it in, the voters who have no ground will
tax it till there is nothing left for me."

"That is equality."

"But it isn't equality, for somebody gets very rich in railways or
lands, while we lose our little all. Don't you think there ought to be
a public official whose duty it is to enforce the law gratis which I
cannot afford to enforce when I am wronged?"

"The difficulty is to discover whether you are wronged or only
unfortunate. It needs a lawyer to find that out. And very likely if you
are wronged, the wrongdoer has so cleverly gone round the law that it
needs legislation to set you straight, and that needs a lobbyist, whom
the lawyer must hire, or he must turn lobbyist himself. Now, a lawyer
costs money, and a lobbyist is one of the most expensive of modern
luxuries; but when you have a lawyer and lobbyist in one, you will find
it economical to let him take your claim and all that can be made out
of it, and not bother you any more about it. But there is no doubt about
the law, as I said. You can get just as much law as you can pay for. It
is like any other commodity."

"You mean to say," I asked, "that the lawyer takes what the operator
leaves?"

"Not exactly. There is a great deal of unreasonable prejudice against
lawyers. They must live. There is no nobler occupation than the
application of the principle of justice in human affairs. The trouble
is that public opinion sustains the operator in his smartness, and
estimates the lawyer according to his adroitness. If we only evoked the
aid of a lawyer in a just cause, the lawyers would have less to do.

"Usually and naturally the best talent goes with the biggest fees."

"It seems to me," said my wife, musing along, in her way, on parallel
lines, "that there ought to be a limit to the amount of property one man
can get into his absolute possession, to say nothing of the methods by
which he gets it."

"That never yet could be set," Morgan replied. "It is impossible for
any number of men to agree on it. I don't see any line between absolute
freedom of acquisition, trusting to circumstances, misfortune, and death
to knock things to pieces, and absolute slavery, which is communism."

"Do you believe, Mr. Morgan, that any vast fortune was ever honestly
come by?"

"That is another question. Honesty is such a flexible word. If you mean
a process the law cannot touch, yes. If you mean moral consideration for
others, I doubt. But property accumulates by itself alm