Where in 1900 the Trusts employed four million men, they now have on their pay rolls more than ten millions.  This represents seventy-five per cent. of all the able-bodied men in the country.  The tradesmen in every city are as effectually dominated by the Trust magnates as if they were on their payrolls.  Through the general establishment of the system of “consignment,” by which goods are placed on sale in small shops, under covenants with the Trusts, the retailers are made to sell at the prices dictated by the manufacturers.  It is useless for a retailer to rebel; he has either to handle the goods of the Trusts or go out of business altogether.

To realize how far-reaching this system is, it will suffice to cite the case of the retail grocers.  Their staple articles, such as sugar, flour, salt, coffee, tea, spices and canned meats are all controlled by Trusts.  If the retailer attempts to sell any article not manufactured by the Trusts, his contumacy is taken as a cause for all the staples he has “on sale” to be reclaimed by the Trusts.  This leaves him with practically nothing to sell.

Where a man, more pugnacious than the majority, attempts to fight the Trusts, his stand is made futile by the Trust immediately establishing a rival store in his neighborhood, where goods are sold at an actual loss until ruin comes upon the recalcitrant tradesman.

This is the story of all trades.  It is the condition that exists in all lines of manufacture as well, and the system reaches even to the farmers.  They have either to sell their products at the prices offered by the Trusts or run themselves into inevitable bankruptcy.  They may dispose of one year’s crop, but the next year they are doomed to find themselves without a purchaser.  Failing to intimidate the farmer, the Trust will bring its influence to bear upon the purchaser—­he will either be absorbed or annihilated.

From being a nation of independent producers, the people of the United States have been slowly and insidiously pushed back to a position where more than nine-tenths of the people are the servants of the remaining few.  With the changed condition has come a deterioration in the spirit of the masses.  They are apathetic, and take the scant wage that the Trusts condescend to pay them.  The efforts to regain a place of honorable independence are becoming weaker and weaker.

The enervating effects of urban life have told on the millions who live in the great cities.  The number of men who can stand the rigor of out-door life, and the exigencies of labor afield, grows smaller year by year.

Adulterated food, sedentary work at machines which require practically no skill to operate, and dispiriting home surroundings have brought millions of men to a mental and physical condition which makes them little better than slaves.

These truths Trueman and his co-workers endeavor to impress upon the people.  In some districts the audiences evince interest in the arguments.  In others the speakers are met with open derision.