HOW WAll WOULD INTENSIFY POVERTY 203 



so long as that Ijc acconi})lislie(I, tlie means are often subordinated 

 to the end. 



The great "Combines," "Trusts," "Syndicates," and tlie 

 rest of the modern trading associations, liave not been formed 

 for phihmthropic purposes, but solely with the oliject of keeping 

 prices up and extracting the last possible penny from the 

 pockets of the people. 



The " Standard Oil Company " is a case in point, and the 

 prodigious wealth of Mr. Rockefeller alone, among the many 

 vastly rich men connected with the Company, affords ample 

 proof of the enormous profits that have been made out of the 

 business for many years. 



Questionable Quality of Commercial Morality 



Commercial morality in many countries is questionable, and 

 our own is not an exception to the rule. Civen occasion, and 

 men would " corner " wheat in war time as readily as they do 

 in times of peace, and who and what shall stop them ? 



The writer was recently discussing this very question with 

 one of our London merchants who did not seem to regard this 

 last Chicago wheat "Corner," for example, as anything out of 

 the common. "You should always lioar in mind," said he, 

 " that your ' Cornerer ' has to take his chance, as we all have to 

 do. If the markets favour him — good ; if not, well — he is 

 simply ruined, poor devil, that's all." 



What a ])rofundity of commercial immorality is revealed by 

 this simple incident, and what cruel indifference to the suffer- 

 ings of others ; and yet this human attitude, full as it is of 

 hardness of heart and malignity to the human race, is, after all, 

 ]iorn more of commercial custom and ignorance of results than 

 of anything else. 



Here we have a typical example of how the commercial 

 world regards such matters. Everything in life is reduced to a 

 money standard. If there is money in the ])articular trans- 

 action upon which a man enters it is simply regarded as a 

 legitinuite line of business and there it ends, always provided 

 he has managed to keep within the very wide limits of com- 

 mercial law. The incalculable harm that may be done to 

 fellow-creatures never enters into such a man's calculations ; 

 commercial transactions of the kind referred to are sanctioned 

 by custom and within the meaning of the law, and that is 

 enougii for him. 



The object of the writer is, as is plainly manifest, to arouse 

 the peoi)le to a sense of their danger in respect hereto, and 



