"It was Herbert Lax who made me a bankrupt," exclaims one of the
committee. "He caused my brother to commit suicide. If ever there was a
cold-blooded villain, Lax is the man."

"His acts were those of charity compared to some of the Transgressors,"
observes Nevins, before he continues to announce the list. "Is the
bankrupting of men to be compared with the heinous crime of enslaving
children?

"The Cotton King, Herod Butcher of Fall River, who thrives on the life's
blood of ten thousand minors--pitiable slaves of his looms, is one of
the transgressors who must atone for a life-long career as a merciless
infanticide.

"No man is so base that he would stand by and see a child ruthlessly
slain. Yet the nation stands supinely in the presence of a system of
factory labor which tolerates the inhuman employment of children. The
hazy halo of legality is between the transgressor and the people; and
men remain unmoved.

"It was for humanity's sake that our countrymen gave their life
ungrudgingly on the battle-fields of Cuba. But what of the inhumanity at
home? A word spoken against an American manufacturer is a crime in the
eyes of the Magnates, and the offender is chastised accordingly."

"I have three sons who grew to manhood, stunted and untutored, who had
to work for their daily bread in the mills of Herod Butcher," declares
Martin Stark, the Rhode Island committeeman.

"Judas D. Savage is another of the transgressors. A hundred flaming oil
wells lit by the torch of the incendiary, hired by his gold, wrote his
proscription on the scroll of high heaven.

"And Roger Q. Alger, of the defaulting Savings Bank dynasty comes to you
recommended by the cries of anguish that have been uttered by thousands
of widows, orphans, struggling husbands and provident wives, who have
awakened to find their savings distributed as booty to the Barons.

"But what need have I to recount the misdeeds of this list of men. If
the first man or woman whom you meet on the street cannot give you a
description of them that will stand as an indictment, then consider the
men I name innocent!"

He then completes the reading of the list. There is a painful silence
when he ceases to speak. The Forty seem absorbed in deep thought. The
chairman finally speaks:

"You have heard the reading of the list," he says. "If it is your desire
to substitute names for those mentioned, now is the time to propose the
change."

"I move that the list be adopted as