yer would sit by
and encourage him with exclamations and shakes of the head; when Jurgis
would give the formula for "potted ham," or tell about the condemned
hogs that were dropped into the "destructors" at the top and immediately
taken out again at the bottom, to be shipped into another state and made
into lard, Tommy Hinds would bang his knee and cry, "Do you think a man
could make up a thing like that out of his head?"

And then the hotel-keeper would go on to show how the Socialists had the
only real remedy for such evils, how they alone "meant business" with
the Beef Trust. And when, in answer to this, the victim would say that
the whole country was getting stirred up, that the newspapers were full
of denunciations of it, and the government taking action against it,
Tommy Hinds had a knock-out blow all ready. "Yes," he would say, "all
that is true--but what do you suppose is the reason for it? Are you
foolish enough to believe that it's done for the public? There are
other trusts in the country just as illegal and extortionate as the Beef
Trust: there is the Coal Trust, that freezes the poor in winter--there
is the Steel Trust, that doubles the price of every nail in your
shoes--there is the Oil Trust, that keeps you from reading at night--and
why do you suppose it is that all the fury of the press and the
government is directed against the Beef Trust?" And when to this the
victim would reply that there was clamor enough over the Oil Trust, the
other would continue: "Ten years ago Henry D. Lloyd told all the truth
about the Standard Oil Company in his Wealth versus Commonwealth; and
the book was allowed to die, and you hardly ever hear of it. And now, at
last, two magazines have the courage to tackle 'Standard Oil' again, and
what happens? The newspapers ridicule the authors, the churches defend
the criminals, and the government--does nothing. And now, why is it all
so different with the Beef Trust?"

Here the other would generally admit that he was "stuck"; and Tommy
Hinds would explain to him, and it was fun to see his eyes open. "If you
were a Socialist," the hotel-keeper would say, "you would understand that
the power which really governs the United States today is the Railroad
Trust. It is the Railroad Trust that runs your state government,
wherever you live, and that runs the United States Senate. And all of
the trusts that I have named are railroad trusts--save only the Beef
Trust! The Beef Trust has defied