writers, intent upon
pandering to a supposed popular appetite for sensation, pile exposure
upon exposure, and hold up the objects of their diatribes as monsters of
commercial and political crime. Neither of these classes has sought to
establish definitely the relation of the great fortunes to the social
and industrial system which has propagated them. Consequently, these
superficial effusions and tirades--based upon a lack of understanding of
the propelling forces of society--have little value other than as
reflections of a certain aimless and disordered spirit of the times.
With all their volumes of print, they leave us in possession of a
scattered array of assertions, bearing some resemblance to facts, which,
however, fail to be facts inasmuch as they are either distorted to take
shape as fulsome eulogies or as wild, meaningless onslaughts.

They give no explanation of the fundamental laws and movements of the
present system, which have resulted in these vast fortunes; nor is there
the least glimmering of a scientific interpretation of a succession of
states and tendencies from which these men of great wealth have emerged.
With an entire absence of comprehension, they portray our
multimillionaires as a phenomenal group whose sudden rise to their
sinister and overshadowing position is a matter of wonder and surprise.
They do not seem to realize for a moment--what is clear to every real
student of economics--that the great fortunes are the natural, logical
outcome of a system based upon factors the inevitable result of which is
the utter despoilment of the many for the benefit of a few.

This being so, our plutocrats rank as nothing more or less than as so
many unavoidable creations of a set of processes which must imperatively
produce a certain set of results. These results we see in the
accelerated concentration of immense wealth running side by side with a
propertyless, expropriated and exploited multitude.

The dominant point of these denunciatory emanations, however, is that
certain of our men of great fortune have acquired their possessions by
dishonest methods. These men are singled out as especial creatures of
infamy. Their doings and sayings furnish material for many pages of
assault. Here, again, an utter lack of knowledge and perspective is
observable. For, while it is true that the methods employed by these
very rich men have been, and are, fraudulent, it is also true that they
are but the more conspicuous