The Transgressors Story of a Great Sin

ostrum, Chadwick, a man of fifty, seared and bent, li

ved of the power of looking at the world as a place of rest; he is a bundle of nerves, and at the slightest provocatio

t, it is apparent that he means to give the audience an emb

le to reclaim the earth from the domination of brute force; it is the inherent idea that the founders of this Republic so

happiness. When the men of a nation are debased to a position of minor importance, where they can only act as ser

ce will exemplif

of my father I had come into a fortune of fifty thousand dollars. I lived in the oil region, and sought to engage in the oil industry.

ng, came to me with a proposition to incorporate my well in the Trust's system. The well was capable of earning a net profit of seventy thousand dollars a yea

d inflated stock in the Trust and allowed my well to be absorbed in the system, I would find myself oppo

in the end; or of intimidating me by their threats, the agents reported

road discriminated against me; it gave the Trust a rebate on all oil shipped over the road and made me pay t

its oil to the sea-board at a cost that enables it to undersell all competitors. And for a time the price of oil was reduce

ally located I was able to ho

sell oil at figures lower than I could possibly sell it. I lost my trade. In an effort to retrench, my fortune was consumed, and from a position of affluence I descended to beggary, and had to join the ranks as an employe

withstood the assau

the mandates of the law; a corporation that can, with utter impunity, resort to arson

en who are in want, or in actual dread of being thrown out of employment, however unremunerative, who will

stand against the few plutocrats who now usurp the avenues of human activity; and I believe that we will be able to enlist me

is statement, Hiram Goo

, obtains

onducted a retail tobacco store in Concord, in my native state. My business sufficed to insure me a decent living, and a comfortable margin to be husbanded a

ompetition as is met with in all pursuits. It did not

with strict provisos that the retailer would not handle the product of any concern out of the Tobacco Combine. In order to ingratiate themselves with the store-keepers,

dent tobacco manufacturers strove to hold

cern; for I felt intuitively that as soon as the Trust was all-powe

were soon

ods to the retailer, and compelled the

unched the Trust determined to reward its patrons,

gainst the store-keepers who still handled the go

s of cigarettes and tobacco no more goods would be sold to me. As the Trust e

a mortgage was placed upon my freehold, to be followed by foreclosure. I still struggled on, under the delusion that I was in a free land and that the Trust iniquities would not be permitted to crus

and I was obliged to apply for a patrimony from the Government, as a veteran of th

gerous foe that has ever assailed a land; a foe that seeks to entrench itself by emasculatin

he aged speaker tre

hatever vigor remains in me will be expended in my

os Tweed, the Toba

ave lived to see the shackles placed upon the wrists of my own sons.

ent speech, Hiram Goodel totters. He would fall,

hesitate to give significance to the prayer that freedom may again be the

ievances of the members of the committee

infancy, preferring its fertile plains to the rocky hillside homestead in Vermont, is the

n that book we can find authority for complaining against tyrants; if we can find a

ngless? 'Deliver me from the oppressio

oppressed; because the oppressor exists.

make a living by producing wheat, and you cannot purchase it without paying tribute to a band of speculators,

ll receive for my wheat; it sets the price a

rt one, the Trust still controls the wheat

s enjoy the advance of the price of a seaso

t, crops are sold a year in advance. There are never two years of exceptionally la

is determined by the factor. The farmer receives a certain number of bushels of 'seed' wheat from the factor, agreeing to repay him with two or two and a half bushels of t

e except to an agent of the Trusts, as the Trust has arranged traffic rates with every railroad; and the wheat, if bought

en the crop is to be sold, and so gives a semblance o

oss of the crop by drought, or excessive rain; he has to do the harvesti

pay exorbitantly for the brea

traffic rates, bread could be sold at a fair profit for three cents a loaf, a

per cent. When the interest is paid and my yearly expenses are defrayed, I am lucky to have one hundred dollars to my credit in the bank. For the past six years I have been obliged to send whatever I h

citizen who can foresee the inevitable result that will come from a perpetuation of Commercial Despotism. I am not afraid to assert my

te accredited to Maryland,

uin back to the beginning; you are interested only in that

nward impulse given me when I was a lad of sixteen. I had entered the employ of a banking house and was a clerk in their counting room. It was m

was tempt

peculation; this encouraged me to take more. So matters went on until I was guilty of having stolen a sum aggregating ten

o get out of the position in which I was placed. Then the idea struck me that I

determin

Soon I had three times the sum r

ney to the safe an

nture in dealing with

y entering upon a career

fortune. I was sought out by the Magnates of many of t

he sufferers; I was one of the scoundrels active in bringing the distress u

to me to be one of the best things in which to invest money.

my losses I dissipated my

g I had touched was a speculative venture. The cursed practice of watering sto

n thrown out to ensnare others. My former partner, Jame

leads to th

esults that follow the practice of fictitious speculation. Before you all I

ve lost my fortune; I have felt it creeping upon me for the past three years. In my inmost heart I feel a be

resolved to use the rest of my strength in battling with the enemies of the people. And I am the more in earnest since I can neve

grievances, I do not know; but if it will lead to any go

This has embittered me against the men who have worked the ruin of the masses more than anything else. I have pledged myself to avenge t

hat is of an exceptional nature. True, no one present is aware t

e than a mere recital of crime and a fall from affluence to penury

esenting the federation of stone

and poorly clad, his face is cleanly shaven. At every pause in his speech he runs his fingers through his thick dishevelled black hair, and finishe

far as my birth. I never had a fair start. My father was a

y that old man, the self-styled philanthropist, Ephraim Barnaby, a hypocrite of the first wa

of the moulding shop. This was a most important place and I felt

his end I spent four hours every night in reading and experimenting. At the end of another t

get the degree. The opportunity of utilizing my practical knowledge

e shops in the largest iron manufacturing city in the state.

led to the killing of the men by th

em. The details of the strike are known to you all. The story of the shooting of unarmed mill hands at th

ion; the mill owners first sought to win me over; then they contrived to do away w

me and refused to let me return after the strike was declared off. Not satisfied with having turned me away from the

en able to give the trade Union many valuable points. It was upo

oes the additional fifteen per cent. go? To fatten the pockets of the favored manufacturer. But that is only half the story. The fifteen per cent. that is supposed to protect the American laborer, does it go for this end? Not at al

ron workers this truth that I am ho

I am an American to the back-bone, and I propose to f

willing to lend my support, provided the ends he se

en who loved me and were the idols of my heart. I saw this home destroyed. I saw my children turned adrift and their

arest to me, I have nothing left to live for but the fulfillment of my reso

all take a half hour or more to tell our tale of woe," observes

the time of the speakers to five minutes, and t

ntences which describe the heart-breaking history of me

patents; others who have been the victims of unjust legislation, the dupes of the speculator, the be

as an anarchist. He had been admitted to the councils on the supposition that the best way to pacify and pla

cceeded in eluding the police during the day

e he had to fight, this modern Titan had seized his tormenter and without apparent effort had dashed the man's brains out by buttin

ompanions were, many of them, students of sociology. Upon his release he had come to this coun

rts that man should accordingly dispense with the forms of government and depend upon animal instinct to regulate the social communit

ns at the conclusi

for a political revolution have been brou