d they wish to oppose it?" Gorham continued. "As I have said,
the combinations suggested can but result in economies in production
and consequent reductions in the living expenses of the masses."

"Yet you would hardly suggest that the Consolidated Companies has been
launched as a philanthropic enterprise?"

Gorham's smile returned. "Not primarily, yet the people have already
been benefited in no small degree. It is entirely possible to conduct it
along lines which will reduce the cost of all public utilities and
necessities, and yet secure large financial returns to the Companies."

"I was thinking--" Kenmore began, and then stopped.

"Well?" Gorham encouraged, interrogatively.

"I was thinking what an easy thing it is to mistake a temptation for an
opportunity."

"Or the reverse," Gorham remarked, significantly, flushing slightly.
"Does it not all depend upon the basis on which the corporation is
administered?"

As the Senator ventured no reply, Gorham continued, with more feeling
than he had as yet displayed:

"You and I, Mr. Kenmore, are familiar with the contention made by our
great captains of industry that they are entitled to the vast fortunes
which they have amassed as a return for the benefits which the public
enjoys as a result of their energy and the risks they have taken. They
have opened up new sections of the country, provided transportation
facilities which were previously lacking, or have increased those which
already existed; they have multiplied industries which promoted increase
in population and trade, and have thus largely contributed to the
prosperity enjoyed by the communities themselves and by the country at
large."

"All of which the Consolidated Companies claims to be doing, or about
to do, upon a scale which makes similar past achievements seem
insignificant," interrupted Kenmore.

"Yes," Gorham assented, "but with a fuller appreciation that these
accomplishments are not the results alone of individual ability, but far
more of the exercise of the corporate power placed in its hands, not for
its unlimited personal gain, but intrusted to it by law for public
advantage. The law confers upon a corporate organization a power far
beyond that which any individual himself could obtain; it enables him to
make use of capital which thousands have contributed, toward whom he
stands in a relation of trust, and without whom he could not accomplish
the individual triumphs which become so magnifi