14 



Floridfi was less than thirty millions of dollars, — a sum 

 scarcely equal to what a stock gambler has made in a single 

 year. 



There are more than thirteen States of this Union, neither of 

 whose taxable valuation is more than equal to the property of 

 a single individual in the Union. I give these figures to re- 

 mind you to what an alarming extent the property of this 

 country, through the modes of doing business, is being ab- 

 sorbed by a few individuals and by methods that the common 

 judgment of mankind must condemn. 



When single individuals own whole States, what is to be- 

 come of the masses of the people ? But I may be told that no 

 single individual owns a whole State in fact, although he may 

 own property of equal value, and its influence is not therefore 

 so noticeable, or so objectionable, as it would be if all the 

 property in a State were owned by an individual. But I sub- 

 mit that such a position is not tenable ; such a fortune is more 

 objectionable than if it embraced the whole of a State, for now 

 it will control by its influence enterprises involving property to 

 many times its amount, and when we consider that there are 

 doubtless seven men in the Union who are worth as much as 

 the assessed value of seven States of the Union, who can cal- 

 culate the result of such an amount of capital in the hands of 

 so few individuals, who instinctively co-operate to subordinate 

 vast interests to their own selfish ends? Already, most of the 

 manufacturing is done by corporations. In many branches of 

 it individual enterprise is almost unknown ; the result is that 

 fewer and fewer men control the manufacturing institutions of 

 the country; combination and consolidation are the order of 

 the day, the smaller corporations are being absorbed by the 

 larger ones, and the larger the corporation the more uncom- 



