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pressure of these conditions, great numbers of the more unfortunate
abandoned their farms in despair and sought employment elsewhere, mostly
in manufacturing centres and the large eastern cities. Much of the money
and wealth of the land had flown to those points, thither logically,
they followed, to enter the ranks of that vast army of competitors for
the crumbs that might fall from the table of an already glutted labor
mart; to learn by bitter experience how cruelly the system of
competition in all kinds of business can grind the helpless poor; to
learn, through years of suffering, the real meaning of competition, that
so long as it rules over commercial and industrial systems, the rich
must grow richer and fewer in number, while the poor must grow poorer,
and more and more numerous; to apprehend, slowly and painfully, that by
coming from farm to city they had still farther congested the already
overstocked labor market, thereby adding fierceness to the competition,
insuring an increase in the purchasing power of the dollars of those who
held the labor market, while they correspondingly decreased the
possibilities for earning the dollars they must have in order to live;
to perceive dimly in their desperation, that congestion of the labor
market speedily affected all markets; that an overstocked labor market
always meant a decrease of wages, which in turn, caused a corresponding
shrinkage in the number of purchasers for all salable goods in the
general market, followed by increased panic and stringency in the money
market; which speedily rolled up another disaster, sweeping in turn,
additional thousands into the ranks of the unemployed; demonstrating,
finally, that a repetition of these evils is inevitable; that
competition in its last analysis, means the complete destruction of all
business.

"As my father came to understand the full significance of this
deplorable situation, involving and distressing his own brothers and
sisters, his noble nature was grieved and shocked. He made haste to
place his people in a condition of financial independence. How happy and
grateful they were! And my father rejoiced with us that he was able to
offer such timely assistance. He then announced to us his determination
to devote the remainder of his life, and so much of his fortune as might
be necessary, to the solution of the problem of how best to overcome the
blighting evils of the competitive system. After much thought, long
resea