical. "Yes, I feel just as kindly toward and as com- petent to remove all the obstacles between the la- borer and the capitalists as between the prohibi- tionists and the liquor men. Competition is the cause of all this unrest; its removal becomes and is an industrial business matter no sentiment about it. Men must eat, no matter what they be- lieve, and it's purely a business matter to provide food. I stand bound to settle every business mat- ter, that means absolutely every difference be- tween labor and capital. All Americans are en- titled to equal consideration and respect, as soon as I can induce them to hear me to become share- holders and thus put themselves in the corpora- tion, that is into a business position where they can be reached, that moment they will be helped. Clearly, one must get into America before he can be a citizen. He must get into grace before he can have the benefits of grace. So any one must get into corporation before he can have the bene- fits of that corporation. COMBINE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF 69 "Yes, Socialists, after all, are the only ones who really care, who really want to actually settle matters, and they are going in exactly the wrong direction. It is plain that a mixture of govern- ment and industry is incompatible and corrupts both, and yet they want the so-called corrupt gov- ernment to own more and more; but, kindly, is it not an utterly hopeless outlook for Labor as such to ever hope to win out when every laborer actu- ally does desert or expects soon to desert the ranks of Labor and join the enemy the Capital- ist^ I bring with me the Socialistic want, but it is not pertinent for me to discuss disputed points with any political parties, associations, or indi- viduals and I have not done so. It is only for me to go steadily forward and offer every induce- ment, and with inducement succeed. "I am heartily glad of your welcome, both on your account and mine, and now that you bid me come to your fireside, we will talk over mutual interests surrounded with the family. Home is the place where all American laws, both political and industrial, must hereafter be made." ********* "Wife, I have been perplexed as to how the labor question could ever be settled. Some said 70 THE TRUST TRUSTED it never would be settled. Combine can settle it." "Husband, it has been a cause of sorrow to think that the liquor problem could never be solved. Combine is the complete solution." ' 'I have wondered, too, how the wicked sav- agery of competition could ever be done away. Combine does away with it." "I have also felt sad at the inconsistency of professed Christians because they have had to fight like demons for a living. Making consist- ency impossible. Combine enables them to be consistent, to quit fighting and work together in peace as Christians want to and should; devoting themselves more successfully to the cause of Christ." "Yes, wife, working for a living is enough without fighting to get part of what we have worked for. How are we going to get into the combination is no longer a question. I see that it is as plain as the road to mill. The 'corporation act' lays down the way the plan of procedure as plainly as the way for a couple in love to get married. It is all brought about in a moment. It is expressed in that one word, 'wantto,' that is the word. Wife, we have not lost a daughter, but we have gained a son. CHAPTER V THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE The etiquette, the public reception, first after betrothal, and the announcement is not yet well defined. The four hundred have a program, a book written, but with about four hundred varia- tions. For is it not permissible for the prospective bride to be frivolous, to giggle and laugh, or sit solemn as at a funeral, posing for her picture, or go off into hysterics, yet have her conduct pro- nounced by her set to be "just lovely." The mother has latitude, an almost equally wide range for her eccentricities and ladylike deportment. Even the eccentricities of the prospective groom are readily accounted for and overlooked, for it is to be expected that he acts, well, just awkward, to say the least. But the "old man" does not seem to have a place where he can fit in without there being at least four hundred criticisms rather than one excuse. The sound of revelry by night, which 71 72 THE TRUST TRUSTED he readily admits must be all right, does not har- monize exactly with what he has thought out to say on this momentous occasion, neither does the proper time arrive for him to speak until after it has passed. Thrown entirely upon his own re- sources, he finally drops onto a plan, though with- out a precedent, to be sure, a plan number four hundred and one. He acts upon his impulse and hands his written speech to the reporter with a request that it be published with the "write up" in the morning paper. The wisdom of his action is and will be apparent to all who read, when each are away from frivolities, and alone with himself and able to think as he reads, to follow out the real significance of these new relations that are being acted out on the stage before him these vital connections playfully welded, but welded just the same, by this marriage contract, made long before, perhaps, but just now given to the pub- lic, in this faddish kind of way. It comes to a father with a peculiar force. It seems to him like a retiring from office, a stepping down and out, a giving up of business, a notification that he has been a failure in the management of affairs, that a younger man is needed just as if he were old, yet he must admit the inevitable fact. There is THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 73 a pathos in it all; yet we see him turn bravely away and resolutely choke down his feelings, and speaks bravely. We seem to almost hear his cheer- ful voice, clear and clarionlike, as it rings out in the banquet hall (*?) while we thoughtfully read it all in the columns of the morning paper. He intuitively takes a higher seat in our affections. Read what he says and ponder over every sen- tence : "Were it not that cheerfulness is obligatory, I would feel sad on this occasion. I have lived for my family. I have practised free competition; it has been the ideal of my business life. I have preached it from the pulpit, advocated it on the rostrum, pleaded it at the bar of justice, and in assembly halls have I helped to crystallize it into the common law of the land. I need not tell you tonight that I have been sincere, but I am here now to, as cheerfully as may be, admit that I have been mistaken, at the same time admitting that there is a better way. It chokes a little always to acknowledge that one has been mistaken, but we Americans are wiser today than we were yester- day. I need not to go back over the defects of competition; you and I know its defects by sad experience. Neither will I condemn these defects 74 THE TRUST TRUSTED overmuch, but rather pass by them as honest ( ?) defects, much as we do the shortcomings of a dead neighbor. My inclinations, concerning this mar- riage, if I were left to consult them, would be to say, 'Postpone ; not ready yet.' We do not change a habit of life without some regret, but there are some things we cannot postpone: a birth, a mar- riage, a death. The facts are, a time has defi- nitely come when we must surrender, and we may as well do it gladly. Combine must inevitably take hold of, and wield our destinies. Competi- tion must go, whether we prefer to yield to Com- bine our Goddess or not. We are entering fke Combine Age. I do not appear upon this scene of conviviality tonight to object to this fiat of fate. Love for Combine has conquered. Love is said to be the greatest force in the world. Law is but an expression of love. I am here to deal in facts. One of these facts is 'Combine' (he will not be offended at what I am about to say) as a significant word, means 'love,' whereas, compete, as a significant word, means 'hate.' Can we pause long enough to take in all the meaning of these two words?- Love has conquered. Am I and wife and daughter here tonight to feel humiliated and sad, as though we were subdued? Conquered? THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 75 Yet this is the attitude many would have us as- sume. "There is much more than a mere mating of a couple of individuals involved in this marriage, but if there were not, even then an optimistic out- look is more healthy than pessimism. If Combine has somehow got possession of our daughter, and the daughter has possession of her mother, and her mother has possession of me, Combine is even now the ruling factor and has possession of the American family, and we had just as well make the best of it and lay our plans accordingly. "Seriously now, what significance is attached to the marriage between politics and industry? I am expected to answer this question, and I shall be as explicit as the time will permit. Combine himself may be surprised to learn how well an old competitor, from habit, is acquainted with the young athlete. The nomination of Judge Parker, though in itself thought by many to be an insig- nificant affair, marks a point in the history of America, second only to the birth of America. St. Louis was the place where the final 'yes' was said that made Combine and our Goddess of Liberty man and wife. This is the fact. Now what will 76 THE TRUST TRUSTED this marriage mean when it is completely legal- ized, solemnized, consummated? "First, it is the uniting of two old families, which were far enough apart to be considered no kin, yet who are related, and 'blood is thicker than water.' I remember when Combine was born we neighbors were proud of the baby, but he was only considered a 'neighbor's baby,' that's all; good only for those who had money. We called him 'The Corporation Act,' but to compare him with our baby, the fair, popular 'Goddess of Liberty,' would then have been an insult. It never occurred to us then that a marriage between these babies was at all likely, that is that government of, for and by the people would lead to industry of, for and by that people. "From the very beginning woman has ruled, and, in a sense, she always will. If so, then this will become an Industrial Republic. For it goes without saying that my daughter carries with her the inborn, peculiar womanly characteristics to rule (with love, to be sure) and she is educated from her youth up to believe in 'of, for and by all the people,' she undoubtedly will carry this idea with her, her feminine instinct to rule by love, of course, but, remember, 'her love is law' In the THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 77 last analysis, the exactions of love are not less than the exactions of law. No man ever marries a woman but intuitively expects to be ruled by her, and he is seldom disappointed. It is an old saying we men have among us, 'he led her to the altar/ but, bless you, not to sacrifice her, but to marry her, to have the 'awl pierce (as Jews used to do) his own ear,' which, among other things, means for us as men to take a place by her side, to make her our equal; and if she is our equal she will surely carry her own ideas of equality with her and utilize them in the interest of industrial equality. "Observe the 'Corporate' pledge is an equiva- lent of the marriage pledge. Each and every share- holder is really a shareholder; not a make-believe, but feels as a shareholder, has the motives of a shareholder. He is to all intents and purposes an industrial citizen of the Combine ; and like as a citizen of the country, is entitled to the protection of Combine, and in return is obligated 'to protect' Combine. So I need not only to admit that I was wrong in opposing Combine's attention to my daughter, but to ask his pardon, for he comes with a better business idea than competition (which I always foolishly practiced), and he alone is in 78 THE TRUST TRUSTED position and now can solve the labor problem, which competition could never hope to do. Com- petition never had a helpful idea. "In a word, all shareholders being one and the same in financial business interests, as, after a marriage there are no longer two pocketbooks, two bank accounts, two financial business rivals, but allies, that is, the financial interest of one becomes the real, identical, financial business interest of the other. And let me say again that this is the real signification of the nomination of Judge Parker. It is government saying 'yes' to Com- bine, an 'engagement' between industry and poli- tics. "Heretofore, for one to interfere or meddle with intent to injure the interest of the other was called -political corruption' by the one side, or 'government interference in industrial affairs' by the other side, yet, strangely enough, there never has been, since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a time when politics could have got along without industry, or industry without poli- tics. Neither my daughter nor Combine could have lived one without the other, playmates from their youth up. As I look back over the interven- ing years, I can now see that they have grown up THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 79 for one another, though maybe, unwittingly to either of them or us, and marriage was inevitable, in due time. Some one has said, 'There is a time in the affairs of men, which, if taken at its flood, leads on to fortune.' That time was at two o'clock the early morning of the ninth day of July, when a Democratic convention nominated a Judge Parker. When Hearst and Bryan, repre- sentatives of anti-monopoly, were defeated once and for all, they tacitly agreed that that was the last protest against Combine, and at that moment this union between industry and politics was sealed, made with all that a marriage and a com- mon interest can be made to mean. God said that married people were no more 'twain,' but one flesh, yet each individual still necessarily main- tained their distinct individuality. I am aware that these facts sound like fiction, but let me re- mind you, Combine is no fiction, the Chicago and St. Louis conventions were no fiction. No chief- tain ever defended more valiantly than did Hearst and Bryan; even in surrender they were gallant. "There can be no such thing as the tyranny of wealth the autocracy of the corporation wealth can be neither tyrannical or aristocratic after all wealth and all Americans have merged by the 80 THE TRUST TRUSTED marriage of my daughter with Combine, thus wealth is made the heritage of all the people, and as certainly all as political liberty is now for all. If there even were any other way of settling the quarrels between capital and labor, marriage is certainly the best way. Thereafter one common interest will install industrial monopoly, a new family will spring up and every appearance of youthful political indiscretion will be forgotten. With this new family once established a new era of prosperity, one of peace and good will, will be inaugurated. I conclude this phase of my speech by appealing to you tonight, that if any of you still stand in a maze at the audacity of this mar- riage contract, this St. Louis 'engagement,' to stop and ask yourself this one simple question: 'What cannot Combine now do for us all, as bonande shareholders, now that he has a fair chance now that he is working for my daughter; that is, for all the people (with the emphasis on the words, for all, as for all will naturally follow this marriage, which is logically to include all the people 4 ? Marriage is better than competing, fighting, striking, locking out allowing you to be the judges, and after you have thought it all out for yourselves, you will find it is a love affair THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 81 after all, so it cannot be broken off, if you would. To be sure, this courtship has been a little rough. Mother and I have made it rough for Combine and yes, daughter, too, sometimes, but through sunshine and shadows each have learned by it all to respect the character of the other, and have learned that if it were even possible to have ever fought it out at all (as Labor and Capital have tried in vain to do) that competition is absolutely out of harmony with the true character of any Americanized American; that marriage is the foreordained solution of this whole politic- industrial problem. "All profits of all kinds will go into the Com- bine till, but each individual member or share- holder will own in his or her own individual name, naturally, a home as well as stock, this logically is the genius of the corporate act, each being sep- arate shareholders in one combine. "Civilization has indeed increased the variety, quality and quantity of productions, but to what purpose? That we, like certain brutes, should get into the trough with both feet? just as though this one little item of production were the very last? ignorant of the fact that the hand that produced this one production is competent to produce more? 82 THE TRUST TRUSTED or, we like that certain other brute, driving the weaker ones away? What does 'H-u-m-a-n-e' spell? What does it mean? Combine, the 'sys- tem' which is the very same hand that manipu- lated the Democratic and Republican conventions, that manages Standard Oil and kindred corpora- tions in the interest of its own shareholders, each shareholder waiting politely and genteelly, as at table, for each their own dividends. Plenty, yes; no need to hurry, to act the hog, or lionlike, to drive the little men, women and children away from the table hungry, to live on coarser food or to depend on the charity of that hog or that lion for the next meal. Aye, we are not hogs, we are not lions; why should we longer act the brute? Com- bine comes to produce men, gentle men. Combine not only can increase present property in its pro- ductive capacity tenfold by human co-operation, but offers the only h-u-m-a-n-e 'system' of distri- bution possible, fair, universal, Christian. Distri- bution is the larger nobler work of humanity; it is the one great Christian characteristic of Christian civilization. When we open our eyes to see that insurance is just what, and nearly the only thing that rich men are wanting aye, all men want, and that Combine guarantees that very insurance THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 83 to every man, woman and child, then the brute, now intent on getting all and keeping all, van- ishes, goes, once and for all, and the courteous dividend system of Combine take its place, and we pass out of the domain of the competitive brute into the gallant combine of the human, and the 'system' that we now fear, which is the spirit of the Corporation Act, will be found to be the real Industrial Republic, the foreordained mate for my daughter, the 'Goddess of Liberty/ "Once in the Combine Age, we will look back with wonder and amazement on the misdirected distribution of industry of the past competitive age. It is to the 'system/ to the Combine alone that we are to look for this equitable distribution and humane conciliation. "Being a physician, you may inquire what effect will this reconciliation have upon physical health 4 ? It will bring health, and also add years to life. My daughter will naturally have a home for herself, and what wife or mother that would not give every one of her children a home if she could; and what husband is there that works for aught else, than to provide a home for wife and every child that may seek shelter under his roof? Yet, fathers have not been able under competition 84 THE TRUST TRUSTED to do so; but who doubts for a moment the ability of Combine, the physical athlete there, to give a home and cottage and grounds to every mother under that flag, and a sure and never- failing job to every man in the continued support of that mother's home*? This is the true signification of the marital union between the 'Goddess of Lib- erty' and Combine. What need of sorrow; aye, what is there to hinder rejoicing and sincere heart- felt thankfulness instead? "With this home for every man, woman and child in America, goes the idea of pure air for all, sunshine for all, security for all, contentment for all; each guarantees of good health, better health, finally the very best health. Life will mean then, more than length of days ; it will mean ideal happiness. With my daughter, 'Liberty/ as the new mother of this new family, will we not then have in industrial liberty all that our Dec- laration of Independence always inferred, prom- ised, but never until now actually gives life, in- dustrial liberty as our own mother, and the pur- suit of happiness as the heritage of every indi- vidual 4 ? Cheer up, then, for all this is wrapped up in the Combine Idea, the marriage vow. I would not now prevent this marriage if I could. THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 85 We understand each other better, now that the 'mists have cleared away.' "Clearly it has not been much of a compliment to our civilization or to competitive management, or rather want of management, in the past, when after we have become such skillful producers, that we are still such blunderers or ignominious frauds, consummate failures when it comes to distribution. The facts are that in the very midst of our pro- digious productions, abundant, if properly distri- buted, for everybody, that there should be mil- lions of men, women and children who are practi- cally in a state bordering on starvation. There has been something radically wrong and which Combine only is able to clear away. "This is a night designedly given up to revelry. Well be it so. There are few things that lend to revelry so much as freedom from condemnation. The self-respect found in a clear conscience, coupled with an assurance of a home to keep, a living assured, is enough to make gladness glad, but there is more than gladness to this celebration. "It is asked, What effect will a home and a liv- ing guaranteed to all, have upon the education, the morality, the intelligence of the people? the re- ligion of the future?' Let me answer this: Under 86 THE TRUST TRUSTED competition, parents have not known what spec- ialty to select for their boy or girl, because there is no telling whether the child can follow in that chosen line after he has grown up. He then will have to work at what he can catch, for there has been no supervising, helping hand held out to him. Nobody cares what loving thought the parents have frequently bestowed for naught, or what la- borious effort the child has taken to make him or herself proficient in this or that line, never to fol- low it at all. Such are the demands of nature, that we must all eat. In the face of this fact, choice of occupation is frequently impossible, and from year to year he or she drops down and down, and in their desperation they must take what is left educated for it or not. Such has been edu- cation under competition, where nobody knows or can know, or nobody