g, in her way, on parallel
lines, "that there ought to be a limit to the amount of property one man
can get into his absolute possession, to say nothing of the methods by
which he gets it."

"That never yet could be set," Morgan replied. "It is impossible for any
number of men to agree on it. I don't see any line between absolute
freedom of acquisition, trusting to circumstances, misfortune, and death
to knock things to pieces, and absolute slavery, which is communism."

"Do you believe, Mr. Morgan, that any vast fortune was ever honestly come
by?"

"That is another question. Honesty is such a flexible word. If you mean a
process the law cannot touch, yes. If you mean moral consideration for
others, I doubt. But property accumulates by itself almost. Many a man
who has got a start by an operation he would not like to have
investigated, and which he tries to forget, goes on to be very rich, and
has a daily feeling of being more and more honorable and respectable,
using only means which all the world calls fair and shrewd."

"Mr. Morgan," suddenly asked Margaret, who had been all the time an
uneasy listener to the turn the talk had taken, "what is railroad
wrecking?"

"Oh, it is very simple, at least in some of its forms. The 'wreckers,' as
they are called, fasten upon some railway that is prosperous, pays
dividends, pays a liberal interest on its bonds, and has a surplus. They
contrive to buy, no matter of what cost, a controlling interest in it,
either in its stock or its management. Then they absorb its surplus; they
let it run down so that it pays no dividends, and by-and-by cannot even
pay its interest; then they squeeze the bondholders, who may be glad to
accept anything that is offered out of the wreck, and perhaps then they
throw the property into the hands of a receiver, or consolidate it with
some other road at a value enormously greater than the cost to them in
stealing it. Having in one way or another sucked it dry, they look round
for another road."

"And all the people who first invested lose their money, or the most of
it?"

"Naturally, the little fish get swallowed."

"It is infamous," said Margaret--"infamous! And men go to work to do
this, to get other people's property, in cool blood?"

"I don't know how cool, but it is in the way of business."

"What is the difference between that and getting possession of a bank and
robbing it?" she asked, hot with indignation.

"Oh, one is an operation,