In commerce we have had the Individual Worker, the Partnership, the Corporation, and now we have the Trust.

The Trust is simply Corporations forming a partnership.  The thing is all an Evolution—­a moving forward.  It is all for man and it is all done by man.  It is all done with the consent, aye, and approval of man.

The Trusts were made by the People, and the People can and will unmake them, should they ever prove an engine of oppression.  They exist only during good behavior, and like men, they are living under a sentence of death, with an indefinite reprieve.

The Trusts are good things because they are economizers of energy.  They cut off waste, increase the production, and make a panic practically impossible.

The Trusts are here in spite of the men who think they originated them, and in spite of the Reformers who turned Conservatives and opposed them.

The next move of Evolution will be the age of Socialism.  Socialism means the operation of all industries by the people, and for the people.  Socialism is cooeperation instead of competition.  Competition has been so general that economists mistook it for a law of nature, when it was only an incident.

Competition is no more a law of nature than is hate.  Hate was once so thoroughly believed in that we gave it personality and called it the Devil.

We have banished the Devil by educating people to know that he who works has no time to hate and no need to fear, and by this same means, education, will the people be prepared for the age of Socialism.

The Trusts are now getting things ready for Socialism.

Socialism is a Trust of Trusts.

Humanity is growing in intellect, in patience, in kindness—­in love.  And when the time is ripe, the people will step in and take peaceful possession of their own, and the Cooeperative Commonwealth will give to each one his due.

Sympathy, Knowledge and Poise

Sympathy, Knowledge and Poise seem to be the three ingredients that are most needed in forming the Gentle Man.  I place these elements according to their value.  No man is great who does not have Sympathy plus, and the greatness of men can be safely gauged by their sympathies.  Sympathy and imagination are twin sisters.  Your heart must go out to all men, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the learned, the unlearned, the good, the bad, the wise and the foolish—­it is necessary to be one with them all, else you can never comprehend them.  Sympathy!—­it is the touchstone to every secret, the key to all knowledge, the open sesame of all hearts.  Put yourself in the other man’s place and then you will know why he thinks certain things and does certain deeds.  Put yourself in his place and your blame will dissolve itself into pity, and your tears will wipe out the record of his misdeeds.  The saviors of the world have simply been men with wondrous sympathy.