"As this great creditor class was the principal employer of labor and controlled both the buying and selling of products which the people must have for the purposes of consumption, thus fixing both the income and the expenses of the producer, it was not difficult to collect their tribute. A pro rata of the great annual charge of interest, dividends and profits against the people was collected from the producer in the shape of a discount on what he had to sell, whether it was his labor or its products. The remainder was charged up to consumption and constituted a part of the price that was paid for every article that was purchased. The cost to the consumer of every commodity purchased, consisted of five distinct elements: First, interest on the money supposed to be invested in its production and distribution; Second, rent upon all the buildings in which it had been stored, which would include cars or vessels used in transportation; Third, profit to all who had handled the product; Fourth, its pro rata of taxation and Fifth, the wages paid to the labor expended in its production, transportation, superintendence and distribution. This fifth element in the cost was all that went to useful labor, while the other elements went to the great financial, industrial and commercial combines which held the masses of the people in their grasp. "Of course under the operation of this system, where both the income and the expenses of the producer were determined by this great creditor class for its own selfish purposes, it is not strange that the condition of the average toiler was one of poverty, nor is it strange that a widespread spirit of unrest, and often of angry and violent discontent threatened the peace of society and the perpetuity of established institutions and a stable government. But to us, it does indeed look strange that the brawny millions whose strong arms and undaunted courage had conquered the untamed forces of nature and made the wilderness a fit dwelling place for a refined and cultured people, could have been bound, hand and foot, by such a gossamer thread as the puny power of a few owners of gold. But when we take into consideration the fundamental truth that mind controls matter, and that the few who were at the top had cultivated brains while the many who were at the bottom had only cultivated muscles, the mystery is solved. The toiling masses had no conception of their power, and on their plane of intelligence were utterly unable to hold their own against the wily schemes of the more intelligent few.