ompanies to weigh carefully what follows, that from it they
may decide the question.

As soon as it became fixed in the minds of the different interested
parties who had communicated with me that my purpose was unalterable,
queer things happened:

First, there appeared in the press of the country, under large, black
headlines, the startling confession of the editor of a New York
financial paper, who, conscience-stricken, admitted that he had been
engaged in the systematic blackmail of insurance companies and officials
and Wall Street institutions such as banks and trust companies. It was
a curious document, and even the casual reader must have wondered at the
mysterious lack of detail. The paper, I found out later, was one of the
innumerable swarm of journalistic insects generated, like mosquitoes, in
the financial swamps of Wall Street, destined to live a day and die as
they deliver their sting, and the attention given it was curiously out
of proportion to its importance. Among other queer things, the editor
announced that after printing his confession he would disappear; no
names were mentioned nor a fact printed which identified any one or
anything. All this could not happen without a motive, and I said to
myself, "The 'System' is planting a mine for some one." Not another word
appeared. I awaited developments. On October 8th I received the
following letters, which tell their own story:

FREMONT, OHIO, October 6, 1904.

MR. THOMAS W. LAWSON, Boston, Mass.

_My Dear Sir_: I have followed with intensest interest your
discussion of "Frenzied Finance." The _expose_ of the
"System," and its Machiavellian performances, was highly
interesting to me. I was associated with Attorney-General
Monnett in his effort to get testimony and the inside facts
concerning the trust and its operations in his prosecution
against that corporation for violating the Ohio anti-trust
law. At that time the books of the company were burned in
Cleveland, and, as stated in your article, the company now
relies upon the superior memory of Standard Oil.

I was well aware of the connection of certain life-insurance
companies with Morgan and the Rockefellers, but until your
public charge, was not familiar with the details. As I had
considerable money invested myself in New York Life
Insurance I wrote John A. McCall a bitter letter. In this
age of commerciali