types of a whole class which, in varying
degrees, has used precisely the same methods, and the collective
fortunes and power of which have been derived from identically the same
sources.

In diagnosing an epidemic, it is not enough that we should be content
with the symptoms; wisdom and the protection of the community demand
that we should seek and eradicate the cause. Both wealth and poverty
spring from the same essential cause. Neither, then, should be
indiscriminately condemned as such; the all-important consideration is
to determine why they exist, and how such an absurd contrast can be
abolished.

In taking up a series of types of great fortunes, as I have done in this
work, my object has not been the current one of portraying them either
as remarkable successes or as unspeakable criminals. My purpose is to
present a sufficient number of examples as indicative of the whole
character of the vested class and of the methods which have been
employed. And in doing this, neither prejudice nor declamation has
entered. Such a presentation, I believe, cannot fail to be useful for
many reasons.

It will, in the first place, satisfy a spirit of inquiry. As time
passes, and the power of the propertied oligarchy becomes greater and
greater, more and more of a studied attempt is made to represent the
origin of that property as the product of honest toil and great public
service. Every searcher for truth is entitled to know whether this is
true or not. But what is much more important is for the people to know
what have been the cumulative effects of a system which subsists upon
the institutions of private property and wage-labor. If it possesses the
many virtues that it is said to possess, what are these virtues? If it
is a superior order of civilization, in what does this superiority
consist?

This work will assist in explaining, for naturally a virtuous and
superior order ought to produce virtuous and superior men. The kind and
quality of methods and successful ruling men, which this particular
civilization forces to the front, are set forth in this exposition.
Still more important is the ascertainment of where these stupendous
fortunes came from, their particular origin and growth, and what
significance the concomitant methods and institutions have to the great
body of the people.

I may add that in Part I no attempt has been made to present an
exhaustive account of conditions in Settlement and Colonial times. I
have