cares or can care. Not so where the guarding hand of Combine begins with the child in the cradle, and as gently guards it with the hand of expert industrial management. All along through a long, long life, ah, we are emphatically 'our brother's keeper.' This care is but another definition of the word 'combine.' "Again, the battle for bread under competition has been so intense, so fierce, so vicious, that little THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 87 time is left in which to give attention to religion or a future life, tfhis life monopolizes both, all the time and all the attention. It is truly said the best way to gain a friend is to be one. A little definite planning, with a motive to 'help and not to hinder,' and skillful management by the most competent experts will parcel out industrial duties so evenly and reliably that we each having a liv- ing assured to each, and as a return for duty done, that the necessary labor to make a living will be considered a privilege, leaving time to take a look at nature and its beauties, and through na- ture, up to nature's God, and even investigate revelation, and from the contentments of a real home below, contemplate and properly prepare for a home in Heaven. "The guarantee that Combine alone and only can give to every young couple a home at mar- riageable age will give virtue the very best oppor- tunity. There will be no excuse for resorting to deeds that are dark or impure. Trusted, we can trust; being trustworthy is to be trusted, morally as well as financially. To do industrially as one would be done by gets for itself a glad moral re- sponse. Virtue will not be sold for money, but will be really virtuous on its own account, and 88 THE TRUST TRUSTED for the love of virtue, and moral restraint, will be adhered to as a privilege as well as a duty. "Human progress has been hindered by indus- trial competition. I acknowledge that it has been climbing up by pulling another down, rather than by lifting all up. A getting out of barbarism, a getting up in any way may be better than remain- ing down, but is not trampling on the bodies of less fortunate competitors still barbarism? We all have known that competition at best is but a modified form of barbarism, but by this marriage, the combine age is definitely inaugurated, which means the laborer and his very own capital under one and the same management, namely, that of the most competent to manage, all the people themselves to do the selecting, as all the people are shareholders in a combine of, for and by all the people. Now, if all these shareholders them- selves be judges, what need we care if it be a Rockefeller, Lazarus, a Mitchell, a Parker, a Roosevelt, a Jones or a Brown? Whoever he is, he, too, will be in the Combine, one of and with us, will he not? And get his own greatest profits by increasing the profits of every other share- holder in the regular combine way, will he not? THE PEOPLE DEFEND COMBINE 89 "It will be just as necessary for every one to be in the Combine as it is for every one in America to be a citizen in order to be entitled to protection. If one were left out without protection, it might be you or it might be me. So Combine is the only insurance rich men can have against poverty, either for themselves or their families. No man can be rich enough under competition to be im- mune from poverty. Listen, no man can ever be poor in the Combine Age. A master-finan- cier has said, 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them, for it is the law' and the prophets, the lite- ral fulfillment of which is found in the genius of the Corporation Act, very properly called 'Com- bine.' He, the very same, who has sought for and obtained the heart, and awaits but a brief time to obtain the hand of the Goddess of Liberty, to take care of her, to perpetuate her and all her interests." CHAPTER VI COMBINE WINS OUT "I wish to have a heart-to-heart talk with my grown-up boys. I may take the liberty to repeat, as any mother may, but I only try to remind you now. The time was when it was part of my privilege to teach you ; at a later period we learned together; but now I come to you with a reminder only. My function as a woman is to govern, by love, to be sure, but in the last analysis the exac- tions of love are not less than the exactions of law. We each know that the subject of conversation is the attention that Combine is giving to your sister. I am not here to defend Goddess, but to remind you that she is now a grown-up woman, and, like women, possesses the one distinctive function of government. This function is hers by an eternal fitness of things, which you will admit as men and without argument. So you need not fear for her safety, though she marries Combine. She will 90 COMBINE WINS OUT 91 rule him, never fear; by love, to be sure, but love is, as I continue to remind you, as exacting as law. But does she love him, does he love her? I think you believe as I do, that the infatuation is mutual ; and mutual love between the sexes will always find a way. So I remind you that it is not a ques- tion of feature, but one of fact, and so it is not a bit of use to object. What are you and I going to do about it? Let us as dispassionately as possible go over the ground together. We are reminded, first, that it is woman's function to govern; sec- ond, that it is not her function to manage prop- erty. This is no hardship to her ; she does not care to own any more than she does to vote at an elec- tion. In a word, she prefers to manage the man- ager. The fact that she is man's equal does not carry with it that she is also a financier, or built physically to make the living by manual labor, in field or factory, or to own the implements of la- bor, namely, the 'Capita? employed by men as tools of manual labor, used by them in making that living. To be sure, she loves to own her home, its furnishing and environments, but in the sense that a bird owns her nest, and masculine gallantry will not interfere if a woman here and there insists on owning productive property; it 92 THE TRUST TRUSTED does him no harm; but, broadly, it is not her in- clination or function to own productive property. What she esteems to be a higher function is to matronly preside, to govern. She knows it intu- itively. Men know it, and neither he nor she ob- ject to it. This is all true by a well-defined fit- ness of things. Government, then, is feminine in its character. We call it 'She' instinctively. The words 'freedom' and liberty' are feminine in their signification. A political government is a personi- fied woman. We call her 'Goddess,' and you, my sons, would fight for her as you would for a mother, a sister, or a wife. It is intuitively in you to do it. She rules as a mother or sister or wife rules, and you as gladly submit, because it is her feminine expression of kindness, more, of love, of genuine love for you. She makes no pretentions to own the implements of industry; implements with which men make for her and themselves a living. Hence government ownership is undesir- able even to her, to the government which is dis- tinctively a feminine attribute; and now, if it is woman's function to govern, and, second, if it is not her function to own, we may deduce from these two facts that Goddess, after her marriage to Combine, will govern, and Combine will own, COMBINE WINS OUT 93 'make the living,' naturally, logically, and as a matter of course, thus uniting politics and indus- try by marriage. This marriage carries with it industry of, for and by the people, does it not*? and politics is invariably supported by industry, is it not ^ So that it becomes and is, all in the 'family,' where both are naturally obligated to help, and in no wise to hinder each other. Com- bine and Goddess have different natures, different bodies, but they become one in financial interest, in family concerns. "Now, my sons, if we go back to the concep- tions of both Goddess and Combine, we find they both were conceived in the atmosphere of a loving desire to help, and I need but remind you of the times of the birth of each. If the Declaration of Independence was born in the spirit of helpful- ness, so was the birth of Combine. The Corpora- tion Act is distintively industrial helpfulness. There is very much in being well born, and we conclude that both Goddess and Combine, the parties to this marriage contract, were well born. I remind you also that the corporation idea carries with it the idea of a continued individual owner- ship, no man loses his property when he enters a corporation. It uniquely preserves each share- 94 THE TRUST TRUSTED holder as a separate, distinct individual owner of property. Ownership is an idea so dear to Ameri- cans that they cling to it and give it up only with their physical lives. So Combine means develop- ment of our individuality; and you know we are individual or nothing. Government ownership practically means another to own, i. ., govern- ment to become our guardians, we, imbecile, in- competent or minor children, and is a practical forfeiture of our individuality, and consequently is repulsive to American manhood. True, many of my sons have become Socialists because they are and have been really imposed upon by their thoughtless, awkward, or bigoted brothers, who as yet. do not know distinctly how best to use their strength. These, my Socialistic sons, have un- wittingly appealed to government, and in doing so tacitly say, 'Mother, I would rather you would own everything I need, as you did when I was a boy, than to have big brother get everything; so I positively yield up to you; now make him give up his individual rights to own in order that I get even with him. "True, sons, you could and did trust your mother, as children, but brother is of age now and I cannot make him yield up, and it is not the right COMBINE WINS OUT 95 way, if I could. But a Corporation Act has been thought out, or revealed, as a right way of mu- tually helping each the other, and I have given that law my blessing because 'help and not hin- der' is its motto. I do not wish to take over again and own your implements of industry, my sons, and it would be humiliating to you, as well as to me, for me to do so. You are all my sons; I am proud of you. You are financiers. I trust you; you are older and wiser today than you were yes- terday. If you did not understand the industrial meaning of 'of, for and by all the people' fully yesterday, try again today. I want my boys to live peaceably among each other, to help each other. So I cannot show any partiality between them, as government ownership would naturally do; I love you all. I am even now managing the Post Office Department under protest, hoping to give you all by it rather an example of how much better and cheaper it would be for you all to help each other, to work in harmony with each other. I am now proving a hardship to those of my sons in the Express business. I know I am, and am anxious for all my sons to get into the Combine and then they will naturally relieve me from carrying the mail or owning any of the imple- 96 THE TRUST TRUSTED ments of productive industry, with which my de- voted sons make our living, and that, too, with- out taking any implements away from them. I have found your brothers to be all much alike, and so, to be more explicit, if it is somehow expected that my boys make the living for the family, it would be manifestly unjust for me, whose mission it is to govern them by love, to now spitefully take and keep under lock and key the railroads, the telegraph, etc., implements with which they make the living. To be sure, I know it has been, under competition, sometimes absolutely necessary that I should simply receive and hold the implement, whatever it might be, until a quarrel was settled between you, but I immediately did as was ex- pected of a receiver, having only a time limit pos- session, returned the implement to the rightful owner; and that as soon as he was found to be the rightful owner, I had no right to keep them permanently, had I*? I take a long time to kindly talk this government ownership question over to show you a better way the way of combine of, for and by all Americans. "All capital is the product of labor, and as I, the government, did not labor to produce it, I clearly have no right to keep it permanently, have COMBINE WINS OUT 97 I? I think you can see, my sons, if I should un- dertake to keep it that even each of you, as well as all your brothers, v/ould soon see and say that I had no legal right to keep what I did not pro- duce, or what did not belong to me, and I would not be looked upon kindly, as your mother always should be, and so would lose my governing power your love. For you must know that I exist by the consent of the governed, and so ownership, in- stead of helping any of you, would logically de- stroy me, would it not? The secret of my govern- ing power is in my love. A government that is not ruled by love is practically under martial law, so I do not care to own anything but my necessary wardrobe; then, I will not have one son who will not work to feed and clothe me as readily as he has done, and will ever fight for me, if need be. "Now, when you understand Combine and Goddess better you will find they each love me, and so they do you, and they will work as heartily for you when you are one with them in the Com- bine as they now work for themselves and me, for you and I will be a living part and parcel of 'them- selves,' will we not? Another matter that this marriage will settle, listen: I am aware that some of you have been voting and expecting that 98 THE TRUST TRUSTED a political ballot could control an industrial mat- ter, and because it has not, the tendency is to lose faith in the power of the ballot; whereas, the mis- take is not in the ballot at all, but is in supposing that (in time of peace) I, the government, can manage an industrial matter. I repeat again to say that my proper function, which I try to mod- estly accept, 'is to govern.' I appreciate the fact that this is in harmony with my feminine char- acter. This function is naturally limited to keep- ing the peace among my children, and defending them against a public enemy, or rather, giving them efficiency in defending themselves. My boys are my military and police power. By loving my sons I practically own them and all that they own, do you see"? "I have purposely repeated many things and as dispassionately and kindly as I know how in this informal family talk to you, my sons, so that you will not be offended, and, at the same time, be willingly set aright as to my unique position. An injustice to one is the concern of all, is it not? All this is a matter of the Combine, and which extends only and logically to all who are in the Combine, and I would that you plan to get in at the earliest possible moment. Join your progres- COMBINE WINS OUT 99 sive fellows and thus with one common interest as a man and wife, put an end to industrial con- flict. The labor question will thus fade out of ex- istence, so, instead of solving this, what so many claim to be a riddle, it solves itself, does it not 1 ? "I remind you of these fundamental facts, im- planted in our very natures, not to boast, or to have one sex gloat over the other, but to impress upon you that it is not worth while for us to run against or oppose an eternal fiat, or fitness of things. For we are not in the world to make, or to create, but to propagate; not to make Divine law, but to obey it; to succeed by acting in har- mony with nature, and as surely we fail by oppos- ing nature. Thus I remind you kindly that 'gov- ernment ownership' is not in accordance with our natures, and is quite as repulsive to us women to own as it would be to you men not to own to Goddess, who so perfectly represents government, as it is to Combine, who so perfectly represents in- dustry; so that it is meet and proper in this rea- sonable view of the matter, for Goddess to marry Combine, for marriage is not a mere partnership, but is 'absolute union.' It removes financial and business difference, makes us one in every indus- trial interest, puts us in harmony with the God 100 THE TRUST TRUSTED of nature, sets us above and beyond every 'cross purpose,' and yet not only preserves our individu- ality, but brings 'it up' and out and displays it, and each of us can see the work 'for which we were made,' and as distinctly as a woman undertakes household affairs and the care of children, or as men turn to the field and factory. The set of the current is perfectly susceptible, and entirely away from government ownership. "If we stop to think about it, all can see, Com- bine is succeeding, while competition is failing. I ask, can industrial differences, my sons, ever be settled by more and greater differences'? by widen- ing the gap? by more competition? by more fight- ing? You can best get together by burying the hatchet, the scalping knife. Enemies, rivals in business can become and are actually becoming the strongest allies, the firmest helpers and they make it pay. Take a lesson from this fact. Look at the hatred that continued to exist between the north and south as long as the bloody shirt was waived, but how soon hatred merged into esteem when the Spanish War made interests one and the same. Blood was thicker than water, after all. So now, I reveal to you a mother's secret; the antipathy between laborers and capitalists will COMBINE WINS OUT 101 cease the moment both see the fact that their in- terests are one and the same, and act upon it. Combine is right, say what we will. I would be greatly troubled for my children if I did not see in the immediate future a complete reconciliation with him. :,,,.,, , "The misery of the poor is about egteifletf fty the restlessness, the uneasiness, the uncertainty -!o ' the rich. Both alike are to be pitied, but both are beginning to respect the powers of the other, as the northern soldier did and does the southern soldier, and will, I hope, be quick to affiliate in the common cause, which is 'making a living' by 'help and not hinder J which is the standing motto of Combine. The corporation idea is 'kin' of gov- ernment, and does not belong to the capitalist any more than to the laborer, does it? We are all citizens, and equally so. It is the heritage I be- queathed to all my sons and daughters. "The Corporation Act is the medium by which and through which every man in the corporation becomes his own employer. This is just what we all want to be, is it not? I remind you that the words 'free and equal' in my Declaration of In- dependence were like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, and could never be realized or fulfilled 102 THE TRUST TRUSTED as long as any one of my sons hired another or one took a menial part for wages, could it? Therefore dividends must take the place of wages, must they not? And Combine means dividends, and that by intention, and dividends means divi- dends , fo : shareholders in the corporation only. That this will prove a real hardship to those of my .sons no' ir\ the corporation, and will continue to be a hardship to all such until they all are safely included is a fact I cannot prevent, and I can only bid you Godspeed to get in, for there is no safety on the outside. To longer refuse is like refusing cash. I repeat, the corporation is for all ; it could not be American */ it were not for all, could it? I remind you that everything American is 'of, for and by all the people.' Can anyone have special privileges, political or industrial, under our flag? No it is the emblem of equality. "Again, does not the successes of Combine against all opposition prove, if proof be necessary, that there must be a strong economic reason for the 'Corporation Act?' It has caused prodigious increase of the wealth of America. Combines who are already helping each other is the cause of this increase of wealth. The secret of wealth is with those that help each other. We need no COMBINE WINS OUT 103 longer to try to arrest this material progress; if anti-monopoly, that some of you advocate, were possible, it would be but to restore general pov- erty ', a going back toward barbarism. "The evolution of the true industrial system has been so slow in its progress, and my children are such dull scholars, that even after the Corpo- ration Act has opened its golden gates, they can- not see that the Corporation Act can possibly have anything good for them, unless they have money, and that in very great abundance; forgetting that moneyless men are Americans, 'just the same/ as moneyed men, and that every American belongs on the inside of any and everything American, which means the inside of the American corpora- tion, and entitled to all its benefits, emoluments and dividends. Every argument, my sons, against this position answers itself in the affirmative; every force opposed to the immediate formation of a great corporation and each of you, rich or poor, entering into that corporation reacts upon itself. Aye, if you will hear me, it is the fulfill- ment of the industrial law, 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' Now, my sons, if this law should change the methods of industry from the long continued 104 THE TRUST TRUSTED habit of competition, that is, men habitually fighting, working against other men, changed to the Christian method of the Combine, which is men peaceably working for, that is, in the in- terest of each other, would it not be better for all of you, my sons? Your jealousy has been un- wise; Combine is a mutual friend of our family and a friend of excellent parts, too, for in the Combine Age, which is just at hand, my political officials will have no temptation to misuse their powers as they then will need no private financial profit; besides, it would then be suicide to graft. Combine provides for necessary officials. Their living and that of their families is assured and graft is unnecessary, so they as members of that Combine are intent only in doing their duty as statesmen, such office is the niche in society that they are best adapted to fill, supported by Com- bine. Hence, they can need no private profit, and can have no financial motive to be corrupt. Con- sequently society will no longer offer a high pre- mium on official dishonesty. ********* "Observe that the better the government the less it is felt. 