mistily to take in the
tremendous forces which radiated from "Standard Oil," there occurred a
financial crash, and the people saw their savings, invested in what they
supposed were the legal and absolute titles of ownership in the material
things of their country, suddenly decline in value and contract to
prices representing a loss to them of billions of dollars. Throughout
the misery and suffering this terrible collapse occasioned, "Standard
Oil" remained undisturbed as before and amid all the confusion kept
sternly on its dollar-"making" way. Indeed, it seemed to gain in bulk as
other institutions diminished or disappeared. Then it was that the
people first began to demand, what they are still to-day fiercely
demanding, "What is this 'Standard Oil'?" "What is its secret?" "Whence
came it?" and, "Can our republic endure if it, too, endures?"

To-day "Standard Oil," the "Private Thing," is the greatest power in the
land--more powerful than the people individually or as a whole, and its
secret is the knowledge of the trick of finance by which dollars are
"made" from nothing in unlimited quantities subject to no laws of man
nor nature. The dollars that "Standard Oil" _makes_ are of the same
value as the dollars of the people as made by the Government, which
dollars we know can be coined and put into circulation only in
accordance with law and for the benefit of all the people.

For the better understanding of those readers not versed in the
technical phrases of finance and economics I shall in my narrative make
use of certain terms of my own which will convey meanings readily
grasped when the sense in which they are used is once comprehended. In
speaking of "Standard Oil," for instance, I will speak of it as a
"Private Thing." By that term I desire to typify the active, private
identity of a corporation which comprehends, but exists independently
of, its legalized functions. Some corporations have a real personality
in addition to that which their name and the corporation laws prescribe
for them, an inherent power, or individuality, which exists above and
apart from their physical functions as sellers of oil, of coal, or of
ice. This may be an incarnation of the power developed in the
transaction of their legalized occupations, but the "Private Thing" is
uncontrolled by any of the restrictions by which the law defines and
curbs the corporation whose name it bears. Already I have distinguished
between "Standard Oil" which