ne
of a thousand similar encounters the Rogerses and Rockefellers had had
with other adversaries as fearless and as honest as I, and out of these
heart-breaking and soul-crushing sit-downs they had always emerged
survivors, while behind the "Standard Oil" juggernaut, defeated and
submissive, trudged the men who had dared oppose them. Should the fate
of these others be also mine? Across my mind flitted "not while my brain
retains its fly-wheels and my hands their power"; and I found myself
wondering if there were not some stage at which a man cornered by
arbitrary conditions and legal observances was justified in bursting all
such trammels and meeting artifice with physical violence. Murder is a
crime against society and against nature, and we must all observe the
canons of God and the regulations of the law; but at least a dozen times
in my wrestles with the exasperating, grinding, hell-generating machine,
it was only my inborn reverence for God's law and man's that prevented
me from--well, shall I say, strangling the fox?

All this, however, was between me and my mind. I showed not a vestige of
it on the surface, but went on with much earnestness:

"Mr. Rogers, I think I understand the situation perfectly, but let us
see if I do. We have reached a point where we are out in the open, and
the whole world is in position to pass judgment on us and our venture.
There must be between us unanimity of purpose, for the time is past when
I can say one thing, you another, and Stillman and his bank confuse all
concerned by agreeing with one story and denying the second. It is
essential that we all pull together, yet conditions are such--and no
one's to blame for them, for they have so developed--that we cannot have
a general pow-wow to organize a programme. We, you and I, must formulate
a plan which can be sent out to the public with the approval of all
concerned, all the parties to it being sure they understand absolutely
its meaning, while in reality it means something different to each of
them. Isn't that about it?"

"You have covered the situation fully, Lawson," approved Mr. Rogers.
"You must understand that this tie-up is due to our having departed from
our usual way of doing business. 'Standard Oil' never goes to the public
direct for money, but works up its projects through some of our"--he
almost said "dummies," but caught himself--"our lieutenants. You have
worked up this affair in our name instead of your own, as woul