'The least governed is the best governed,' is a truism, a mother's way. So now, COMBINE WINS OUT 105 my sons, just let me attend to the government alone, and then very little of it will be required. It is quite enough for you, my sons, to 'make the living,' and when you make it, you are each to be rewarded by dividends, that is, to all you make, and when you thus relieve me of all semblance of industrial responsibility, and take that entire re- sponsibility upon yourselves, you will find that Combine's way is not only the best way, but the only w r ay. It is not only a change of motive from Competition to Combination, from hindering to helping each other, changing from enemies to allies, from industrial war to industrial peace, but it is morally right, and legally in harmony with all statute law, and clearly v/as the ultimate in- tention and full design of the Corporation Act enacted by your sincere fathers. So, my sons, you see it is easy, and follows as a kind of matter of course the moment you change your motive from Competition to Combination. When all are in the Combine, a constituent part of it, then the Combine will naturally be 'of, for and by' you all, all the people, just the same as I, your mother, am 'by, of and for' all my family. I would not have one of my children left out. The one that needs my help the most I must help the most it 106 THE TRUST TRUSTED is a mother's way. The meaning of Combine is inclusion^ competition means exclusion. Just why my sons have loved and practised inclusion in gov- ernment, and exclusion in industry, I cannot tell, and I have never heard one of them give any rea- son for it. I am heartily glad the time has come for them to unite in industrial matters as they have in matters of government. After you get together and have acquired actual ownership of every item of productive property in America, which the Corporation Act enable you to do, and that in the interest of all of you, then there can be no labor question, no strike, no lockout; for no sane man will strike himself, or lock himself out of a job. "Now, I want to talk to you as a mother about the Liquor question. The health of each will be- come and remain the financial concern of all, in the Combine Age, and if whiskey or impure food or drink of any kind is found to be unhealthy, all my children, with one accord will naturally sub- stitute healthy food and drink in the stead of the unhealthy do it as a paying business measure and be in a position to do it, will they not? And thus the Liquor Question will be solved by the COMBINE WINS OUT 107 consent as well as the concern of all. Good health, remember, has a money value. "Women love Combine because he can give them a home. The moment my sons change their motive from Competition to Combination, every mother will have a home, as surely as every bird her nest. My sons are all alike good, and will then be compelled by self-interest to work together for the common interest, as shareholders have and are doing. Then they will see that this common interest centers in each and every one having a job, and a job that he likes best. This is, to the interest of all, and a fact which Combine logically teaches. It is a beautiful thought, and as rational as it is beautiful, that there is no menial labor in the Combine, because there is logically no em- ployer or employee. Wages in itself infers a hire- ling, and in itself means meniality. Dividends, and not wages, is the law of Combine. If all are shareholders, every man will naturally find the employment for which he has an aptitude (whether it be mechanical or professional), one which he likes best and can do the best for the Combine, of which he is a live, interested, active part, and in doing so, will be fully entitled to his dividends, and as clearly so as each of my 108 THE TRUST TRUSTED sons are equally entitled to vote, and that every citizen is entitled in advance to protection. Thus humanity itself, and not wages or wealth, what he iS) and not how much he owns, will be the basis. "Think the whole matter over, my sons, and if you find that Combine is right, do not be jealous of him because he succeeds, or blame your sister for giving him both her heart and hand, but try to affiliate with him, and rest assured this mar- riage will be to the financial business interests of all." NO HOME IN THE COMBINE AGE WILL BE LARGE OWN FAMILY CAN CC Combine When it becomes the Americans to be "f&ir o not until then. The only way for the homes to continue to ow owners homes to keep, th having one of his own I him better. 1 Residence and grounds of Mr. Rockefeller. 2 Residence and grounds of Mr. Lazarus. 3 Residence and grounds of Consul to Germany. 4 Residence and grounds of Mayor of Chicago. 5 Residence of Stonemason Beautiful home among th Helper.) School-house, Church a every day and night economy in the Combii Park where American ch Residence of Carpenter. (FROM CHOICE) THAN ONE WOMAN WITH HER ^ORTABLY CARE FOR. bine self interest of all mare" they will be. But r of one of these beautiful ; to guarantee to all other ne will ever want his home, > more homelike and suits ( belonging to a Plasterers musement Hall ( occupied week. Thus representing olay and grow. 10 1 Residence of Common School Teacher. 1 1 A home in the country. 1 2 A Southern home. 1 3 Family residence for a large family. 1 4 Residence like childhood home in the old country- CHAPTER VII ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE Ten years had elapsed since the nomination of Judge Parker, which so distinctly indicated the exact moment of time when Combine came into actual and undisputed control of the government. Lazarus no longer sore or poor (mark this fact) but clothed and fed by the products of his own la- bor, lived in a home, a cottage of his own build- ing, surrounded by beautiful grounds, he now hav- ing the carriage and deportment of a man of affairs. ********* "If I had not heard that Lazarus was in Heaven, I would call you Lazarus," was the kind- ly salutation of a stranger. "Quite right; he was my twin brother, as like as two grains of wheat." "I stand amazed, not so much at the similarity of face and feature, as I am at two destinies. 109 110 THE TRUST TRUSTED Your brother died of starvation, and you a wealthy gentleman! How could YOU be so heartless 5 ?" "I indeed, at the time of his death, fared no better than he, was not rich as you suppose." "Your history must be worth while; will you relate it to me, for I, that speak to you, drove the dogs away, and gave your twin brother a penny as I was on my way up to Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, to worship. I heard inci- dentally that he died some time afterwards." "Yes, so he did, poor man, for charity is not conducive to long life. But at that time I also was about to surrender to the same fate, when a stranger, as you were to my brother, came my way. He was a business man, going to the same Philadelphia, but on business. He stopped and asked me rather abruptly 'whose dogs are these?' I told him they were stray dogs. He then asked me if I was on a strike. I told him 'Yes.' He laughed and said I looked like it; but I told him it was no laughing matter; I was sore with scurvy, nobody had given me a job, I was about starved, and it seemed now that these dogs were all the friends I had. He musingly said, 'Another vic- tim of competition/ and then he changed his mood ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE ill somewhat and asked, 'What are you going to do*?' 'Do?' I said, 'What can I do unless I get charity? I will die; I am almost starved now.' " 'Charity? Charity? Did you say Charity? An American citizen asking charity! He ought to starve.' And as he was about to move on, I implored him to give me something to eat. He looked back over his shoulder and said, 'What's the use? You may as well die now and be done with it as for me to squander my money on you in charity, and then you go off and die just the same. I think I can put my money into business with a better class of men than such as are con- tent to ask for charity, or wages either, for that matter. When all your stripe of Americans are dead and gone we will have more room for better men, who have too much self-respect to beg for anything.' " 'Say, hold on, I cried; wait a moment. If you will not give me a bite in charity, what can I do?" "He replied in a monotone, 'No American needs anything but a fair chance to help himself.' "Then I asked, 'What shall I first do to help myself?' "He said, 'Get in beside me, for I cannot wait another minute.' 112 THE TRUST TRUSTED "My first impulse was to say, 'I cannot,' but I saw he meant business, and I tried to get up and to my utter amazement, I was able to, and did get in beside him without the least bit of help. (Money- less Americans could get into Combine if they wanted to. Ed.) "He then told me that his name was Combine. We talked business. I liked him and he liked me when we got together, and now we both wear good clothes, as you see, and have homes and plenty. I am in the Combine with him. Both of us now ride, both are safe from the ravages of competitive war. Combine rides and is safe, financially safe, and that because I ride and am safe; and I ride and am safe because Combine rides and is safe. One is safe because the other is safe; neither are or could ever be safe unless both are safe. This is my story in a nutshell." "Combine must be a good man." "I never heard him accused of being good." "Why, he gave you a ride." "Yes, but because it paid him better to give me a ride than to bury me. It would have been just as proper to call me good because I got in and rode beside him, when he asked me, and to save him ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 113 funeral expenses. Good does not apply to our transaction at all." "Well, I cannot comprehend you. I do not understand your language." "Oh, excuse me; I mistook you for an Ameri- can, either native or foreign born. Will you be so kind as to tell me your name and occupation 4 ?" "My name is Reform, which name also tells my occupation. I am a missionary from England, a reformer. I believe and preach that there is nothing that will settle the Labor and this awful Liquor question but legislation and brotherly love." "Yes! yes! Mr. Reform, I have heard of you, but where have you been for the last ten years, that you have not heard that the Labor question has been satisfactorily settled; and its settlement naturally has already solved the Liquor problem. Combine, sir, has solved both." "Where have I been*? In England, to be sure. Things got so bad here in America some ten years ago, strikes, lockouts, drunkenness, etc., that I thought I would leave Americans to their fate and go to England, but when there I repented and began to study my profession, and now I have taken my life in my hand to come back to America 114 THE TRUST TRUSTED as a missionary, to preach Reform where it is so much needed." (Aside: "This is unique; a live reformer, American born, too, crossing the Atlantic to re- form or settle a fight between labor and capital, that was declared off ten years ago. I must not make fun of his ignorance, but receive him kindly and get him to naturalize and become once more an American.") "Mr. Reform, I am very glad to have met you, and after you have taken a rest and looked around a little and before you begin preaching reform, I hope you will permit me to have some kindly talks with you. Have you been assigned to a home?" "I do not understand what you mean by 'as- signed to a home.' America used to be said to be a free country. I hope you do not mean sent to prison, but I can expect nothing better, as a result of strikes, lockouts, drunkenness, that I escaped from ten years ago, which must have got worse and worse, of course, but I come now in a missionary spirit, prepared to be sent to prison or anywhere, only that I may preach reform. Re- form is both my name and nature." ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 115 "To assure you that we are not going to send you to prison, please come home with me and share with me ; be my guest for I perceive you are not only in need of information, but of a friend. Now, this is your room for tonight. Please make yourself at home." * * * * * * "Good morning, Mr. Reform; have you had a good night's rest?" "Thank you; I feel very much refreshed, but more puzzled, and most of all amazed at the evi- dences of peace that I see from your observatory, and from a morning walk in your garden, and the apparent contenment of your home life and that of your family. At a proper time and place, I have many questions to ask." "Very well; after breakfast will be a proper time and my parlor a proper place." "You say your name is Lazarus, a synonym of poverty, and yet now that this cottage and these grounds here belong to you?" "Yes, sir." "Now my first question is, if Lazarus is sup- plied by such evidences of comfort as these, in what style does a Dives live 1 ?" "If this home is my ideal and it is his home can be no better than his ideal can it? That is, 116 THE TRUST TRUSTED rich men are at liberty to build for themselves ac- cording to their tastes as well as poor men, and many, if not most of them surround themselves with home comforts less elaborate than mine. They, of all men, seem to prefer simplicity of adornment, and to rest in the assurance. The as- surance is everything. Combine insures us all against possible disaster or loss. The Combine is insurance personified, and that is what men have sought and longed for, all being thus assured, simultaneously with it comes a new purpose, these nil the mind and heart; the purpose of inclusion is now the motive of life, the inclusion found only in a Combine, intended to include all the people. The exclusion of competition becomes a thing of the past." "Am I to understand that you have no rich men now?' "Certainly we have; why not*? Combine is not designed to make a man poor, it is to even up wealth; if a man ever had property, Combine bought it and paid him for it, and the man has the money to spend as he pleases. To be sure, there is no necessity now to lay it up, for the Combine, by industrial cooperation, is continually produc- ing and by its wonderful 'system' of distribution, ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE H7 gives equal dividends to all shareholders, which practically means, all the people, that is, every American citizen, and becoming a citizen is equi- valent to getting into the Combine, now that every American is made a shareholder." "You amaze me, but what reform party brought all this about?" "Reform? Reform party? Why, my dear man, Combine is not a reform in any sense. It is dis- tinctly business rivals becoming allies, agoing in an opposite direction. Hence the word reform does not apply, neither does the word party, be- cause our Combine means all, the whole, rather than a part or party." "Excuse me, Mr. Lazarus, but I meant to ask what political party brought these industrial con- ditions about?" "Combine, my dear sir, was not, is not, nor ever can be political. It is clearly an industrial matter; any political party was indeed a hin- drance. Anything was competent to be a stum- bling block to legitimate industrial combination, but industry in itself is fundamental, politics is supplemental, one little element when compared with the life purpose, 'making a living.' Industry is the whole body; politics is but an appendage of 118 THE TRUST TRUSTED industry, said to be a caudal appendage at that, useful but rather as an ornament; so to inquire what party, is equivalent to asking what tail is instrumental in wagging the dog. Let me im- press upon you that America has evolved into, has come around to an Industrial Universe, and that Universe is popularly called 'Combine,' but more logically called 'System,' which is as truly an industrial center as the sun is the center of the solar 'system.' No word is more apt, or applic- able. 'Order (system) is Heaven's first law.' We have hitched industry 'our wagon to the stars,' re- duced 'making a living' to a 'system,' by the ex- tension of the Corporation Act to all the people. On that day, ten years ago, that I got in with Combine, I just began to live. My regret is that Combine, instead of Reform, if you please, did not pass my brother's way before he died. You perceive, sir, I have a real grievance, and you will pardon me for repeating the fact that reform, as it is applied to the Labor and Liquor questions, is a deception, 'a delusion and a snare.' I do not mean to be rude to you, but I tell you as if you were my twin brother to change your name, and never mention reform again. Combine is the only way, and it is fortunate that the people saw ten ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 119 years ago that it was the only way, else some other subterfuge like the labor unions on the one side and the Citizen's Alliance arrayed on the other, or a government ownership fad, or a socialism, meaning just anything or nothing. These sincere men deserve just credit because they cared; they wanted to help while many of the others did not care. Yet the masses weary and confused by 'Lo here! Lo there!' listening to everything but the 'as ye would' law of the Galilean, which echoing down the ages until it culminates in one word 'Combine,' meaning first, law, industrial law, second, prophets, the Gospels. That is the order; read it for yourself. You will find it in Matthew 7:12. There was no other way but to resolve our- selves into a business combine of the whole people, then incorporate as a whole people, and when thus incorporated we could do, we did do, and we naturally will do unto other shareholders as we would have other shareholders do unto us, just as Standard Oil shareholders did in 1904, so does all the people in this year of our Lord 1915." "When you have time, please give me a syn- opsis of what did lead the people to the adoption of the Combine idea." ***** 120 THE TRUST TRUSTED "Civilization becoming actually 'Christian- ized,' that is, it was seen as soon as we were suf- ficiently civilized, that Combine and progress were synonymous terms and to progress to go forward, we must inevitably combine, and to com- bine is progress. When Americans got their heads together they agreed that the 'Corporation Act' was a righteous act logically from its beginning, yet without malice, it had unavoidably granted a special privilege to those in the corporation. This w r as seen to be un-American; that is, not f of, for and by all the people,' but there appeared to be no way to help it, yet from the first it seemed to prove a real hardship to those not in the corpora- tion, and as the years went by, it became finally an unbearable burden to those left on the outside of the corporation. What was to be done? Surely something must be done. Some cried one thing and some another. Laws were enacted, le- gal steps were taken and, strange to say, the same government that authorized the corporation, had in its frenzy wantonly proceeded to cripple it, cripple its own child by unfriendly legislation. 'A house divided against itself cannot long stand.' It finally became apparent that the Cor- poration Act either must be annulled entirely, or ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 121 all the people must be taken into it. This last seemed, at the first thought, preposterous, but even the enemies of Combine were not in favor of annulling the Corporation Act, so clearly then, the other alternative must be adopted. There was no middle ground. Added light in time clearly revealed the fact that all that was really wrong about the Corporation Act after all was the 'special' privilege it carried with it. Now, if all the people could be admitted to the enjoyment of all the privileges of the corporation, this would logically remove the 'special' idea entirely, which was now admitted to be the only objectionable point. This, it was finally seen, would fulfill the prophecy of the word 'equal' found in the Decla- ration of Independence, which up to this time, had been without any meaning to many and without a full meaning to any. Industry c of, for and by all the people' when being read into that word, 'equal,' gave a new meaning, amounting to a re- velation; government 'of, for and by all the peo- ple' had proved good so far as it had gone, but it was only as the vestibule to a closed auditorium, a gateway to an unexplored field, a field after- wards found to be of wonderful resources, amounting in its resources to an insurance against 122 THE TRUST TRUSTED poverty, and for all the people, for all time, from which, under competition, no one had ever been exempt, nor ever could be exempt. All Ameri- cans then began working together as industrial allies, as in one Combine 'of, for and by all the people, 3 practically as they fought together against a national enemy, educating all to help, rather than hinder, a training to 'do as we would be done by,' rather than every fellow for himself as had been the business policy. "But fear of want and love of luxury was not the only motive to induce Americans to combine. Honor, that has impelled the soldier to do his best, is here a higher incentive than wealth. Diligence in service, righteously should always lead the way to promotion, to social distinction, to public re- pute. So you see we have harnessed up all these higher motives. On the other hand, we found that brutal, sordid, insatiable greed did not finan- cially pay Americans in dealing with each other. So we combined as a whole, thus forestalling greed by appropriating all the privileges of the 'Corporate Act' for all the people, eliminating the words, 'special,' 'menial,' 'wages,' 'employer,' 'employee,' etc., and that by the consent and en- dorsement of the rich and poor alike, giving them ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 123 something they all knew, the moment they thought it out, to be better combination instead of com- petition." "Did not this Combine of all the people prac- tically confiscate the property of the rich?" "By no means; but on the contrary, I need but to remind you of the ordinary powers and habits of corporations from the beginning, to answer, that the ability of a combine to buy, is only lim- ited by its resources; so naturally, the resources of all the people combined were greater than the value of property owned by any one of them singly, and so this Combine of all the people was logically able to buy all productive property. The Combine was also secured as it now had all the property. In a word, we followed in the legal steps of legal combines and of competent men who themselves were a part and parcel now of the Combine." "But as I remember the American people ten years ago, many of them would be so stubborn that they would not sell at any price." "Men are not stubborn, we find, unless they think they have an advantage. Again, men are reasonable if you approach them properly. Again, men will sell any item of productive prop- 124 THE TRUST TRUSTED erty (homes are not productive property) the mo- ment the inducement is sufficient. The great inducement of this Combine of all the people is and was not price at all but the positively reliable insurance of 'a living' for themselves and their families, and that for all time. The ideal of individual ownership, this innate desire of every American, was actually realized the moment every citizen became a share- holder each now in a Combine, and positively no one was left out to antagonize it, to compete against it, thus making it safe. So, a Combine that had not, nor ever could have an opponent or rival was safe surely safe. Combine naturally puts a man every man in position to choose aright where they dare to trust each other." "I stand amazed at my own stupidity in not seeing before I went to England, the trend of financial affairs; the inducement that such a Com- bine could give to all the people must soon be ac- cepted, but I am still inquisitive to know exactly how you settled with property owners." "I can best answer your question by an extract from 'Capital and Labor,' the first book ever pub- lished advocating Combine as the way out. It was published twelve years ago: ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 125 "'Take for the estimate that an average family of five (America stands for the family and the home) having their own home, free from rent or taxes, could nicely live on twelve hundred dollars yearly dividends. It would take forty thousand dollars at three per cent interest to equal this yearly dividend; so, taking forty thousand dollars as the necessary stock or share for each family of five, this forty thousand dollars serves as an equi- table basis, or face value of stock necessary for the settlement of claims of original owners. If he owned just forty thousand dollars' worth of any kind of productive property, he transferred it to the Combine, and took Combine stock; thus each individual's share of stock amounted to eight thousand dollars in the Combine." "But suppose the individual owned more or less than the eight thousand dollars'?" "If more, he was paid in the bonds of the Com- bine; if less, the difference was made up to that amount, by the enabling act, enacted by the Com- bine to meet the case." "I think I do see in this, not a reform, not a brotherly love, but a purely business transaction, as well as a simple extension of the equality of 126 THE TRUST TRUSTED the Declaration of Independence, on into indus- try. Am I right ?" "Yes, sir; quite right." "Then please go on." "Labor at once became honorary, instead of compulsory, and men being shareholders were thus placed on their honor as well as their self-interest. So great is the self-respect of our people now that they would refuse to eat, rather than to accept a thing in charity that they had not honorably paid for that they were not entitled to and for having done their best to earn that best be it great or small. This change of motive is the visi- ble difference between the competition of ten years ago and the combination of today, January first, 1915. "Am I to understand you now have no lazy people?" "Practically none; to be called lazy is to be called a thief, and resented as an insult, and is looked upon as a crime. And why not? The man that steals the time of the Combine steals its most valuable asset." "But some men are able to do twice as much as others in the same length of time." ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 127 "True, but the humane basis is 'Best/ any child can do its best, and let me assure you that best is perfectly satisfactory to all. But regard- ing laziness, our Board of Health, composed mostly of medical men who, having this whole matter in charge, find a thousand cases where re- straint is necessary to prevent overwork, to one of laziness. This charge of laziness carries with it not only disgrace, but corporal punishment for stealing time. Yet work without leisure kills as surely as leisure without exercise, and now that all do their respective parts, our work is but healthy exercise." "I have learned by what you have said, first, that the labor question is settled by business inter- ests popularly called Combine; second, that every man is of commercial value to the Combine. Hence the Combine is financially interested in not only every man being always ready for work, but able to do his part. I can see without being told that this makes the health of every man, wo- man and child of America of actual business im- portance to the Combine, and from the cradle to the grave. This practically puts the Combine Board of Health in control of food, drink, cloth- ing, and any and everything that pertains to the 128 THE TRUST TRUSTED health of each and every individual born under the flag. This logically settles the liquor question, entirely by business interests, and in such a way that it must forever stay settled, because every American is in the Combine, including both liquor men and prohibitionists, formerly so called ; third, that now every citizen becomes a shareholder in the Combine by virtue of his or her citizenship. Now I must ask, is every immigrant that comes to America admitted as a citizen, hence into the Combine?" "By no manner of means. The immigration law of the Combine (the Combine relieves the government now) is very strict, almost prohibi- tory. Take your own case. You may have been amazed at my verdancy in taking you, an immi- grant, into my family. You need not to have been surprised. The fact that you were admitted on shipboard at Liverpool bound for America was one recommendation. The fact that your papers successfully run the gauntlet of Combine at New York is another. Then, if you are a person of bad moral character, you do not look like it; your looks recommend you. When you go to make ap- plication for your naturalization papers all these facts will be most thoroughly sifted. You will Every American family can naturally have some such home in the Combine age. American voting may be considered the way of dividing up the Government equally among Americans. Combine, the way of dividing up productions among producers, if one shareholder is entitled to a home like this, so is every shareholder. Combine is here to stay, it need only to be Amercan- ized, to build some such homes as these for every American. ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 129 be required to pass as rigid an examination by the Board of Health of the Combine as you would formerly have had to pass to get into the best in- surance company, for the Combine is practically an up-to-date insurance company. America is not a hospital for foreigners. So you see, you may be deported yet, but I hope that so genial a man as you seem to be, will pass all examinations and be admitted. All those born under the flag natu- rally belong to us, healthy or unhealthy, and it is Combine's financial business to see that the child's parents, especially the child's mother, have a home, a cottage and grounds of her own, as se- clusive as a bird in its own nest, and that both mother and child have proper food, clothing, fresh air, sunshine, everything to develop a stout, able workman. It's surely a matter of business." "Whether or not I am ever admitted again as a citizen of the country I left in dismay but ten years ago, I can now see the genius of the Com- bine idea, and approve it, as it has slowly but tri- umphantly developed out of the Corporation Act. Now, if I may, I ask you one more question, Mr. Lazarus." "Say on." 130 THE TRUST TRUSTED "What were the very first steps that led up to the inauguration of the Combine, ten years ago? I will be content with a brief answer." "Immediately after the inauguration of the President in the spring of 1905, it being admitted by all thinkers that Combine had full possession of both political parties, hence full possession of the government, that fact made necessary an en- tirely new course of procedure. A Combine of all the people was prepared and thought out in 1907. Congress passed an 'Enabling Act, 3 authorizing the Secretary of Commerce to grant Incorporation Papers to a business association including not only all the railroads, all the telegraph, all public utili- ties, but all productive property, and in the in- terest of all the people, extending to all the peo- ple, thus associated the corporate right to buy all productive property, stipulating its rights and powers, as was familiar to incorporation at that time. The Great Seal of the Secretary of Com- merce being in due time set to this, the greatest industrial document ever written, authorizing all Americans in their own corporate name to defi- nitely begin business on their own account as a close corporation. I need not here particularize the great work of buying out previous owners, and ACTUALLY IN THE COMBINE AGE 131 paying for all property. Suffice to say here that the business proceedings were conducted on busi- ness methods, familiar to all financiers at that time and concurred in by all the people, there be- ing practically no difference in business procedures from the great and self-respecting corporations of that time, except in the motive and personnel of the shareholders. From a select and favored few, the scope was extended to all the people. All be- ing Americans, all were naturally equal share- holders, all worth more than $40,000, had a bal- ance in gold or in the security of the great Corpo- ration as good as gold. CHAPTER VIII LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE "From what I learned from Mr. Lazarus, I knew my mission as a reformer was gone. Would I be human and not regret it? What would have been the chagrin of an old-time prize fighter to have gone across the continent to meet an antagonist to find when he got there that his burly foe had been converted? We have got to admit that it does take a little time for us to swallow a disappoint- ment, even if we know it will amount to a real blessing to us. I was as cheerful as may be, after my lengthy talk with Mr. Lazarus, and I spent the remainder of that day in studying up-to-date maps and literary periodicals and comments on current events. I confess to my surprise not so much at finding on the shelves of the family li- brary many new books, as I was at finding on the table some of the old magazines and newspapers, still published and popular. As I turned over the 132 LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 133 familiar pages of the Youth's Companion my eyes grew moist, as at meeting an old friend. I finally laid it down and said, half audibly, 'What a clean paper.' To get a bird's-eye view I took up the Review of Reviews and read well into the night, and, then laying it down, tried to think out the real difference, after all, that the advent of the Combine Age had brought. "Weary with a day of intense thought and lit- tle exercise, stepped out into the open, when it occurred to me to take an electric car ride before retiring for the night. A car drew up at my signal ; it was well filled and, stranger-like, I noticed everything closely, especially wondering why the conductor did not leave his post of observation and come down to collect my fare. In fact, I be- gan watching him so closely as to forget all else, until I made bold to ask a well dressed elderly lady why the conductor did not attend more promptly to his duty, that he had not yet been around for my fare and that I had ridden more than a mile already. She very politely said, ( I think you must be a stranger in America. 5 I as- sured her that I had been away for more than ten years. 'That accounts for it, 5 she said. 'We Americans are now all so interested in each other's 134 THE TRUST TRUSTED financial welfare (caring for other shareholders being the only sure way of being cared for our- selves) that each has his memorandum cards upon which we keep tally of our own car rides/ "With a feeling that such a trusting people were also most likely to be trustworthy, I formed an inward resolve that they would not lose any- thing by me, and, knowing that I would have a chance later on to properly settle my car fare, I gave myself up to the luxury of my surroundings, the elegance of the car, the mellow electric light- ing of the country road, the snug cottages, the shapely grounds, the romping children, in a word, the 'home' life. "Having ridden as far as I cared to in that di- rection, I took a return car for the house of Mr. Lazarus. The thought of my loneliness came over me; a feeling as though I need so much a compan- ion to talk to of what I saw and was turning in my mind. Truly, 'it was not good that man should be alone.' (Genesis 2:18.) The ride had revealed so much, and I said to myself, 'If this is all brought about by the change of motive sel- fishness to self-interest, or, in other words, from competition to combination surely this is what the Master meant to teach by his 'Whatsoever ye LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 135 would 5 law, in Matthew 7:12.' I remembered what the lady in the car said; it had been ringing in my ears all evening. 'The Americans are all so interested in each other's financial welfare, i. e., caring for others being the only sure way of being cared for ourselves, that each has a memorandum card upon which we keep tally of our own car rides. 3 Trusted 4 ? That's what it meant; it thrilled me. Trusted? Is it possible that humanity had been struggling along, not trusting but competing, fighting for nineteen hundred years and never dropped into industrial combination until now, and here in America? 'The trust trusted,' is the secret. The car stopped in front of a massive building and was soon filled to overflowing. I asked a gentleman who fit in next to me who these well dressed and well behaved people were. 'Church is just out,' he replied. 'Do all the people attend church now?' I innocently inquired, for when I left America ten years ago few people at- tended church and the number was becoming less and less.' T remember it,' he replied, 'but the advent of the Combine Age has changed all that.' Insistent on knowing more, I asked how? He looked at me as if surprised. 'Well you do seem to be a stranger, permit me to remind you that 136 THE TRUST TRUSTED then men all men were compelled to compete or go hungry and competitors did not feel like worshipping and did not attend the place of worship but rather like Adam tried to hide themselves away from God. They did not even care to meet the people on Sunday that they had tried to take trade ad- vantage of for the last six days, and still expected to try and do so for the next six days, so that the very instinct of consistency kept them away from church.' Then I said I did remember, but to cor- roborate what I had been told I gasped in my in- tensity and asked if men did not try to take the best in every trade deal; do they not try to cheat each other now *? Seeing my perturbation he said, in a fatherly kind of way, 'Why bless you no, the motive is combine now, then it was competition, just the reverse now that men have a chance have learned the way to be fair to help in all business affairs and still make money, more money, the most money, as Christ assured them nineteen hundred years ago that square dealing would be the result. To attend church is but natural now. "It was now after usual bed time, and I remem- bered that Mr. Lazarus had not given me a key LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 137 to the room that he had so generously assigned to me for my very own use, so I chid myself because I would be under the necessity of waking him ; but as I gently tried the door it opened noiselessly and I noticed for the first time that the door had no lock. As I stood holding it ajar my mind took up the significance of this little fact no lock. Why, I said to myself, of course not; trust is written on everything and everybody, not with the hideous mien of the tiger, the octopus, but one beautiful word, trust. Trust in God, the religiously in- clined would say; others can only venture into the first word of the phrase, trust. If not 'in God' have we got to where we can trust in man, who is made in the image of God? Yes, I can and do see that financial self-interest ought and does im- pel us all to trust, as the best way to be trusted. With my door not locked against me, and my fare unpaid, I somehow felt I was trusted, and a firm strong uplift of soul possessed me, new in its sen- sation. A new motive inspired me, and as I stood there alone, I felt that I developed into a real man. I felt that any man can be a man when he is trusted and if this is what combine has taught Americans to be, I'll be an American, so help me God. With this feeling I went to bed. 138 THE TRUST TRUSTED "Presently the sun was shining in my window, so short had been the night; all nature seemed to be glad, and why not; the Master inferred that if we complied with the logical 'Do as you would be done by,' that obedience to this financial busi- ness rule would give us glad eyes to the better see ; glad hearts that we could the better feel, a glad motive akin to His motive, a motive to help, to combine and not to hinder, to compete. As I lay thinking, my mind turned upon strength in the abstract, comparison of strengths, of God, of Com- bine, of Competition, I musingly said, from the sublime to the ridiculous. "I was greeted at the breakfast table with the kindly salutations of an old acquaintance, by the children's 'trust me,' and I intuitively returned the salutation, 'trust me.' (I found afterwards 'Trust me' to be the salutation of the Combine Age.) As we still sat at the table, I addressed to Mrs. Lazarus the question : 'Can it be technically true that you really have no poor people?' She modestly replied, 'To answer your question by yes, that is true, would not be as convincing to you as to ask you a synonymous question: Can it be true that every American citizen, rich or poor, is protected by the flag? My mind ran briskly LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 139 back to ten years ago, when I had been a citizen under that flag; how an insignificant missionary, Miss Stone, had been protected in Bulgaria, and had she not been returned on demand, Uncle Sam's navy and army, too, would have been used for her protection; how that not one citizen was left out unprotected by that flag. Does she mean that the Combine protects like that*? I dare not ask her. I knew it did; she had said the truth. Not one little American then could be left out of the Combine without a real home. I did not need to be wise to know the reason. Did I or any one not know that in the case of government, if one citizen were left out, the contiguity of the entire government would fall into fragments about our heads ; so if one little citizen shareholder were left out of the Combine of shareholders, unprotected, uncared for, unsecured, every share in that com- bine in like manner would crumble, and no share would be worth the paper it was written upon. This must be as true of the Combine 'of, for and by' all the people as it is or can be true of the government 'of, for and by' the people, and if true of one, we intuitively know it must be true of the other? Aye, both are true, by the eternal fitness of things. 140 THE TRUST TRUSTED "I was in a brown study for so long that she be- gan to apologize by saying, 1 did not intend to be rude. 7 I immediately rallied and assured her it was the aptness of her question that staggered me and that while I hesitated, every vestige of re- maining mist had cleared away and that I could now answer my own question that it was impossi- ble for any one shareholder in a combine to be poor and another one rich, one share good and an- other one bad, and it was also impossible for any one to ever become an American citizen and not be a shareholder in a Republic of shareholders, a Republic in industry, thus logically intelligently coupled with a Republic in government. "Yes, one is naturally incomplete without the other, and a marriage was foreshadowed by that 'whatsoever ye would' law of the Christ and of American civilization. "I said, 'Theoretically it was clear before, but your question makes it practically clear. Excuse me, am I detaining you, Mrs. Lazarus'?' "Not at all if it is pleasant for you to sit with us around the breakfast table in 'this informal way; it is popular with us. Americans have leisure now and you will find Oliver Wendell Holmes' Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, in LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 141 almost every family library, and my family here are willing subjects of such an autocracy, and we will be delighted to hear you ask questions con- cerning our Combine Age, for it has not been our privilege before to entertain a foreigner, and the children sympathize with you because you are a foreigner, and they are trying to discover for themselves the actual difference between foreign- ers and Americans. They wanted to know if it was proper for them to greet you with our up-to- date greeting which they did when you came in Trust me.' "I said that I scarcely comprehended it as I had heard it everywhere, on the streets and in the car, to the apparent exclusion of all other social salutations, until I looked into their bright young eyes this morning, and the full force of the Trust me' flashed into my mind and heart and I thought, 'If this is the confidence that Combine has brought to Americans, I will retake at once my old name that I was known by before I went to live in England, and you may all call me hereafter 'Sys- tem. 5 " "That is a good name," said Mr. Lazarus, "if I may ask, why did you change it*?" 142 THE TRUST TRUSTED "I can hardly be said to have changed it; others changed it for me. To be sure, I proudly assented to it. I made it my business, you see, in season and out of season, to talk and preach reform, that they nicknamed me 'Reform,' and it stuck. Then again, 'System' had become very unpopular, almost disreputable in America before I left. System was a good name in itself, but it was of Wall street origin, a word used by those who were said to coin spurious money, to produce schemes dark and dangerous, 'high finance' hence was rejected by the masses for the like reasons that they rejected aristocracy, plutocracy, trust, com- bine. System was unpopular and Reform was very popular; everybody talked reform, (nobody practiced it) so, finally, I dropped into the snare and called myself 'Reform.' "I sympathize with you; Reform is a good word even yet, in its place, but it does not apply in industry, with which it is and has been formerly associated, at all; it has proved a delusion and a snare. I commend your discretion in retaking your real name; a name now the most popular and significant word in the American language, as everything pertaining to production and distri- bution is reduced to a business system of, for and LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 143 by all the people, so that now all the long words are left off and when anyone says the 'System,' we understand it all. It is the method in Com- bine." "I have discovered that this is somehow true, but the exact 'modus operandi' has not yet been explained to me. Where do I, a foreigner, com- mence? I have the money to pay for my board and room and had the money to pay for my car ride last night, but I could find no one to give it to." "Ha! ha! You took a ride on the 'Owl,' did you? Well no one suspects nowadays that another is beating his way. We have no tramps. We all are able to pay our own way now and go when and where we please. It was supposed that you were an American, either native or foreign born, and by virtue of that you were a shareholder in the industrial combine and so of course, had your memorandum card like this, on which you can keep your own tally. As you are now my guest, I keep the proper tally on my memoran- dum, which we turn into the financial secretary every month." "But what about my board?" 