He began by being trusted himself.

Having personally and directly proved that human nature in a monopoly
could be trusted by being trusted himself, all he had to do was to
capitalize his knowledge of human nature, use the enormous market value
of the trust people had in him to gather people about him in the
business who had a good practical business genius for being trusted too
and for keeping trusted: everybody else was shut out.

The letter with which the monopoly was started (after dealing duly with
the technical details of the business) ended like this:

"... the soundest lines of business--_viz._, fair prices, fair profits,
fair division of profits, fair recognition of service, do as you would be
done by, money back where it is practicable, one's profit so small as to
make competition not worth while, open dealing, and open books."

He had invented a monopoly which shared its profits with the people, and
which the people trusted. He was a Luther Burbank in money and people
instead of chestnuts. He raised the standard of impossibility in people,
and invented a new way for human nature to work.




CHAPTER VI

THE IMAGINATION OF CROWDS