ows either human nature or history. No judge would be
permitted to preside in his own case; no juror would be allowed to
serve in a suit to which he was a party, and yet the head of a
monopoly arbitrarily decides, every-day, questions where his
interests are on one side and public interests on the other. Can he
be trusted to decide impartially and to exact only a reasonable
profit? It is absurd to expect him to do justice to those whith whom
he deals. The student of history knows that the monopolist has always
been an outlaw. Three centuries ago, under Queen Elizabeth, the House
of Commons protested against the monopolies which she had authorized,
and I found, when in the Holy Land, that a very complete monopoly
existed there some seventeen hundred years ago. Josephus tells how
John of Gishala secured a monopoly in olive oil and charged ten times
as much for the oil as he paid for it. For the benefit of those who
think that all monopolies are traceable to the rebate, I venture to
suggest that the oil trust of Palestine was successfully operated
before railroads existed. But even tho John had nothing better than a
fast freight line of donkeys and distributed the oil in goat skins,
he showed as correct an understanding of the possibilities of
monopoly as any trust magnate has to-day, and I have wondered whether
our John secured his idea of an oil trust from John of Gishala.

We need laws making the private monopoly impossible, but we must have
back of these laws a moral sentiment which will condemn the club
wielded by the monopolist, as moral sentiment now condemns the
highwayman's bludgeon.

The third temptation to which the commercial man is subjected is the
corruption of politics. Just in proportion as a corporation secures a
monopoly of the business in which it is engaged, in that proportion
the necessity for government regulation increases, and I may add, the
difficulty of securing regulation increases in proportion to the
necessity for it. Municipal corruption has become a byword, and the
lobbyist has made his evil presence felt at the national and State
capitals. Bribery is becoming a fine art, and neither the voter nor
his representative is spared. The one lesson that must be taught is
that the man who gives a bribe is as wicked as the man who accepts
it--I am not sure but that he is more wicked, for the necessities
of the man who accepts the bribe--if need can palliate such an
offense--are usually greater than