144 THE TRUST TRUSTED "The Combine has already been credited with that." "Then I pay you." "Not at all; pay the Combine, if any one. Guests are not supposed to pay, are they, but the Combine, not I, feeds you. There is a way for foreigners to pay, but we are glad to entertain you socially and until you are fully convinced of the rectitude of the American Combine and volun- tarily choose to try to get naturalization papers. If you succeed, you get then a memorandum card of your own." "I must be shown, at your earliest convenience, where and to whom to make my application. I have caught your spirit, and I, like you, insist on paying my way." "I will be pleased to introduce you to the offi- cers, and also to the banker and financial secre- tary, but wait until you are fully convinced that you want to become an American citizen." "Excuse me, am I to understand that this mem- orandum card amounts to a bank book?" "Yes, sir; practically; to be sure your monthly dividends are handed to you in gold, silver or paper as you may wish. Almost all the small transactions like buying vegetables, meat, milk, LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 145 etc., are paid for with gold, silver, or nickel; as formerly, these still are found to be the most con- venient medium of exchange. You enter the gross amounts on your card. There are a few excep- tions, and car fare is one of them. You will find business customs are much the same as they were under competition, such usages, at least, that com- mend themselves as being convenient, harmless and fair to all alike; we have not changed, only the motive is changed from competition to com- bination, and such changes as were made neces- sary by this change of motive. The motive is everything; not competition reformed, but it is just the opposite of what it was under the selfish- ness of competition. The simple industrial evo- lution that had been going on for nineteen hun- dred years culminating in the industrial self-inter- est of the Combine; the concern of one actually becoming not only recognized as the concern of all, but an actual recognition of the fact, a say- ing, 'I pronounce you man and wife' ; the parties thereto believing it, and acting on that belief." "A benefit coming to my husband," Mrs. Laz- arus added, "naturally comes to me and our fam- ily here; Americans are all one in financial inter- 146 THE TRUST TRUSTED "What one change do you estimate to be the greatest brought by the Combine of all the peo- ple?" I inquired of Mrs. Lazarus. "Certainly the glad spirit in which all the peo- ple plan for one another, and work to their plans. Each one has now a motive for helpfulness, and also the peculiar sensation of a proprietor; a feel- ing that he is actually working for himself in helping another, that he will surely get what he produces. Wages, high or low, became more and more intolerable, like an inevitable doom that hung over the people, crushing out all spirit and gaiety of mind, a hireling feeling of abject slavery that was either carrying us back toward barbarism or hindering the onward march of Christian civil- ization, nothing less than dividends is American." "True, Mrs. Lazarus, distressingly true! I thought to escape this impending doom by going to England, but found for a man, American raised and imbued with its peculiar liberty-loving spirit, that England offered nothing better, only this dif- ference, the American raised, somehow felt that in a Republic we could do better than work for wages if we would, while an Englishman felt that he was living in a monarchy and so could not help himself." All carpenters are themselves proprietors. Self interest is on the side of clean "honest buildings." Its in the geuius of the Combine idea to put forward the most competent to manage in every department, hence the most com- petent builders will naturally be the foremen in the Combine age, LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 147 "True, we American knew all along we could help ourselves and tried this, that and the other reform measures to do it, but all in vain until one day it dawned upon us, and we said musingly: Why yes, we are all every one Americans, that is a fact. Strange we had not thought of it be- fore. I want to tell you Mr. System that the taking hold of this one fact that we are all actu- ally Americans, and all that it carried with it, brought every change that you see around you, as a natural result. 'Like getting the husband,' said Mrs. Lazarus, 'we get his property, don't we? "And," retorted Mr. Lazarus, "like getting a wife, we get all that she has. Financial results in marriage and combine are much the same." "I see the aptness of your figure of speech, but tell me a little more about wages. This wage matter is interesting." "It goes without saying that everyone intui- tively wants to feel himself or herself a proprietor. Competition kept crowding out the smaller pro- prietors, weaker ones being defeated continually, more and more of them toppled down to wages. Department stores crushed, as they easily could, all smaller competitors, and with humiliation, 148 THE TRUST TRUSTED hundreds of former proprietors went to work for them as clerks for wages. Our ideal, our longing desire to become proprietors was going, going, gone; and wage slavery was all that was left us. Then silly labor, instead of calling to mind that fact : that we were Americans took another fool- ish stand on the Rate of wages, little heeding the plain fact that the same force that had reduced them down to wages could and would, in an in- credibly short time, take away the rate of wages and thus defeat every Union in the land. Ex- perience is a dear school master, but fools would learn of no other, so it seemed." "After proprietorship was knocked out, and the rate of wages was knocked out, hope gone, like the prodigal, we came to ourselves and remem- bered that we had a father America and that we were Americans, and that our father America had already provided us the Corporation Act, and we woke up, in amazement! and when our eyes were wide open, we discovered that combine was succeeding and why 4 ? Not because he was moral, religious or belonged to my political party but be- cause he was making use of that identical Corpora- tion Idea, and more, amazement became amazed, when we traced back and found that our fathers LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 149 had been inspired by the author of the 'whatso- ever ye would' law when they enacted that Cor- poration law. These discoveries made our way plain, and as easy as it was plain, and as imme- diate as it was plain and easy. Some now like to believe that somebody had been talking to God about it, as Washington did at Valley Forge, and as Lincoln did in the darkest hour of the great Rebellion. Surely man's extremity was God's opportunity. Thus wages went and dividends came; dividends, the medium of distribution, a medium that, logically speaking, could not recog- nize partiality, or any special privilege, an intent that the wage idea always carried with it, that is, the privilege of being a boasting, bigotted employ- er of a menial servant for wages. Now, sir, it is beneath the dignity of an American, even a Laza- rus, to work for wages, either high or low." "The consolidation, the merging of railroads and capital, generally, taught all of us, and served as an object lesson, to show how naturally easy for all Americans to incorporate, to unite in one cor- poration and thus legally connect the American in his industrial capacity with the American in his political capacity. Thus every American be- came a proprietor and as you go out among our 150 THE TRUST TRUSTED people today, you will see the marked contrast between the dispirited driveling of ten years ago, in every face and feature, revealing the spirit of the proprietor that smiles back, aye, enthuses our people up to their very best industrial endeavor, not compulsory, but spontaneous; and in the cleanness of our politics, now that all men get their living direct from industry, clean statesmen find in politics their niche, and men working poli- tics for a living is a thing of the past; these men are getting a better living in a better way, for of all men, the professional politician then, had a hard road to travel." "That reminds me that I have not noticed any saloons which were common ten years ago." "I do not wonder that the mere mention of politician reminded you of the saloon; it was al- most a necessity to him. I rejoice that this drunk- ard-maker was closed by Combine, purely for financial reasons and there is not one saloon in all America listen and that for want of a willing keeper. You see, the business interest of one in the Combine, is the business interest of all in the Combine, and as all Americans are in the Combine, every shareholder knows that drunken- ness incapacitates, and anything that inca- LIFE IN THE COMBINE AGE 151 pacitates the workman himself, or deflects the time of another workman to take care of him, is clearly against the financial interest of the Combine; a man did not have to be religious or a prohibitionist to see this point. This is a glimpse of the beautiful industrialism of this Combine Age, in which there can be logically no such thing as special privileges, wage, employee, hireling, that is, gradations in industry, any more than there can be that unthinkable thing of gra- dations in citizenship. If gradations were think- able in either industry or citizenship our very hu- manity would humanely drive us to think of the weaker ones physically, first. Reform old Compe- tition*? No, never; quit competing, go away from it, discard it, say to it, 'Get you be- hind me Satan.' To set our face in the op- posite direction. Combine was the only course to take. This, Mr. System, was the second American Revolution and greater than the first, greater in that it was greater to produce and fairly distribute than it was to produce only; greater to co-operate in production, that produced a living for all, and to fairly distribute that living to all, than it is to glorify the American eagle or deify the Goddess of Liberty, especially when neither 152 THE TRUST TRUSTED the bird or the idol are in the slightest danger of being either shot or disgraced. A written consti- tution was and is a necessary center for govern- ment, just as the Combine is become a necessary center of industry. Logically, if the government is a Republic then industry must need be a Re- public. America had, up to ten years ago, tried to preserve a Republican form of gov- ernment and a monarchial form of industry, and strikes and corrupt politics were the inevitable result." CHAPTER IX SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE "Does not the skilled laborer somehow reflect that he does more than his share, or the unskilled feel offended at discrimination'?" "No, there is no discrimination, Mr. System, our happy people are as contented with the re- public in industry as they are and have been with the republic in government, and there is no dis- crimination in citizenship, is there 2 They know that they are not discriminated against in indus- try; that all men who do their best, are en- titled to have all returning wants supplied, be- cause the employment that he or she is best fitted for, naturally, and educated to fill, properly, is in no sense a discrimination, for or against. Every American is now entitled to dividends, not be- cause he is skilled or unskilled, professional or not professional; he is entitled to dividends, I love to repeat, because he is a man. Every man 153 154 THE TRUST TRUSTED really wants to find his niche, and the Combine wants him to find it, i. e., just where he can be of the greatest financial profit to the Combine, that is, to himself as a shareholder. We have always been and are actuated by a sense of loyalty to government; we are actuated in the Combine by the same actual self-interest, which is the sum of all interests." "Political reform was only a sentiment, and so had no standing when it came to settling either the labor or the liquor question, both of which were clearly business matters, hence these had to be settled by purely business methods, and Com- bine is but an up-to-date name for business; a business systematized and intended to help all the people. The moment that we were awake and realized the fact that we were all Americans, alike competent, intelligent, calculating men, whether rich or poor, we placed every industrial matter on a commercial basis and asked ourselves the ques- tion, 'will this or that pay?' and when answered in the affirmative, our close Corporation, Combine as we now have it, was the logical result. Now we naturally place our confidence in dividends, Combine's method of distribution. The wonder is, Mr. System, that we ever dared bring children SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 155 into the world to live on wages which was but another name for charity, and charity is begging, and asking the lion, the hog, the brute in men, for the meek privilege to live just one more day. A beggar usually brought out the parsimony of the almoner. Every almoner inwardly wished that the object of his charity were dead. After all, it is a bit inhuman to leave the impression on a con- servative man's mind that because he was a little man, physically or mentally, perhaps both, that he was in debt to another big American for his keep; that he owed some big man physically, or big man financially, for board and clothes, and died in debt. 'Not much !' If a man is big men- tally or physically and does not do his best with his great abilities, he ought to be punished for not doing his best, rather than given some special privilege as a reward for do- ing his best. Is not that the proper ethical standing? That is what America stands for po- litically, and always has. Every man is expected to be a loyal citizen. If we had read 'equality' in the Declaration of Independence aright, we would long ago have understood it to mean indus- trial equality. That is what that flag up there 156 THE TRUST TRUSTED means to us now. Equality was a vague, unmean- ing word when one man had it all." "Trusts used to grow fat on 'special' privi- leges." "Yes, of course; but we ALL eat the trust food now as our regular diet, so does not the privilege cease to be a special? But even competing trusts were not a 'sure thing' because of a greater com- petitor. Now, in America, we have no competi- tion among ourselves. All competitors are on the outside of America and that does not concern us very much for our volunteer army that have a reputation for shooting straight, are standing guard and do actually keep the peace, which is comparatively easy to do, for America attends now to her own business; that is, does not meddle in outside affairs. Combine does not want any fighting because it does not pay to sustain armies and navies. We all own property now, all the people foot the bills, so all the army has to do is to simply to say 'Hands off ! let Americans alone !' which means that all industrial America is be- hind that 'Hands off.' So America never expects another war. We are a Combine of soldiers; we are one, in all our interests and there is not a nation but knows that we would fight for America SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 157 as we would for a mother. It is all in the family ! It is home! Our home! Hands off!" "Surely you still pay your soldiers wages?" "By no manner of means. Are they not Ameri- cans? Are not all Americans shareholders and entitled to dividends? Wages never were a suf- ficient incentive to a soldier; honor, patriotism, loyalty, glory, adventure, etc., go to make up an inducement and always will. "As to rank in the Combine, the intelligence, fitness, adaptation, of the shareholder fixes his rank in each and every instance; government es- teems every man equally, so does Combine. The hope of rising stimulates some, devotion to duty, others, but stimulants and tonics all fade into in- significance in the presence of something to eat, nourishment, self-preservation. This is the first law of nature." "Being an American soldier is a very different matter from what it was under Competition. Soldiers now have homes and families like all other Americans. They do not 'soldier,' that is, kill time; they drill to become efficient, and read- ily change into other departments as soon as they have learned the 'manual of arms,' so that all our men are now practically ready for the 'field.' But 158 THE TRUST TRUSTED the stability of America is her ability to keep the peace. Hands off is backed by the Combine be- hind it." "Sitting around your breakfast table and hear- ing you tell of these wonderful changes that the Combine Age has brought with it, is delightfully pleasant, Mr. Lazarus; but, Mrs. Lazarus, we must give the servants a chance; they must be hungry." "Ha! Ha! Mr. System, excuse me for laugh- ing, but let me remind you that Americans live in homes now, and the servant idea as you seem to understand it is a thing of the past." "Do you do your own work?" "Certainly; if I fully understand your question, we all do our own work, if work it may be called. Your name, 'system,' comes in to help us out. You see, each of us know what we can do best, and naturally turn to it as we do to our breakfast; we do not wish any one to eat our breakfast for us, do we? We can do it to our own satisfaction; no one else can do it just to our liking. We have something of that opinion regarding each our part of taking care of these dishes, and of each other, etc. We are all willing 'domestics' for we do just what we are adapted to doing and each think SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 159 we can do that better than any one else, and by each actively doing our part, none of us are over- worked." "But we have sat longer this morning, perhaps, and so have broken into your 'system'." "Do not be embarassed, Mr. System; our 'sys- tem' will bend a little; for example, only our time for recreation has been very properly spent this morning and just now brings us up to the school hour for James and Elsie, and baby seems ready for the lullaby of her mother." "And I will take the liberty to turn you loose, Mr. System, in our family library again. I run a lathe in the factory for four hours and it will be just eight by the time I get there. I always busy myself about 'home' afternoons, arid will be de- lighted to show you around. Trust me." "How could I help replying, 'trust me,' turned loose, no lock or bolts against me; go anywhere; steal anything if I wanted to steal. I paced up and down the library for a time. I felt like a tramp, enjoying this splendid hospitality without doing my fair share. I stepped out into the street- like road to look for a job. Yet what could I do 4 ? I had preached reform so long and lived off of collections, that I felt as though I was not 160 THE TRUST TRUSTED fit to run anything but a talking machine, and this reform variety of talking machine had gone out of date. As I walked along, I came to an elderly gentleman who kindly said 'trust me.' 'I will,' I said laughing, 'I want a job. I have just landed in America; I have some money, enough to pay my way, I suppose, but nobody seems to care for it.' " "Seeing that you have just landed you must necessarily be assigned, if you have no relatives or old friends to greet you." "I explained to him that I was a guest of Mr. Lazarus." "In that case," said he, "Mr. Lazarus will di- rect you just what to do." "I took the hint that going along the road and asking for a job was not the American way any more, so I kept my eyes open but said nothing more to those I passed about a job. Soon after twelve o'clock I rounded in, weary with my long walk and found that Mr. Lazarus had returned home, and that Mrs. Lazarus, who had dropped onto a secret that had always helped to keep peace in the family, had dinner ready. The conversa- tion turned upon her burden of household cares and the extra care that I was giving her, etc." SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 161 "Please take another view," she replied; "look at the pleasure it gives me and my husband and James and Elsie. Even baby sits more quietly to have you with us. I can wish you no greater pleasure than to have a home and family of your own, and this unusual privilege, that has never come to us before, of entertaining a foreigner, as all Americans have homes of their own. Then again, the actual labor of the home is nominal now. Thanks to the 'system' of the Combine, our industrial schools prepare much of our food, so that mothers have little to do but to select and season to suit the peculiar taste of her family and keep close watch of the clock." "In all my walking I have not noticed a hotel or restaurant." "What need. Our people all live in homes of their own." "But suppose I had not met you, Mr. Lazarus, what would I have done 4 ?" "Let me assure you that you would not have gone hungry or bedless; I proposed to assign you if you remember." "Yes, but to where?" "To our nearest industrial school, to be sure, whose business it is to care for strangers or any 162 THE TRUST TRUSTED and all until they can select a home regularly." 