“And all because I withstood the assault of the Oil King.

“As an American I protest against the existence of a corporation that can set at naught the mandates of the law; a corporation that can, with utter impunity, resort to arson as a final means of gaining its illegal end, as the oil Trust has done, again and again.

“I thank God that I still possess my fore-fathers’ spirit of resistance against oppression.  There are few men who are in want, or in actual dread of being thrown out of employment, however unremunerative, who will assert their right.  A nation composed of such men is not free, no matter what its form of government may be.

“I am ready to do anything that will restore the right to the individual citizen to engage in business; I am ready to make a stand against the few plutocrats who now usurp the avenues of human activity; and I believe that we will be able to enlist men in support of the idea that the rights of the majority transcend the aggressions of the oligarchy of American capitalists.”

As Chadwick concludes his statement, Hiram Goodel, a delegate from New Hampshire, obtains the floor.

“Coercion is the word that epitomizes my grievance against the Trusts,” he begins.  “It was by the exercise of coercion that I was driven out of business.  I conducted a retail tobacco store in Concord, in my native state.  My business sufficed to insure me a decent living, and a comfortable margin to be husbanded as a safeguard for my declining years.  I had a wife and three sons.  My sons were all under age, and I kept them at school to provide them with good educations.

“There was competition in my business; such natural competition as is met with in all pursuits.  It did not, however, prevent my making a success of my business.

“Then came the Tobacco Trust.  It set out to control the retail trade.  This was to be effected by the inauguration of a system of “consigning” goods to the retail stores with strict provisos that the retailer would not handle the product of any concern out of the Tobacco Combine.  In order to ingratiate themselves with the store-keepers, the Trust managers at first offered terms that were so far below the current prices that a majority of the stores bound themselves to handle the Trust goods exclusively.

“Three years passed, in which the independent tobacco manufacturers strove to hold out against the ring.  Then came a crash.

“I had opposed the innovation of binding myself to buy from one concern; for I felt intuitively that as soon as the Trust was all-powerful it would begin to exercise dictatorial sway over the retailer.

“My fears were soon justified.

“The Trust advanced the price of its goods to the retailer, and compelled the trade to sell at the same retail figures.

“When this system of extortion was successfully launched the Trust determined to reward its patrons, as a means of pacifying them for reduced profits.