CHAPTER IV

THE MAGIC "JIMMY"

It was at this stage that the class which is now the "System"--of which
the mighty robber of barbaric days was the prototype--began to cast
envious eyes at the accumulated earnings of a prosperous people locked
up and safeguarded against depredation, while the owners (the public)
rested easy in the conviction that they had fully protected themselves
against the spoilsman. The "System" reasoned: "If only a way could be
devised to win control of the seven institutions so that all the
benefits the people intend for themselves may revert to me and yet I be
exempt from the punishment provided for those who attempt unfairly and
dishonestly to secure such benefits, I can get a much easier and surer
possession of the results of the labor of the people than I was wont to
when I took them by might."

A need defined is half relieved. Outside the treasure-house was the
robber enviously surveying its strong walls and iron doors, its locks
and bolts, specially designed to defy the felonious intentions of such
as he. How safely to win his way in and possess himself of the piled-up
gold was his problem. And as he waited and watched, the lawyer, at his
solicitation, invented for him a magic "jimmy"--an instrument with which
he could not only break through the outside door, but as easily force
his way past the complex locks of the chambers inside. What was still
better, this magic "jimmy" was also a license to enter upon and take
possession of others' properties and use them for his own benefit. It
conferred on its owner a legal privilege to steal. The robber was
satisfied. The "jimmy" which the lawyer had brought him was the
"trust."

All this sounds very hyperbolical and far-fetched, perhaps, but it is
exactly what a "trust" is. The "trust" may also be defined as a master
key to the people's financial structure, which enables its owner to
enter any or all of the separate institutions I have mentioned, and
combine any or all of them, without affecting their respective
organisms, into a new organization which possesses the potencies and the
privileges of each, but is unhampered by the legal restrictions of any
one of them. Like electricity, the exact nature of a "trust" does not
admit of rigid definition, but it is a force which can be exerted only
in conjunction with financial organisms, which it joins and yet
releases, adds power to, and exempts from consequences. Let us suppose
that two men are