'Tree?' "No and yes. They never mention pay any more than the street car conductor. You would naturally soon learn the usual rates, and volun- tarily hand it to the proper clerk, unless you had become an American and received your memoran- dum card; then you keep your own account, or your guardian keeps it for you." "What am I to understand by industrial school?" "Simply schools where our girls are all taught to be expert cooks, housekeepers, in a word, compe- tent wives. Our industrial schools are not only adapted to teaching our young men and women what they ought to know industrially, but are fully self-supporting, and the accommodations are as luxurious as you will find at the best hotels of England." "Do all guests have the same attention?" "Certainly; why not?" "Are there no first, second and third-class?" "What need? They are all first-class; that is, the best they know how." "But poor people like myself cannot pay first- class, or even second-class for a long period of SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 163 "How much you give is left entirely with you. It is the school's only function to treat all the best they can, that is, as you say, first-class. To be sure, most immigrants have friends who meet them at the wharf and take them to their own homes and show them around just as we are trying to do you." "If I understand you, your four hours' shift was all that was found necessary per day in the lathe department of your factory. Does that mean that you have the remainder of the twenty- four hours for yourself?" "Yes, sir; rather for my family, and you are a part of my family while you are my guest." "Thank you; then can you show me around this afternoon 4 ? I want to make application for naturalization papers first and then I have many other points to ask you about." "Papa, can't we go, too?" "Mamma, what do you say about James and Elsie going with Mr. System and me to the court house*?" "I say it is all right. They have been wanting to go for some time, but we had no particular busi- 164 THE TRUST TRUSTED ness over there, so this is their time, if it will be agreeable to you, Mr. System." "More than agreeable; it will be a pleasure to me. They may ask Mr. Lazarus some questions that I would be ashamed to ask him, yet to which I would like to know the answers." ###*##### "Do not lose sight of your sister, James; and Elsie, remember that chatterbox I was reading to you about. Mr. System, I appoint you and Mr. Lazarus a special committee of safety." "Ha! Ha! you had better add the police force to that committee. That reminds me that I have not seen a policeman since I left the wharf." "What need? But we will talk of that on the "You observed, Mr. System, that you had not seen a policeman. We do have a few; not one to twenty of ten years ago. The reason is one self-interest but the manifestations are many. It is now to no one's self-interest financially to make or sell liquor, so we have no drunkenness. Sober men are not turbulent. Then we have no litigation over property; all productive property is now safe from quarrel, that is, all has been SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 165 placed voluntarily in Combine and birds of the same species never quarrel over their homes, do they? They are built each after our own fancy. No one wants our home here, because each has a home that suits better. Men now live with their families instead of in lodging houses and restau- rants. Nearly all men are married at marriage- able age and their associations are with wives and mothers, a society in which there is little or no quarreling. Men see now that there is an inten- tion to be fair ; among Americans this would com- pletely disarm both parties to any quarrel. Last but not least, when men feel relieved from worry over their daily bread, as Combine does so effect- ually relieve (no fear of poverty, have plenty to eat and wear) fret and worry are gone. We have full reliance in the sufficiency of cooperative pro- duction, and the systematic and equitable distri- bution of all that is produced, these, together with the confidence that every American has in the con- tinuation of the Combine Age, reduces the police force to a minimum. The little strife that we do have, is usually from a misunderstanding of the language of different nationalities, taking in- sult where none was intended, or jealousies over or about mates, and as there is no prestige in 166 THE TRUST TRUSTED marrying rich as there used to be, even this class of disputes is fading away. If the Combine fur- nishes home and abundance to every young couple at marriageable age, it is not worth while to fight over a superabundance, is it 1 ? Then the economy of Combine, our own intuition, puts every available man by his own volition, at what he can earn the most for the Combine, that is, for himself, so just enough policemen, are just enough. It doesn't pay to have more. "Then, again, the Board of Health are able to show that a fit of anger is unprofitable, as ex- hausting to the vital powers as a day's work. That nerve matter exhausted in the moments that a man is mad enough to fight is about equalled by the poison of alcohol that would keep him drunk all day; it don't pay the Combine for men to get mad or drunk, so now that Combine has placed everything pertaining to making a living on a financial basis, the police have lost their jobs and taken to some other far more agreeable to them and profitable to the Combine. "A common business interest is even more ef- ficient than even being placed on honor. Combine uses both to their full. It is surprising what help- ful things men will think out when it is to their SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 167 financial interest to help, to combine, and as shareholders, think, work with, rather than against, each other, and how suddenly the motive changes when placed 'in interest,' that is, com- bined together in the interest of all. Motive! Motive ! Motive ! ^******** "Well, here we are, in sight of the courthouse. Now, Mr. System, one of the questions you will be asked today is to give your first, second and third choice of an occupation, that is, what you would rather do than anything else. A man will usually earn more money for Combine (himself) doing what he feels he is best adapted to doing. You will be shown a long list of occupations; some mechanical, some professional, some scien- tific, some literary, some horticultural, some agri- cultural, etc." "Must I select permanently today?" "Oh no; not permanently, only the officials do not wish to list a saddle horse for the plow. Do- ing what you can, most surely and agreeably to yourself, that is, to make a clean living for your- self, answers the question." "I was a landscape gardener before I went to England, but the people became so greedy for 168 THE TRUST TRUSTED mammoth bank accounts that there was next to nothing doing in my line." "Beautifying the landscape is now one of the leading employments of the Combine. The true first, then the beautiful, then the good, is now the order. Thoughtfully, it is easier to be good if we have home and plenty." %*^***3i^$i "Well, you have passed, and got your first papers, and we are on our way home again. The landscape board of each school district, Mr. Sys- tem, meets every Monday afternoon at 3 o'clock at the close of the school, to block out work for the week. The cottagers meet with them, that they may act in concert in the beautifying of their own homes. You listed as a landscape gardener as first choice ; if efficient, you will be in a popular department. The hours are more in number than in some other employments that require more in- tense application. Six hours, I believe, four in the forenoon, and two in the afternoon. Many factories are run the whole twenty- four hours, but in relays of four hours each. General farming is still the most popular employment, notwith- standing the hours are double, four in the fore- noon and four in the afternoon, except Monday SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 169 it is only two in the afternoon. Sunday, of course, is still Bible day, and nobody pretends to do anything more than care for their stock and run excursion trains to pleasure grounds, church, etc. It is given to rest and recreation." "It has been in my mind to ask you what Com- bine management has done with theatres. Some of them were vile resorts, little better than dis- reputable dance halls ten years ago." "I will go over that ground with you after sup- per." ********* "In placing everything on the basis 'will it pay?' many of the theatres collapsed as suddenly as did the dance halls and houses of prostitution of which they were the feeders. They had flour- ished on account of their vileness, under Compe- tition, especially as money-making schemes, but the moment Combine waked the people up, their open eyes fell on the unprofitableness of impurity and they universally agreed that it did not 'pay,' that no one was quite the profit to the Combine, that is, to himself, that he would be if he were pure. Hence, any and everything that actually led or had a tendency to lead into impurity was immediately discontinued, and every inducement 170 THE TRUST TRUSTED to virtue was encouraged by the Board of Health. While it was a fundamental law that young men and women must wait until mature before they married, all knew that wealth or the want of a home would not bar them from wedlock ; all knew that they could marry as soon as mature. This in itself was some restraint. Also the realization that they were Americans and as shareholders in the Combine, each was individually interested financially, not only in his own health, but the health of the future generation, helped. You may smile at the feebleness of these barriers, but really, 'will it pay' in dollars and cents has had the effect that sentiment, however pious, failed to inspire. Consistency is said to be a jewel. Certain it is that industrial inconsistency of church and people prevented revival and competitive practices de- stroyed religious experience immediately. No man becoming a Christian could do business an hour competitively and retain full Christian in- tegrity. Christ laid down a reasonable principle, 'Do as you would be done by,' which competition ignored or tried to evade or apologize for, until cornered by the American Combine, which con- vinced the American people who had already obeyed this law only in regard to citizenship, that SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 171 they needed to go only a little further and adopt the same Combine Idea in industry to com- pletely obey His 'as ye would' law. We see now that the labor question never could have been settled, only by compliance to this law, and obe- dience to that law must have logically settled it and at once. So it did not require reform or evo- lution or a bloody revolution or even a com- promise (you give up so much and I will give in so much) disgustingly humiliating to everybody, but rather a brand new Combine, rivals becoming glad allies, a literal 'doing as each would be done by,' all becoming alike active shareholders in one Americanized Combine, with no more mental res- ervation than had hitherto existed in citizenship. This did settle, not only the labor question, but solved the whole industrial problem. We ought to have known aye, we did know that the very suspicion of industrial inequality was as fatal to industry as inequality in citizenship would have been. Taught by the familiar object lesson, seen in every combine, five men whose hearts beat as one financially, then five thousand shareholders. We said, 'Why not five million? Why not all the people?' No sooner asked than answered by all the people becoming loyal industrial allies as 172 THE TRUST TRUSTED well as loyal American citizens. So the demands of Combine, among other things, are that the theatres must be of such a character that the en- tire family may profitably attend, which means much to morals and religion as well as health." "Does not this high character displease the young people?" "No, on the contrary, social enjoyment was never equal under competition to what it is today under Combine. It is delightful, especially to the young people, to find that society has really got to where it systematically cares for the young, the people as a whole, enough to provide suitable theatres to enjoy with them, as religiously as it provides churches. The Board of Health, medical men wise in what is required by the child yet un- born, and at every epoch all along up until it ripens into old age, knows just what and how much levity, enjoyment, and fun goes to make up a life fully rounded out, producing the best phy- sical and most profitable manhood and woman- hood. "Mr. System, to enjoy this life and a home here, conduces to a preparation for a Heaven hereafter. The Combine theatres help to fill the Combine churches. They 'pay' both for time and SOCIETY IN THE COMBINE AGE 173 eternity. They are departments of the larger American homes. Ah, Mr. System, God did not create men just to have somebody to punish as man-made competition punished them. His Son was such a man as turned water into such wine, that children and women, even His mother, could drink without physical injury. His was a mission of salvation, to be sure, but He did not come to prohibit a proper love, or even fret it, by arti- ficial barriers; these barriers have been created by men, by building up differences of station, of wealth, of rank, etc. The Board of Health en- gages to put a theatre or a church where the health and happiness of the community require it, and that distinctly in answer to the question, 'Will it pay*? 5 Our people do not get too old or too re- ligious to enjoy our up-to-date theatres, or too in- different about the home beyond not to attend church to hear what may be said about it, and to try to be in readiness for it. The Board of Health teaches that longevity and strength of body and mind while the man does live, are valu- able assets of Combine and greatly enhance money values by relief from dread uncertainties. There is nothing like having a thing settled. Health and happiness depend much on it. Combine ac- 174 THE TRUST TRUSTED tually settles things, and by his system of co- operation in production of food, and his impar- tiality in the distribution of all that is produced, assures us all, every American, against poverty. Did any man ever get rich enough under compe- tition to be free from the unhealthy unrest and dread of poverty 4 ? Thanks to Combine, every man is rich enough now, and uniquely so, for the very reason that others all others are also rich enough, and so do not need or want to take the other man's property or home any more than a woman wants or needs two husbands; it takes only one home to satisfy, and one does satisfy. " 'Another thing,' said Mrs. Lazarus, 'do you notice that all our homes are built on or very near the public roads, as carefully so, as homes in the city used to be built and are still being built near the street, with an eye to blending the road decora- tions with the lawn and house decorations'? This our landscape gardeners are very particular about, and your choice of that occupation reminds me of words very popular now as prophetic of the Com- bine Age, by an old author, that I quote from memory : BE A FRIEND TO MAN " There were hermit souls that lived withdrawn, In the place of their self-content; There were souls like stars that dwelt apart In a fellowless firmament; There were pioneer souls that but blazed their paths Where highways never ran But let me live by the side of the road And be a friend to man. " 'Let me live in a house by the side of the road Where the race of men go by The men who are good and the men who are bad, As good and as bad as I. I would not sit in the scorner's seat, Or hurl the cynic's ban Let me live in a house by the side of the road And be a friend to man. " 'I see from my house by the side of the road, By the side of the highway of life, The men who press with the ardor of hope, The men who are faint with the strife, But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears, Both parts of an infinite plan Let me live in my house by the side of the road And be a friend to man.' " Sam Walter Foss. 175 CHAPTER X MORALS RELIGION POLITICS "The gratitude that filled my mind and heart after becoming an American, a shareholder, 'if you please,' in all the productive property around me, and that only because I am an American, one of the 'of, for and by the people/ "I knew that practically nothing had been given to me, only the tools with which to get the best living possible to civilization Christianized. Productive property, very properly so called, af- ter all was largely the tools by which men 'make a living.' Thoughtfully, it would have been strange if enlightened America had not thought out and adopted a fairer, a better financial way than for some making the living for all, and then, after it was made, the weary producer still com- pelled to also stand up and fight with financial athletes for a 'small share' of what he had toiled to produce, especially when everybody intuitively knew that every man was justly entitled to all he 176 t* Homes of the common people all different but tasteful MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 177 produced, but now to actually get it seemed too good to be true." "It seems, Mrs. Lazarus, that we are going Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes one better, and establish- ing an Autocracy of the supper table." "As we stepped into the library, Mr. Lazarus said : 'Let me hand you a book to read, Mr. Sys- tem, least you weary of my 'much speech,' as I sometimes think some may have wearied with Dr. Holmes." "As I sat and read a beautiful story, beautiful in part by the fact that it reflected no overbear- ing affluence of wealth in contrast with biting poverty, of a favored few rich, or bigots, in con- trast with the coarseness of the despised, defeated, despoiled, humiliated masses. The trend of the novel showed no insinuation of the aristocrat over the plebeian, or the uneasiness of the rich man to day lest he should become poor tomorrow; a de- lightful romance of undisturbed love and con- tentment, as virtuous as it was confident, a pen- picture of the Combine Age." * * * * * * * "Well, Mr. System, you have had a long day today." 178 THE TRUST TRUSTED "Yes, sir; but the ride was a pleasant one, and the meeting with the General Superintendent of Public Highways was most cordial." "Was his department in need of help?" "Yes and no; he said that a Mr. Hart of road district number 204 had requested a transfer to a mountain district, at the suggestion of the Board of Health, and his place would be vacant after the first of next month, and that after working with the committee of experts for the usual ten days and receiving their voucher of efficiency in the landscape department, he would gladly ap- point me to fill Mr. Hart's place; so he gave me a letter to the committee and I report to them tomorrow." "That will also be some distance away." "Yes, but it only lasts the ten days of exami- nation and then, if accepted, I will naturally live in district 204, near my work." "That will necessitate that the house building department build you a house of your own." "Yes, but before I venture on so important a matter as that I must first have my wife with me to do the planning, to select the location, etc. MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 179 Until such a time, Mr. Lazarus, I would be glad to make my home with you." "Certainly." "Certainly, and I would be delighted to enter- tain Mrs. System; and we women, when your wife comes, will find much of interest to talk about for the two months required by the building depart- ment to complete a new cottage for her." "Thank you; as soon as I am permanently lo- cated in this or some other job, I must send for my wife. Ha ! Ha ! She will be as much surprised at my telling her what I have actually found the facts here in America to really be, now under Combine, as I have been. It will be to her, no doubt, like it has been to me; an invitation up higher, when I only expected the low seat of the missionary (and she of being perhaps soon, too, a missionary's widow), to really find a home of our own, one of the luxurious comfort, that I see on every hand and so much enjoyed by everybody. Do you know, Mr. Lazarus, that as I look out on these delicious environments I have a feeling that I had as a child, before I had been compelled to learn the appalling lessons of selfishness, the sel- fishness taught by Competition, the unchristian 'every fellow for himself,' 'take the best for your- 180 THE TRUST TRUSTED self,' drilled into children from their very youth up, until it had become the gross habit of a greedy life. This habit, this vicious education, this cheating and selfishness changed to that of in- dustrial self-interest, as seen in these surroundings, I say my childhood feeling returns to me again, when nothing was completely good until I had shared it with my mother, now with my wife." "Truth, truth, every word truth; competition had so educated us to be selfish that our conscience became seared and we could cheat, cheat our enemy; cheat our neighbor; cheat our friend; cheat mother; until we became disgusted with our very own cheating habit, educated meanness, it was, and so universal had the disgust become that in the fullness of time five men agreed between themselves that so far as they were concerned they would quit cheating each other, and so they pledged each the other by an act of legal incor- poration, and these five rivals at once became allies, and this very act set the pace for all America. That act has solved the industrial prob- lem and you see the result all around you in these beautiful homes, in these smiling faces and the cheerful heartfelt expressions you hear from every one, as we pass : Trust me,' and we can and do." MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 181 "I want to ask you, Mr. Lazarus, Has Combine cured that dreadful malady, 'panics, 5 that de- stroyed the financial hopes of millions of people^ If it has not, its work is not yet complete. Panics kept us always in dread; when it was not on, we, rich or poor alike, stood guard, never knowing when it would come and devour us." "I am glad to assure you that a 'panic' is im- possible in the Combine Age. It was a feature of Competition. You well said that under compe- tition nearly all lived in an anxious state of un- rest, as of some impending doom; the panic was doom itself. 