on of which he had
nothing to do. The history of practically all of them reeks with thefts
of public and private money; corruption of common councils, of
legislatures, Congress and of administrative officials; land grabbing,
fraud, illegal transactions, violence, and oppression not only of their
immediate workers, but of the entire population.[178] He owned--to give
a few instances--$1,500,000 of Baltimore and Ohio stock; $600,000 of
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe; $1,860,000 of Chicago and Northwestern,
and tens of millions more of the stock or bonds of about fifteen other
railroads.

He also owned an immense assortment of the stocks of a large number of
trusts. The affairs of these trusts have been shown in court, at some
time or other, as overflowing with fraud, the most glaring oppressions,
and violations of law. He had $450,000 in stock of the Corn Products
Company (the Glucose Trust); $370,000 of the stock of the notorious
Harvester Trust, which charges the farmer $75 for a machine that perhaps
costs $16 in all to make and market, and which holds a great part of the
farming population bound hand and foot; $350,000 of Biscuit Trust stock;
$200,000 of American Tin Can Company (Tin Can Trust) stock; and large
amounts of stock in other trusts. All of these stocks and bonds Field
owned outright; he made it a rule never to buy a share of stock on
margin or for speculative purposes. All told, he owned more than
$55,000,000 in stocks and bonds.

A very considerable part of these were securities of Chicago surface and
elevated railway, gas, electric light and telephone companies. In the
corruption attending the securing of the franchises of these
corporations he was a direct principal. The narrative of this part of
his fortune, however, more pertinently belongs to subsequent chapters of
this work.

FOOTNOTES:

[172] Census of 1900.

[173] Eighth Annual Report, Illinois Labor Bureau:370.

[174] See his work, "If Christ Came to Chicago." Much more specific and
reliable is the report of the U. S. Industrial Commission. After giving
the low wages paid to women in the different cities, it says: "It is
manifest from the figures given that the amount of earnings in many
cases is less than the actual cost of the necessities of life. The
existence of such a state of affairs must inevitably lead in many cases
to the adoption of a life of immorality and, in fact, there is no doubt
that the low rate of wages paid to women is on