372 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



waterings, manipulations of public funds and of 

 funds of the public, I have known the inside of 

 and their purposes ever since the crazy-quilt cur- 

 rency foisted on the country during the war 

 made such schemes profitable. Among old-time 

 associates w T ith whom I had intimate relations 

 were great merchants, importers, manufacturers, 

 promoters, and capitalists, as well as politicians, 

 legislators, and lobbyists. To one who has stood 

 behind the scenes and watched the machinery, the 

 glamour the imposture possesses for those before 

 the curtain is incredible. 



Demonstrating to the people that the tariff 

 robbed them of two billions a year, confiscating 

 one-fourth of the earnings of every laborer in 

 the country, showing them in detail where and 

 how the boodle had gone and who still held it 

 never made a dent in their intelligence. Point- 

 ing out that a single branch of the tariff iniquity 

 had been capitalized by Wall Street methods into 

 a billion dollar tax on industry only resulted in 

 a mixture of worship and dull envy of the pro- 

 moters of the spoliation. 



