rtainly the fundamental social questions in any country at any time
are: Who gets the increment of wealth? Who controls industry? No
objection can be taken to the facts or reasoning of this and some of the
other studies of the "trusts"--_as far as they go_. What vitiates not
only their conclusions, but the whole work, is that written from the
standpoint of the small capitalists, they forget that the "trusts" are
only part of a larger whole.

The increment of wealth that has gone to large capital in this country
in the census period 1900-1910 is certainly less than what has gone to
small capital. Farm lands and buildings have increased in value by
$18,000,000,000, while the increased wealth in farm animals, crops, and
machinery will bring the total far above $20,000,000,000. The increase
in city lands and houses other than owned homes, which has not been less
than that of the country in recent years, must be reckoned at many
billions, and these, like the farm lands, are only to a small degree in
the hands of the "Trusts." Even allowing for the more modest insurance
policies, and savings bank accounts, as belonging in part to
non-capitalists, small capitalists have piled up many new billions
within the same decade, in the form of bank deposits, good-sized
investments in insurance companies, in government, municipal, and
railway bonds, bank stock, and other securities. No doubt the chief
owners of the banks, railways, and "trusts" have increased their wealth
by several billions within the same period, but this is only a fraction
of the increased wealth of the smaller capitalists. It is not true,
then, that "the increment of wealth of the continent" has gone to--"the
makers of monopolies and their allies."

Let us now examine the question of _the control of industry_ from this
broader standpoint. It is admitted that the direct control of the
"Interests" extends only over "mechanical industry"--not over
agriculture. We have seen that it does not extend over the mine of
wealth that lies in city lands, nor over large masses of capital more
and more adequately protected by the government. It might be said that
by their strategic position in industry the large capitalists control
indirectly both agriculture, city growth, savings banks and government.
This would be true were it not for the fact that as soon as we turn from
the economic to the political field we find that not only in this
country, but also in Europe nearly all th