the business from the personal point of view and correspondingly skittish. His connection with the concern depends on his confidence in another and once this confidence is shaken or he fears for the safety of his capital, he sells out. Being ignorant of the business, he is a coward.
Upon this ignorance and cowardice the Plutocrats built themselves. Manipulators and stock jobbers are they, and the other fellows' weakness makes it an easy matter for them to gain control of industry. Under their rule small enterprises disappear—being swallowed up or merged in the trusts. All the old dividing lines in production are wiped out. Not only are individual plants merged to form an industrial trust, but allied industries are brought together in great departmental trusts. The Steel Trust, for instance, is no longer a mere manufacturer of steel, but a miner of ore and coal, transporter by lake, sea and rail, and constructor of ships, railroads, bridges and buildings. All the processes, from the raw material to the final delivery of the finished product into the hands of the consumer, are under its control. It has become the Base Metal Department of American industry.
Here, then, is the latest development in industry—the Departmental Trust controlled by the Plutocrats.
One step yet remains to be taken before the process of concentration of control is complete, and that is to co-ordinate the departmental trusts by means of interlocking directorates. These are rapidly forming, in spite of legislative enactments to the contrary, and it cannot be long until we shall have in full operation the Industrial Feudalism*—the special product of the Plutocrats.
NOTE ON INDUSTRIAL FEUDALISM
Under the ancient Feudalism, land was the source of wealth for the majority of the people, but the ownership of the land was monopolized by a few great landlords—Barons, Counts, etc. The people, needing access