'Nobody could trust anybody' dur- ing a panic. How very different now ; 'Trust me' is not only our salutation on our lips, but it is in our hearts; we mean it; 'trust' is financial busi- ness brought up to date. Competition had no ele- ment of trust in it, it had no financial 'system' in it, no guiding hand; so, occasionally, some men who had money or could get money, got all they could and locked it up to protect themselves. We could not always blame them; they had, or sup- posed they had, a reason to fear financial disaster. Each man stood alone financially, but now America is a unit; we all stand together. It's the duty of our secretary of finance to attend to the 182 THE TRUST TRUSTED monetary part of the system. We can trust him; he is not only responsible, but he is part of the concern and his individual self-interest is wrapped up in making money supply just what it ought to be. He is competent, but has nothing to fear be- cause every American is behind him. The self- interest of every shareholder sustains him. He represents Combine, who holds the helm, and with the grip of a self-interested giant who provides for himself by providing for all the shareholders. Confidence'? Yes, the confidence that a man has in himself, who is conscious of the fact that he is complete master of the situation. I repeat, a panic is hereafter as impossible as suicide." * * * * * jf{ s|c "That I may the better understand in the out- set all that is to be expected of me, industrially, morally and religiously, will you go over the re- quirements of a loyal American, as it appears to you?" "Well, in the first place, I would modestly sug- gest, be perfectly natural ; do not pretend to know more than you do; everything comes perfectly easy to the man who is not artificial, who does not c put on' ; neither is the presumptive or pretentious man, that is a man 'ill at ease,' a profitable man MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 183 to the Combine (that is, to himself). He is less strong, less patient and less healthy than the man who is at ease, onto his job. Of course, every man is justified in bringing himself up to par value for the Combine (that is, for himself), and if that calls a man to be general superintendent, fore- man, or in the ranks, he honors himself, he honors the Combine, who needs men for every station. Be sure to be natural, just yourself, that's all; then one place will be as creditable to you as an- other. I run a lathe ; I can run it with the greatest ease and profit to the Combine, that is, to myself. I am not so well qualified to do anything else. The Combine is satisfied, I am satisfied, hence my life is a continual round of pleasure to me, for I am conscious that I am filling my individual niche full (under competition no American knew whether he was doing his whole duty or not). I am not seeking promotion; I am promoted, for I am already placed by natural selection where I be- long, and that is promotion ; and if in the trend of events Combine should offer me another job, I would not consider it in the sense of a promotion, and would accept it, if at all, only on the grounds that I would be more profitable to the Combine (that is, to myself) there than here." 184 THE TRUST TRUSTED "Second, be moral, and you will find it easier to be moral with a home and family of your own and a job assured to you in the support of that home than if you feared every man you met wanted to cheat you and you him. Any man can be of more profit to the Combine (i. e., to himself) who is a moral man." "Third, be religious. It is all right to be in- dustrious; it is all right to be moral; but there is a peculiar contentment that comes with what Paul calls 'Godliness,' that comes to the man who is religious, for, after all, suppose there is no Heaven that may be obtained or no Hell that may be shunned, is the delusion (if you have ever called it a delusion) of the religious man any det- riment to him or to society? Now, on the other hand, suppose the Bible is true, and that there really is a Heaven, and you have made no prepar- ation for it until it is too late, is there any way of computing your loss? If there is a way of safety pointed out, is it not wise and restful to walk in that way, to be safe? I repeat, as in the case of the moral man, that any man can be of more profit to the Combine (that is, to himself) who feels safe, a religious man. 'Godliness' with content- ment is great gain to the man to Combine. There MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 185 is a desirable comfort in taking God at His word, which is wholesome to both body and soul. Fur- thermore, Americans have a special reason for gratitude to the God of the Bible, for our institu- tions are founded on the Book and Combine is one of these institutions, the legitimate sequence of the Corporation Act. It was His son who gave this industrial law upon which American industry is now built: 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them' ; this now is the law between shareholders, yet we were a long time in getting to it. You will find, Mr. System, that it is many times easier to be consist- ent, to be religious, with a job assured, and a home of your very own to live in (how could a churchman be consistent and compete? Not at all). Your home will be a reminder, an emblem to you of a home in Heaven. Then, again, you have now in the Combine Age, plenty of time to think and prepare, as your soul leads you to pre- pare for a Heaven; also to picture to yourself, if there be a God, what line of conduct would be the most pleasing to Him. The carking care of a competitive life heretofore left little time, and frequently less disposition, to think or care even whether there be any God, or if there were, whether 186 THE TRUST TRUSTED He cared for you. Americans, obeying now this, His industrial law, makes us kin to Him, opens up a way to Him, and we the more readily turn to His Divine law, of love for Him, and love for our brother. So, brotherly love is all right in its place, but, as you see, love is not adapted to 'making a living'; we must needs not only separate these things properly, but take them in their proper or- der. Paul has it straight: he says to the Corin- thians (15:46), 'Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after- wards that which is spiritual? 7 Salvation could not, did not, make a living. Until Combine came, we had been reversing this order and preach- ing love to God, brotherly love as first, and that as a way to obtain the industrial fairness of the 'as ye would' law, the fairness found in the Golden Rule; whereas, industrial fairness, the natural first law of nature, i. e., self-preservation, the real life^ and the getting something to live on, to continue that life, logically, came first in order, that settled, as Combine settles it, then love, logi- cally came afterward, if at all. Industrial Com- bine now makes brotherly love possible. It was impossible while you knew your brother, so-called, carried a concealed competition knife." MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 187 "I came to America as a reformer, Mr. Lazarus, but am happy to acknowledge my- self, no, not reformed, but rather industrially converted. I see that Combine is not a Reform, but Combine converts, gets us going in an opposite direction. I have always know intu- itively, that competition was an iniquity, and the Bible (that Book competitors were afraid to do with, or do without), is very personal and says, 'If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.' I can see that this meant and applied to all who compete, for no man could get inside a church and be immune from competition, or stay out and blatantly ignore or neglect the teachings of that 'as ye would law' or bluff his way into God's Heaven. We each of us, saint so-called, or sinner so-called, have too fine an instinct regard- ing the right of a business transaction, or the wrong of getting a living by the sweat of another man's brow, rather than our own, or taking any- thing without giving a satisfactory equivalent, an equivalent not to the man only, but to our own sense of honor and industrial fairness. "All intuitively know that Competition is im- moral, irreligious, and industrially wrong, aye the very instinct of selfishness. I had, like almost every- 188 THE TRUST TRUSTED body, been content to excuse myself by saying I can't help it; I must take the best in a trade; all must compete; we can't help it, etc. I still see that it could not have been helped either, outside of industrial combination of all the people, unless a man lived a hermit life. I also saw that men could have combined, and in proof of this fact many had combined, and that by simply going on and making the Combine large enough it would inspire the implicit confidence of all men, that is, all Americans, giving ample protection, guaran- teeing or giving complete assurance to the people as a whole. Then, and not till then, could we 'trust,' but with your Combine, aye, 'our Com- bine, if you please, as a basis to build upon, it be- ing as broad as this great American domain, we could have, and I am glad to find that America does now have, in it the completest confidence, and I hear the echo, 'trust,' industrial 'trust,' from every hillside, and feel it in my very soul." "Yes, Christian consistency is now possible to the American church; it was impossible under competition, Mr. System, and compunction of conscience from business inconsistency, that no American knew how to avoid, almost drove vital piety out of the American church, Catholic or MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 189 Protestant, especially after we became aware that there was a way to live without taking the best in a trade, without fighting, without competing. The way of the Combine enables all to actually quit cheating, that is the only way to be sure not to be cheated. We now have opened up a straight path to the heart of our Heavenly Father, by being industrially fair to each other, fair to the man, whom He made in His own image. 'We are fair to Him. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done unto Me/ Math. 25 140. "I have not had time yet to look in upon what Combine has done for the education of the chil- dren; I have only noticed that they are univer- sally well dressed and uniformly polite. I must conclude from their ladylike and gentlemanly bearing that they are well 'brought up.' These accomplishments that I see do not come without careful training and devout care upon the part of some one." "Yes, this that you see and hear is the sequence, not so much of education as it is from the equality of opportunity for education. Under competition even the children ranked according to the wealth of their parents; educated, yes, some of them, at 190 THE TRUST TRUSTED great expense, too, but the education frequently amounted to a dissipation of learning, producing a recklessness of behavior, that of a spoiled child ; a feeling, aye, a saying by both word and action, 'My father is worth ten times as much as your father; he can send me to college; I am not going to work, not, I,' etc. Competition cultivated the vanity of the human animal. Lust needs no edu- cating. Combine educates, not in the same branches, but really educates all, and at points where education is needed. It does not pay to be frivolous. "Combine was inaugurated by an act of legis- lation, positive in its character. The 'Corporation Act' was inaugurated by real statesmen, men, manly men. Yet, this act had been battered at for an age by children, legislating 'acts negative in character' to cripple Combine, to find and try to destroy the secret of its great power, but to lit- tle or no avail. They hindered it, of course, until an age of wiser men came, saw, and said, the fault is not in the 'Corporation Act' at all, but in not extending it to all the people ; in not Americaniz- ing it, making it American, i. e., 'of, for and by all the people.' Laborers 'waked up,' capitalists 'waked up,' and to find that their interests were MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 191 identically the same, and that the 'Corporation Act' not only led the 'way out,' but it would set- tle the Labor question completely, and with it, all kindred questions, and in such a way that they would forever stay settled. Laborers and capital- ists came together, and adopted Combine in the interest of aye to the industrial salvation of all the people. Now Combine really and systemati- cally can educate properly, not only the mind, but the whole human animal, and the principal indus- try of America is now 'making men,' gentlemen, gentlewomen. We begin earlier in the life, design better, and continue later, and we are eliminating the brutish, and building character. Character humane, based on that same solid foundation, laid in that eternal principle of right, enacted by our fathers, the founders of the 'Corporation Act,' which act means equality, both political and in- dustrial. Equality means American dividends, shareholders, allies; no longer industrial hatred and rivalry, but combine of, for and by all the people. We learn that Combine is to all intents and purposes a financial investment ', not designed in itself to appeal to their pity, sympathy, mor- ality or religion. Men may not have any of these attributes to appeal to, but they must have some- 192 THE TRUST TRUSTED thing to eat a living so Combine does appeal to their stomachs, first satisfying that^ then pro- ceeds to moralize and Christianize. Combine does not crowd a sentiment upon man, but it demands a hearing, first, as a business fact, that must be answered today by three square meals. Evolution or revolution, or reform, or the sweet by and by cannot satisfy the hunger of man or child who needs three square meals every day and can get but one. But now, with a full stomach and a full larder, an assurance of plenty settled for tomor- row, for all time, then are they competent to serve God and man, to bless and be a blessing. No way was ever found to completely meet these re- turning wants of the human body until it was met ten years ago by the Combine of all the people. Having such a basis for ourselves and our chil- dren, we can and do more certainly 'go on to per- fection, 5 morally, religiously, physically, educat- ing our children both body and soul, for time and eternity. The principle of inclusion of combine in- stead of the exclusion of competition come in here. It costs but little more, aye, it may be less to give all a higher education than the few. The princi- ple which makes all operation on a large scale pro- MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 193 portionately cheaper holds to education also, our whole 'system' is a school now, when do as you would be done by' is given with the mother's milk. Being fed upon it, it becomes part of our nature and our little children wonder when told that it was not always taught. No single thing, Mr. System, is so important to every American as to have for neighbors those highly educated, these are as much conditions of a happy life as the air we breathe. A man cannot be satisfied if he has to mingle in a malodorous crowd by simply per- fuming himself. The coming generation will have better educated parents to teach them. For, after all, the poison of competition will have to be bred out and the 'as ye would law' of Christ and of Combine bred in. The labor that Compe- tition laid upon children and required of mothers enfeebled the very spring of life, the carking care for self and family crushed both child and mother mentally as well as physically. Combine comes to the rescue of both and bid them cheer up, a livelihood is assured. The strain of a ceaseless battle for bread is passed over to Combine now and he bears it as a feather's weight and lets the mother and the child go free. This is why all our 194 THE TRUST TRUSTED young people can look you in the eye instead of downcast at their clothes and poverty. * * * * * jjc * "Mr. Lazarus, will you explain again to me how Combine really got possession of all property so easily. Has he paid for it yet? In a word, how did he settle with original owners?" "Perhaps I can make it still plainer to you by following up the illustrative fact. Five men, not necessarily friends, not necessarily good men, or temperate, or moral, religious, but just men, who eat) that's all ; these men had got only far enough to discover that Combines somehow could succeed against any and every opposition that shareholders could work for, but positively could not work against each other in Combine. They at first ob- jected to the peculiar sacredness implied in the Corporate pledge, but they looked again and saw that the pledge was the vital part, the life of it, that is, if it pledged me to help you, it also pledged you to help me, it bound coming and go- ing, and, like marriage, it had no time limit and no provision for divorce. So you see that the Combine incorporated was in itself a fortune al- ready made a thing of value in itself, of actual intrinsic value, a financial investment, one that MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 195 any American, no matter how poor he was, could make. This fact not only gives it the character of an investment, but a safe investment. It also was possessed of life business life things can't own, government can't own, brutes can't own, man only is competent to own, to sue and be sued. Combine, by the genius of its construction, is individual ownership, that is it enabled men to own as individuals and yet operate as a whole body of shareholders, so that no original owner ceased to actually own; all the property he owned before, but it confidently placed all his property where it would more surely make him and his a luxurious living, that is, in a Combine of, for and by all the people, nothing could possibly be safer." "Upon full investigation and conference of now self-interested and earnest men, intent on finding an honorable way out, plans and specifica- tions were thought out by experts and an agree- ment finally entered into by which all productive property should be merged into one combine, placed under one management, pledged by the vow of the Corporation Act. When all Ameri- cans were so pledged, legally bound, this Combine was then as fully competent as any one individual 196 THE TRUST TRUSTED to transact business, to agree with original owners as to values, prices of property, and to pay for it with its own funds. I mention incidentally that it has already paid, with the exception that there are yet some 10-30 2 per cent bonds unpaid, and they only because they have not been presented for payment. Such bonds are at the option of the holder for thirty years, so the people have bought and practically paid for and now, in less than ten years, actually own, as individuals, all property, by and through the medium of the Combine. This way had been known to Standard Oil, railroad trusts and other legal corporations for years be- fore and was the secret of their success, they could not fail to succeed. Then came a sameness of in- dustrial interest, a feeling of oneness, like that ex- ists between man and wife. This confidence took possession of all Americans, the feeling, if you please (as I can have no higher figures to liken it) that takes hold of a man when he enters into the realization, 'Why, yes, I am part of the concern; I am a bonafide shareholder in this combine/ Every man I meet may not be my brother to love, but in whatever light I may esteem him, or he may esteem me, he is financially bound to do just the right thing for me, and I for him. This, Mr. Sys- MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 197 tern, is American self-preservation, which is the first law of nature, and we do it in obedience to that law only. Business matters are always re- sponsive only to business methods. "Has Combine had any effect on lessening di- vorce? You have mentioned the fact that 'the barriers had been burned away' that prevented marriages, and the fact that adults were almost universally married and living in homes of their own planning. Do their attractions for each other remain constant 4 ?" "There is not one divorce to where there used to be a hundred. When a young couple engage themselves to each other as mates, they seldom make a mistake, i. e., if every consideration except Love is eliminated. For example, when there is a sufficient bank account on both sides to look at and trust in, as Combine guarantees to all, whether married or single, and no such thing as salaries, always temporary at best, to fade into thin air in a day, a wage today and a strike to- morrow, but, rather, instead of one being rich and another poor, they meet as financial equals; neither are dependent upon the other for financial support. Combine in itself, remember, is a finan- cial investment and is a support to every 198 THE TRUST TRUSTED woman, married or single, and wholly because she is an American woman, a shareholder. Thus, she is not humiliated by looking up to some lord (who may or may not be observ- ant) for a new hat or a square meal, any more than he is to look to her for food and clothes. Again, if one were dependent on another for the necessaries of life, he or she would have an un- warrantable control over the life of that other besides 'making a living' is an affair of the stom- ach, not of the heart. Love was not designed to supply food and raiment, and it does not; that is not the office of Love. If getting a living were an affair of the heart, then hate could end exist- ence by withholding supplies. Neither can we trust the continuation of our lives; with society it may disband, so may a political government. This fact was one of the fatalities of So- cialism. No. Mr. System, our life is too pre- cious to us to trust it to anything or to anybody except our individual self. It is self-preservation, and Combine enables women to depend on them- selves and they do not have to compromise for bread. Self-preservation always was and ever will be the first law of nature, and if every argu- ment I have heretofore mentioned, or that you MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 199 can think of in favor of Combine were all waived, this one fact, standing alone, would have justified its immediate adoption, namely, that no adult man or woman will hereafter depend on another man or woman for a living. It is in the genius of Combine that every individual is enabled by it to depend on himself or herself for a living; each are individual shareholders now, and in a Com- bine of magnitude sufficient to guarantee divi- dends to every one as an individual shareholder, that is, to every citizen a 'living.' Combine is not a husband, not a wife, not society, not govern- ment, but it is self; individuals, co-operating with others, not only to 'make a living/ but for the specific purpose of thereby making a good, a bet- ter, aye, the very best living that associated hu- man ingenuity can devise, and in complete con- formity with, and obedience to the 'as ye would' law of that one who knew, and said 'DO unto others' as Combine does. Hence neither sex marry for financial inducements, that is, to be supported, neither to act as beasts of burden for the other, but for love, and love matches stick, and will ever stand by the contract. It would indeed be a mean man that would desert the mother of his children to marry another woman, and no woman for very 200 THE TRUST TRUSTED shame would desert the father of her children to marry another man. Compunction of conscience would bring shudders as he or she thought of that wife, of that husband once loved. Then what of the children, with a feeling that they are liable to be held off at arm's length, as next door to being illegitimate? Can such husbands, such wives, such unfortunate children feel to be even good citizens, comfortable associates, men or women above suspicion, and withal they or their down- faced children as profitable to the Combine, whose every business interests lie in each shareholder be- ing at his or her best, able to do his or her full part in support of the Great American Corporation? Aye, Mr. System, if there had been any other pos- sible way of settling the whole industrial problem than the 'as ye would way,' surely this way, the Combine way, the business way, is the best way. It is a humane way. It is a clean, wholesome way. Aye, it's God's way. "I don't know what God would have done with us, if He had made us machines and to run us as we do machines. Sufficient to say that we, in- stead of being machines, are free moral agents we can accept or reject even the 'as ye would law,' as competitors always did. We are responsible MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 201 for our own industrial behavior. He, knowing all things, kindly told us eighteen hundred years ago just how to manage our finances in order to suc- ceed. 