consequence of their folly would put an end to all commerce. The sin of
"over-capitalization" differed in magnitude only, not in kind, from the
daily practice of every salesman in every shop. Nevertheless, the popular
fury that it aroused must be reckoned among the main causes contributory
to the savage insurrections that accomplished the downfall of the
republic.

With the formation of powerful and unscrupulous trusts of both labor and
capital to subdue each other the possibilities of combination were not
exhausted; there remained the daring plan of combining the two
belligerents! And this was actually effected. The laborer's demand for an
increased wage was always based upon an increased cost of living, which
was itself chiefly due to increased cost of production from reluctant
concessions of his former demands. But in the first years of the twentieth
century observers noticed on the part of capital a lessening reluctance.
More frequent and more extortionate and reasonless demands encountered a
less bitter and stubborn resistance; capital was apparently weakening just
at the time when, with its strong organizations of trained and willing
strike-breakers, it was most secure. Not so; an ingenious malefactor,
whose name has perished from history, had thought out a plan for bringing
the belligerent forces together to plunder the rest of the population. In
the accounts that have come down to us details are wanting, but we know
that, little by little, this amazing project was accomplished. Wages rose
to incredible rates. The cost of living rose with them, for
employers--their new allies wielding in their service the weapons
previously used against them, intimidation, the boycott, and so
forth--more than recouped themselves from the general public. Their
employees got rebates on the prices of products, but for consumers who
were neither laborers nor capitalists there was no mercy. Strikes were a
thing of the past; strike-breakers threw themselves gratefully into the