A Department of Capital and Labor which, so far, had been merely probationary now became a permanent institution at the Capitol and in every State of the Union as well. 1910 The Expense of Living It is one of the strangest inconsistencies of social problems, that although political economists and scholars have preached the doctrine, that inventions and improved methods in mechanical lines contribute to the blessings of mankind by cheapening the necessities of life, yet in spite of their plausible declarations, the cost of living year by year grew higher and higher, entailing untold suffering and despair among the poorer classes. The cause of this lamentable perversion was due to a certain clique of unscrupulous progeny of Mammon, called trusts and corporations, who, being blinded with an insatiable desire for pelf and lust, and stupefied with a frenzied avarice, monopolized all the necessities of life. The vast occidental domain of our country was of unlimited resources and was capable of producing in abundance the products which they "cornered." The modus operandi of their rapacious operations were manifold. They limited the output of Nature's bounty in order to keep them at prohibitive values, and at the same time deprived hosts of sons of toil of earning their livelihood. They kept at their inoperative mercy--by their abominable tactics of purchase--the producer from receiving his just share, and they also mulcted the helpless consumer by the unlimited inflation of their capital stock and fictitious expenses until at length the burden of their avarice became unendurable. Although attempts have repeatedly been made by sincere executives of the Nation, by the advocation of measures for curbing the rapacity of these trusts, their endeavors met with failure on account of the vague and flexible laws already in existence, and by the array of sycophantic traitors in high circles who prevented any legislation which was conducive to the tranquility and welfare of the masses. At last, only after a series of sanguinary demonstrations by the people which almost endangered the stability of the republic, they were compelled to yield. By the passage of clearly defined laws the career of their nefarious system of spoliation was brought to an end. One of the most efficacious laws passed was the creation of a body of competent men of supreme power who appraised approximately the capitalization of these concerns and licensed them as such under oath. The States in the meantime assumed the power of fixing a maximum value for which their commodities might be placed on the market. By the above legislations the inflation of their capital and extortion from the consumer were made securely impossible. 1911 Death of an Eminent Scholar Professor Henry Richfield, a profound scholar, and the author of "How to Get Rich"--a ponderous work in twelve octavo volumes--passed away in an attic, in abject penury and squalor. 1912 The Annihilation of Mosquitoes