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acter of the nation to which he belongs, might prefer the noble aspect of the Rising Sun of Independent Manhood to the Setting Sun of Darkness, Blood, Misery, the dependency of man upon man, of serf upon lord and vassal upon suzerain, or veiled slavery as now practised in America under Trust, with a multitude of vassals in the possession and domain of one absolute Trust Lord. The author is of opinion, not so much to get knowledge as to prevent ignorance from being foisted upon him, the American with average sense should deeply scrutinize the fiscal policy which for the past forty years by secretly and steadily diverting the flow of industrial wealth from the public pool and draining it into the channels of the Powerholding Class has laid the foundation for the huge overshadowing train of evils which have almost swept all the stars out of our firmament.

A thoughtful investigator will quickly discern that couleur de rose prosperity is a mere political fetich; that the luminiferous scintillations of prosperity were mirrored as by a diamond in the possession of a tyrannical crew and corporation of Prosperity impostors; that the prosperity diamond was the property of the Furies of private interest, the importunate clients of potent statists, whose far-seeing fiscal forces had long since legislated its cost out of the public pocket; that, like Juno in the fable of Io, the argument of a flourishing state was the politician's masterpiece to further qualify and mold the sufferance and subject the Public to the length of the foot-that is to tread upon their necks.

In view of the centralized organized forces of the Gogs and Magogs of the Power-holding Class, imbecile flatness alone can fail to perceive with largeness of knowledge and readiness of resolve the religion of organization would mark the epoch of an era that had knocked the breath out of their systematic robbery. The foreboding is already dawning that the actual historical development of America lies deeper than the frightful scourges of Trust and Imperialism now threaten. This point is the pivotal one. A rigid scientific investigation will reveal Trust in the near future standing upon the higher plane of a higher economic synthesis. The ballot-box sanctuary and palladium of our liberty being preserved, the present society of the Power-holding Class is not a solid crystal. Who of us can choose but smile at the clatter of Imperialism, the loathsomeness, the gaudy rottenness of huge monstrous hungry and ravenous harpies making their chief kennel in Trust? In the course of the dialogue the investigator (be he not too deep in party dotage), will discover the tricks, dodges, and undercurrents, the disguises and designs of the demure politician who stands for the decadence of America as the successors of the Cæsars at the commencement of its decline stood for the fall of the Roman Empire. The reader will further find how rapine may serve itself by fair and honorable pretense of public good, and how indirect taxation by inequitable legislation is the prodigy of dire portent whose subtle alchemy has steadily and stealthily sucked and sucked heaps and hecatombs of gold from the bullion of Industry.

The critical acumen of the I am I voter will shortly realize that the towering steadfast heights of the doctrine of the equality of man before God and the American State is indissolubly associated with and rests upon the immovable foundation of American civilization. In the near future, if not now, with highest prowess and the undaunted courage of high-minded, honorable men, Democrat and Republican and Republican and Democrat, will extend the area of freedom and wrest their precious inheritance from the grip of corporation bribery, direct and indirect; and tear national legislation from the hands of swollen provincial Dogberries, upstart mushroom tradesmen—an aristocracy of greedy shopkeepers, an abortive spawn of tax-born riches, mountebank money jugglers, bandogs and rampant satyrs cowering over their gold, all floating scum-like uppermost, and in a greater or lesser degree greedy purveyors of the great volume of industrial

wealth.

The first part of the work deals with statistics and the historical facts which disclose the subtle processes of intellectual injustice which have guided our fiscal and economic policy; the last trenches upon the law and phenomena which interlace and trace the genesis of Trust to the fiscal policy of the Republican party. Clearness without superficiality has been the object. The author has not aspired to sit on the seat of the scornful, but to treat all the questions touched upon with a tolerance befitting their difficulty and weight. Where the very atmosphere is saturated with falsehood, and conspiracy is being

spun within conspiracy, the public must be "mostly fools" not to realize the gravity of the national peril, and tamely walk into the yoke of Imperialism which is being prepared as if for cattle. The whole scheme, like a serpent coiled, lies buried beyond the reach of complete discovery. Commercial aggression is the milk on which the imperial viper feeds. Something, however, if not all, may be done toward unraveling the plots of the mysterious designers so freely shedding American blood for Colonial Expansion. A new era is surely about to dawn when restless Trust, striding the narrow world like a Colossus, rears his royal court palaces upon the dizzy heights and towering mountains of our industrial wealth, while arch plotters and intriguing hypocrites, believing that America is theirs to do what they please with, are artfully contriving, drafting plans and carving deep-set foundation stones for the establishment of an imperial military empire on the ruins of constitutional liberty. THE AUTHOR.

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