The importing merchant must buy gold of the brokers (who are the railroad managers) at its market value, to pay government duties on their imports, and thus the companies make the difference between the price paid and the price obtained. When some favorite railroad stocks are to be forced upon the market, these brokers, who can do so at pleasure, supply the money market, and sell the stocks at a large profit; and when the object is to reduce the value of stocks, they withdraw from circulation a sufficient amount of the currency to cause a stringency in the market, until their end is accomplished. Controlling absolutely the gold market, as well as the secretary of the treasury in his financial operations, they have only to corner a few millions of currency to make the entire commerce of the country subserve their special purposes. With all of their interests united, all their business concentrated in Wall street and controlled by six or eight leading men, they regulate the finances, fix the value of the produce of the country, and hold the producers of the great west in a state of vassalage which has no precedent, even in despotic countries. The secretary of the national treasury, who is supposed to control the financial department of government, is in fact the servant of these men, and whatever policy is beneficial to their interests must be adopted by the government. To the uninitiated it may appear impossible for a few men in New York to exercise a controlling influence over the financial policy of the nation, but if we remember that all the wealth of these corporations, actual and fictitious, is concentrated in that city, or controlled by men doing business there, and that an immense stream of money, received by these corporations from passengers and shippers, is constantly flowing into Wall street from all parts of the country, we can understand their power and appreciate their influence. The fact that it requires more than twice as much money to pay the interest on the bonds issued by these corporations, and dividends on their stock, as would pay the interest on the national debt, is significant. When private corporations combine their interests and become so powerful as to require an annual expenditure of more than twice the amount expended by the United States government, and when their revenues more than quadruple those of the government, they must of necessity exercise a controlling influence over the financial and industrial interests of the country. This fact is now being demonstrated by a combination of the railroad corporations of the country, as the people know to their cost.