“Talk not to me of the old-time Republic,” continued the High President; “it died because of its innate rottenness--because of the apathy of its people--and the littleness and corruption of its public men. Look at the infamous record of your Food Trusts, which forced up the prices of many articles of food so that they were beyond the reach of the great mass of the poorer people. Contemplate the Coal Trust, whose directing powers first advanced, under the Republic, the hitherto exclusively monarchical claim of Divine Right, and proceeded to manipulate the coal supply so that citizens of the Republic were frozen to death, while thousands of unknown and unrecorded others undoubtedly perished from diseases incurred as a result of insufficient warmth. The unfortunate poor might have derived a little benefit by burning oil, but what did the eminent citizen of that day do who, while not claiming to be God’s anointed, yet had contrived to absorb all the oil of the country? Why, he promptly took advantage of the situation and raised the price of oil. It is true that at the same time he, with reckless generosity, contributed some ten thousand dollars to a benevolent enterprise, but in the meantime he had pocketed a cool million by the advancement of the price of his commodity. Here was a million wrung out of the sufferings of God’s poor and a sop of ten thousand dollars thrown out to hoodwink and propitiate the Almighty. What must have been the Deity’s sentiments over this estimate of the financial perspicacity which sought to deceive him by such a ruse--a ruse which would have been apparent to the intelligence of the dullest office-boy employed in a commercial institution!” “All those events were duly criticised at the time,” murmured the Professor, “and came in for their share of censure.”