llions of
fictitious debts on the backs of their children yet unborn. Combine,
yes, but why not pay the people whose wages you have stolen as well as
the owners whose mills you have closed? If combination is so extremely
profitable, it should bring some benefit to the millions who are
consumers--not merely make millionaires out of a few men. Who is
bearing the burden of this enormous increase of fictitious wealth? The
people. The price of living has been increasing steadily with the
organization of each industry into a trust. Where will it end?"

Bivens's eyes narrowed to the merest points of concentrated light,
while an amused smile played about them as he listened patiently to the
doctor's tirade. When at last the big figure towering above him paused
for breath, he remarked quietly:

"The trust is here to stay, Doctor. Legislation against it is as absurd
and futile as a movement to stop the tides. We will never pull down
these big department stores or go back to the little ones. The
skyscraper will not come down from the heavens merely because a belated
traveller rails that his view of the stars has been obscured. You
cannot make economy a crime, progress a misdemeanour, or efficiency a
felony! If so, you can destroy the trusts."

"I'm not clear yet how it is to be done," was the passionate answer--"but
as sure as God lives we are going to do _something_. The spirit of
America is progressive, up hill, not down hill, mind you. At present we
are putting wreckers in charge of Organization and famine producers in
charge of Production. It can't last. At no period of the world's
history have the claims of tyranny been so quickly seen and dared, as
here and now. Nowhere and in no age has tyranny confronted such a
people as ours with life and culture and ideals as high--a people so in
love with liberty, so disciplined in its struggles! When the day comes
that we shall be confronted with death or degradation, the young
American will know how to choose. Patriotism with me is not an empty
word. It is one of the passions of my life. I believe in this Republic.
For the moment the people are asleep. But time is slowly shaping the
issue that will move the last laggard. We are beginning dimly to see
that there is something more precious in our life than the mere tonnage
of national wealth--the spirit of freedom and initiative in our people!
Shall they become merely the hired men of a few monied kings? Or shall
the avenues of indus