'Do as you would be done by,' this applied, of course, to saint or sinner, converted or uncon- verted, to every one who eats, hence as Combine is composed of eaters, then why not settle bodily nourishment on the Christ basis, then the God ele- ment in man can unfold naturally, unfold as a rose well watered and in the sunshine. This un- folding is apparent, and we now firmly believe, because of adjusting ourselves fully to God's or- der, self-preservation before salvation. That is, the achievement and perpetuation of natural life as a basis, before spiritual life, industrial equity before brotherly love, home before the state. Mr. System, what a mockery it was to soldiers in the olden days before Combine, for them to say or think that they were fighting for a home, when they had none to fight for, and thousands of them, under competition, never could get a home, a house of their very own, under that American flag that they so loyally followed. Property was then nearly all in the possession of the few, which needed only so much of it as they could eat to- day, that is, if this abundance were coupled to- 202 THE TRUST TRUSTED gether with the complete assurance (that only Combine could give) of an abundance tomorrow. You know, Mr. System, and every American knew that competition had always tried to reverse God's industrial order and plans, and politics and religion had unwittingly been dominated by competition, the cheating habit, until finally the Combine Idea won the heads and the hearts of the American people by its innate excellence and invincible at- tractiveness. All this is germane to the peaceable continuity of the marriage state, where divorce is undesirable. No man or woman is or can be 'pov- ery stricken' who is now an American, a bonafide shareholder in the American Combine, and every man or woman is a shareholder by virtue of the fact that he or she is an American. As our up-to- date editors have traced back the statistics, they have found that poverty, directly or indi- rectly, was the cause of ninety-nine hundredths of the divorces. Poverty, real or prospective pov- erty, or the fear of it, tended to blunt, aye, to de- stroy the tender ties that bound husband and wife. The hope of a home long deferred made the heart sick' of married life, and the loss of the home and property frequently embittered aye, changed love to hate, and begot cruelty, which severed the MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 203 marriage tie, frequently long before the courts, so that the action of courts was a mere formality. "Children are not only entitled to be well born, but they are entitled to home, with all home can be made to mean. Look at the crimson blush on the face of a child, young or old, whose parents were divorced, disgusted at the mere mention of home or parents. The passing away of Compe- tition and the advent of the Combine Age has already reduced divorce, but the Board of Health are now considering a physical examination as well as the compatibility of mental temperament, before granting a marriage license, on the hypoth- esis that unborn children have something to say (?) about who their parents shall be, also that the Combine itself has a financial interest far greater than the breeding of stock, in the human animal, than to permit a marriage on a mere tran- sient whim, all this to precede a marriage license, and then when once married, no divorce, except for adultery, and adultery punishable by exclu- sion from society of the guilty one. Divorce carries with it a too far-reaching disgrace for any ordinary punishment. "Divorce laughed at political, moral, or re- ligious restraint, all because equality stopped at 204 THE TRUST TRUSTED political equality and was not carried on into in- dustrial equality. "Here is the gist of the whole matter: America had lived a century and a quarter, and she had failed to fulfill her promise. Tree and equal' had inspired her people to political endeavor; they had gained political equality. That flag still protects all, all alike against a foreign foe. So far, so good; but America stopped at political equality. The domestic foe, competition, was rather en- couraged by calling it free. This foe had waxed first bold, then haughty, finally impudent, until the people 'waked up' to find that a moneyed monarch had set up a throne and graft so com- mon that it became popular. We had to all in- tents and purposes, a king, not in a person, but 'a frenzy to gain,' no matter how. A tyrant, called Competition, had usurped the throne and had be- come a thousand fold more oppressive and un- merciful than the King of England had ever been. Taxation without representation of a paltry two cents on the hundred dollars was shamed into in- significance by this Competitor, who ruthlessly claimed the right to take it all. I speak of the principle, Mr. System, not of any one man. The hidden motive in Competition, whose intent was Every family will build as they choose in the Combine age, as reasonably as Americans vote as they choose. MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 205 to get rich, no matter if it did reduce every other man to charity. There were weak, whining sy- cophants then that said, 'this can't be helped, it's a man's personal liberty; we can't Combine, it's in our natures to compete. 'Free competition,' came down from Jupiter and can't be spoken against; great is Diana of the Ephesians, Ameri- ca's Idol, 'free' (?) competition. "The subject still mounts. The end is not yet. The beauties of the Combine Age are just be- ginning to unfold. As we meditate on what all the people may expect from obedience to that 'as ye would law' which America started out in 1776 and in good faith to obey in every way, and went so far as the establishing of a government of, for and by the people, and then stopped, fell down, not realizing that government was only a shell, an armor of protection, while the great heart of 'equality' that the old Declaration so pointedly referred to, which was real equality, was only to be actually found after all, in our industrial deal- ings of, by and for each other. Competition was the 'not' doing it, Combine was the doing it, and divorce is one of the sad effects of Competition. Combine removes the cause, hence the effect must cease. 206 THE TRUST TRUSTED "I have good news tonight, Mrs. Lazarus; the general superintendent, being satisfied with my work during the last ten days, has appointed me overseer of Road, District No. 204, in the place of Mr. Hart, who joyfully took the afternoon scenic train for the mountains." "I can see in all this, Mr. System, that both of you are to be congratulated. This evidence shows you the beauty of the Americanized Com- bine, which can, and so uniquely does, put every American in his or her proper place industrially. One of your words caught my attention 'joy- fully. 5 It goes to substantiate the observation that consumption is the 'hopeful disease.' All of these consumptives (though others know them to be confirmed invalids) are hopeful to the very last, expect to get well. Thanks to Combine, though it cannot cure it, it does give these, in fact every American, not only a chance for his life, but the best chance. "You speak of the disease, Mr. System, what does the Board of Health say about it*? Do they say that they can cure consumption, as they did ten years ago*? "Oh, no. Medical men do not have to lie to their patients any more in order to accumulate a doctor's bill; it's all in the Combine now. It's MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 207 how I would like to be treated if I had consump- tion. The life of one American is worth as much as the life of another now, on the same basis that the vote of one American counts for as much as another. The Medical Board does not hesitate to say, however, that if children predisposed to con- sumption are reared in the right environments of climate, etc., that they can live and act well their part through a long life. Weak people, either physically or mentally, never had a fair chance under Competition. Existence was always a struggle then, in which the weaker must perish, 'down and out.' "Ha, ha! it would seem that your good news has taken us in a peculiar direction; but it is all because we now have time, ability and disposition to care for our neighbor, Mr. Hart, though he was neglected in his childhood, having then no medi- cal board to care whether he lived or died, and parents who, no matter how much they loved him, were unable to, and could not, give him a chance, much less the best chance, as Elsie and Jamie here now have. It is the standing wonder what the simple change of motive to help one another (as shareholders in Combine naturally do) has actually wrought out in the last five years; also what it makes possible for all ages to come. In 1907 a picture that helped to hasten Combine 208 THE TRUST TRUSTED went the round of all the dailies of that time. It showed in panorama a closed auditorium filled with mothers and children some of the children in arms, some leaning on the mothers' knees, some standing dependently behind. You could almost hear a voice as you read over the picture 'Let the mothers out'; and as you listened for reply your eye fell to the bottom and you read, 'We will not go out and leave our children in thral- dom.' What was to be done*? Something worth while had to be done, and a companion picture showed what must be done. It showed the hand of Combine, with the grip of a giant, not on the women and children, mind you, but on the door, lifting it from its hinges, Samson like, letting through a glimpse of the 'Combine age,' and the eager mothers fairly carrying whole families out into it. One did not need to be told that these mothers had taken refuge preferably in this prison, away from savage competition, which was waging relentless war, as bitter as hell, on the outside of the prison walls. Some said salvation from sin would stop the cruel war and open the door; but no. Religious people had to eat (*?), and it was up to them to compete like a common sinner, or to die, to starve, and still leave posterity to the MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 209 pains of poverty. 'Salvation was not the way/ others cried, party prohibition. This proved just enough of a delusion to be a snare. 'Prohi- bition was not the way.' Others went wild over labor unionism a class fight, ( ?) a fight to stop a fight. (?) We ought to have known better. When could such a war end? The refrain came back never ! 'Labor unionism was not the way.' "Mr. Lazarus always takes great delight in talking about that picture. He claims it brought him a wife as well as a fortune, and often says to James and Elsie when he shows them the picture, 'You are not prisoners, as children used to be in the "pen" of free ( ?) Competition.' I have been waiting to say, Mr. System, that I have a world worth living in, to show Mrs. System when she gets here; and especially gratifying to me is the part the 'American Woman' (not the fabled 'New Woman,' but well, for want of a higher name, just 'Woman') took in bringing it about. She intuitively saw in Combine the full assurance of home, and plenty to eat for the family, and, too, that the food came 'fair and square' and without a fight. These facts were enough. Morals, re- ligion, politics, were all well enough in their order; that is, after plenty of bread and butter. 210 THE TRUST TRUSTED Self-preservation being the first law of nature, so the American Woman put on her most winning ways to get her husband, father, sons, to quit fighting and combine. We planned little suppers, and after supper, when all were in a good humor, some bright girl or woman would read a paper on the good qualities of Combine and show that Combine was not some great, hideous octopus, but would be a truly good Samaritan to us, mothers especially, who had literally fell in among com- petitive thieves, who had literally stripped us and our children, leaving us wounded, half dead from poverty or the fear of it; and how that a moun- tain of property was sometimes swept away in a night, that vast property under Competition was frequently no protection at all to posterity. Then we would ask the men present to dispute it if they could. Of course they could not. Then we would kindly ask what they were 'going to do about it. 5 We would suggest what we thought was the only thing to do. So, little by little, we won them away from fight to a peaceable way, to Combine, of, for and by all Americans. "Many would hoot at the word 'Equality,' as though it meant a 'dead level.' We had to ex- plain, time and again, that the Americanized MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 211 Combine would have just an opposite effect; that under Competition we had been all equally poor, or afraid we would be, and to be poverty-stricken was equality, but of the worst sort; while, if the 'grub' question was once and for all settled, and every American had a separate and individual home of his or her own in which to develop indi- viduality, then and not till then could mankind become distinctively personal get away from the 'dead level' that poverty exacted. "We established schools to educate the children of any age or size, to answer all questions, and make the dark places light, and the obscure plain, and the hard places easy; for the 'American way' does not admit compulsion. We cannot go any faster than we can persuade the people to go with us. It did seem incredible to many for a money- less man or woman to get into a corporation, espe- cially on an equal basis with others. We showed how that it was all accomplished by the provisions of this great corporation. Prospective share- holders always and naturally had the privilege of making the provisions of their own corporation. So had we. The great corporation was like others in most points. It provided distinctively that all Americans must be shareholders because they 212 THE TRUST TRUSTED were Americans, not because they were rich or wise, or good, and, like the Declaration of Inde- pendence in another point, that is, it took effect by a proclamation, at a definite time, from and after which there was no such thing as Competition. Combine became the NEW ORDER, as definitely as this country became a republic instead of a mon- archy, from and after July 4, 1776. Another one of the special provisions of the new corpora- tion was that a share of stock was set at a low price, to make it seem plain and easily compre- hensive. Still another provision was, every American must have one share, no more, no less. They began equal, and self-interest kept them equal shareholders, as it had kept them equal citi- zens. Equality is the provision that made this Combine above all others distinctly American. Small corporations had had some one or all other provisions of the Great Corporation, except this one; that is, the Great Corporation, like the Declaration of Independence, included all Ameri- cans and all productive property in its provisions. No loyal Americans could be left out of the cor- poration any more than that a loyal American could be left out of the protection of the flag. MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 213 "As we women began to unfold Combine in our little after-supper essays and informal talks, the whole matter showed up to all of us to be rather inherent; that is, part and parcel of the American idea, FREE EQUAL. Combine was the true way for poor men to become wealthy in America, as well as the only way for rich men to keep their wealth. "They used to tell us that we were dreaming of perfection. We would ask if Stanard Oil, United Railroads, the beef trust, were a dream, or were the personnel of these corporations perfect, an- gelic spirits. Then if these trusts were a reality, and the personnel men, brainy business men, then our trust is just as real and far more wide-awake, for these trusts were asleep to their privileges, un- conscious of the far-reaching opportunities, while our Combine took in the whole field of vision in a 'moment of time' saw the end from the begin- ning. It is said that women see, not from reason, but from intuition. It surely is intuitive that the whole scheme was necessary to complete the full success of any of the parts, any of the little trusts, none of which could be perfect. The little com- bines referred to meant a temporary fortune to but a few, to lavish upon some kind of lust. Our 214 THE TRUST TRUSTED Great Combine meant a LIVING for all, dis- tinctively as our Revolutionary Fathers meant government for all to destroy poverty in America, as truly as they destroyed monarchy. "Some of the men in the olden days very learnedly expatiated on New Zealand. We had but to answer them that they were the real dream- ers, to propose to swap off 'Of, for and by all the people,' for the makeshift dependent conditions prevailing in New Zealand. If American men with their better civic and industrial conditions could not think out a better industrial system than New Zealand ever had or ever could have, then they ought to turn the matter of something to eat for themselves and family over to American women. Clearly our government was all right. Then let it alone. Do not weigh it down with a load that Combine can carry as a feather's weight. Ah! but some of the wiseboys would say, 'YE can't get the rich to go into it; the}' are too sel- fish', etc. "I remember on one occasion, a girl in the be- ginning of her 'teens' replied, 'Why, the rich are already in; they are there before us, and seem anxious to merge with everybody. Then, you see, they won't have any antagonists any competi- MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 215 tors. It's competition, boys, that rich men want to get rid of; hence the Combine. It don't pay them to fight/ Then again, if Americans were ten times more selfish than they are, still self-in- terest would compel them to become shareholders in Combine, of, for and by all Americans. Still some of the boys shook their heads as though they were brave and just enjoyed a fight. "Our girls had a difficult task to show the young men that fighting was not gallantry when applied to 'making a living, 5 in which all Ameri- cans, including themselves, were equally inter- ested; that competitive fighting was actually fighting oneself, which was neither gallant nor sane, but rather cowardly and silly. "I could talk to Mrs. System for weeks about our schemes to win men away from a 'simple force of habit,' that is the habit to compete like brutes for a living. "I suppose, Mr. System, you will be sending for your wife now that you have found your proper niche, as we like to say." "Ha, ha! I sent her a letter to come before I left the office of the Board of Examiners. The letter, Mrs. Lazarus, is no doubt at the wharf by this time. The steamer Greyhound will start for 216 THE TRUST TRUSTED Liverpool at 9 130 tonight, will get there in about a week, and wife writes me that she will be ready to start any day; so you see we can expect her in about two weeks. Then in two short months after we give the builders our plans, we will have a home of our very own, to forever keep secure from any competitor. That's 'great,' isn't it*? Yet, as I now have learned to look at the real facts, this, as great as it is, is not the greatest attraction. The social spirit the environments, the feeling that every man I meet is not a cut- throat, or looking at me to see how he can beat me in a trade ; but he greets me as a fellow share- holder, a hearty comrade, a real neighbor. You referred to the good Samaritan a little while ago. I am glad you read the Bible. So do wife and I. Christ said to a lawyer, in answer to the question, Who is my neighbor *? (I read the passage from Luke x.*3o): A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead; and by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side (he probably did not have a penny, being just a priest) ; and likewise a Levite, when he was at MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 217 the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side (we don't blame the Levite he could see no chance to get an attorney fee). But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wound, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him; and on the morrow when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him, take care of him, and whatever thou spendest more, when I come again I will re- pay thee. Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?- And he said, he that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, go and do thou likewise. "I that speak to ye was a fellow that fell among thieves competitive thieves. I have a just griev- ance. Moral and religious reformers, good men, did not, they could not, touch my sad case. Neither did, nor could, the party politician. He did not know how. Politics did not apply. Pres- ently a business man, a man that DID know how, and was able to, gave me a helping hand. A little over ten years ago I was left in a similar 218 THE TRUST TRUSTED plight to that Judean traveler. No American could be in a worse plight, when Combine came to my rescue. Now, as I said some days ago, I ride with Combine. I ride because he rides; he rides because I ride. No American walks. We all ride when and where we please. "All honor, Mr. System, to those who cared enough to try to protect the home, prevent divorce, to reform through party politics, through unions, through little societies, by morals, by religions these have restrained the march of free loveism until Combine came to the res- cue. But the saying: 'Lo here! lo there!' missed the mark, was a firing in the wrong direction, unwittingly leaving wide open the flood gate for Competition to enter. Compe- tition being the very instinct of selfishness was the great cause, we then even endorsing it, by calling it 'free, 5 permitting inhumanity and in- dignity to the financially weak by the strong, with the inferred sneer of 'every fellow for himself,' 'defend yourself,' ignoring Combine which had wrapped up in it the humane instinct of caring for the weak by including them in with, and caring for all Americans. The industrial concern of one has now actually become the financial and MORALS RELIGION POLITICS 219 business concern of all, and that in obedience to the financial c do as you would be done by' of the Master, and literally according to the teachings of 'the BOOK'." TC 14990 845668 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY