by the force of
coercion.

Where in 1900 the Trusts employed four million men, they now have on
their pay rolls more than ten millions. This represents seventy-five per
cent. of all the able-bodied men in the country. The tradesmen in every
city are as effectually dominated by the Trust magnates as if they were
on their payrolls. Through the general establishment of the system of
"consignment," by which goods are placed on sale in small shops, under
covenants with the Trusts, the retailers are made to sell at the prices
dictated by the manufacturers. It is useless for a retailer to rebel; he
has either to handle the goods of the Trusts or go out of business
altogether.

To realize how far-reaching this system is, it will suffice to cite the
case of the retail grocers. Their staple articles, such as sugar, flour,
salt, coffee, tea, spices and canned meats are all controlled by Trusts.
If the retailer attempts to sell any article not manufactured by the
Trusts, his contumacy is taken as a cause for all the staples he has "on
sale" to be reclaimed by the Trusts. This leaves him with practically
nothing to sell.

Where a man, more pugnacious than the majority, attempts to fight the
Trusts, his stand is made futile by the Trust immediately establishing a
rival store in his neighborhood, where goods are sold at an actual loss
until ruin comes upon the recalcitrant tradesman.

This is the story of all trades. It is the condition that exists in all
lines of manufacture as well, and the system reaches even to the
farmers. They have either to sell their products at the prices offered
by the Trusts or run themselves into inevitable bankruptcy. They may
dispose of one year's crop, but the next year they are doomed to find
themselves without a purchaser. Failing to intimidate the farmer, the
Trust will bring its influence to bear upon the purchaser--he will
either be absorbed or annihilated.

From being a nation of independent producers, the people of the United
States have been slowly and insidiously pushed back to a position where
more than nine-tenths of the people are the servants of the remaining
few. With the changed condition has come a deterioration in the spirit
of the masses. They are apathetic, and take the scant wage that the
Trusts condescend to pay them. The efforts to regain a place of
honorable independence are becoming weaker and weaker.

The enervating effects of urban life have told on the millions who live