[9] See detailed account of the lawless Anarchistic methods used by Standard Oil Trust to destroy competitors in "Wealth Against Commonwealth" by H. D. Lloyd. Again there are a few university "authorities" who, at the risk of their living and the success of the institutions they represent, have told the truth fearlessly. They oppose monopoly and the gold standard. But their testimony is buried beneath the overwhelming mass of prejudice, sophistry and misinformation supplied by their colleagues. Very distinct from any of these classes is that swarm of cowardly pusillanimous book-worms, who, as underlings in the large universities, and as full-fledged professors in the small colleges, retail at second-hand with stupid pertinacity and pig-headed bitterness, all the errors of the "authorities," together with new ones of their own special brew. It is by the prejudiced and purchased testimony of such men as these that the monopolies of the country try to prove that empty stomachs are full, bare backs clothed, and that a constantly growing and appreciating dollar is an honest one. It is with such untrustworthy witnesses that they attempt to prove to us that the men who have stolen our property are more honest than we. The teacher witness for the defense may be more "respectable and learned" than the witnesses of the prosecution, but when we see that the universities are built and professors' salaries paid from the booty wrung from the people--in other words, "that the teacher rides to court on one of the very horses taken from Farmer Hayseed's stable" it does not take us long to decide that this testimony is misleading and false. Therefore, the workmen, merchants and tax-payers who compose the jury, which is to hand in its verdict in 1900, must refuse to consider the testimony of these collegiate, pulpit and editorial witnesses, who are proven to be sharers in the tribute forced from the people by that gigantic and almost sublime system of world exploitation carried on scientifically and persistently by those powerful "trusts" which have cornered the world's gold and monopolized nearly every necessity and comfort of life. The pivotal point in this campaign is the question of the reliability of witnesses. Not only do opinions differ, but the history, statistics, and facts, advanced by the defenders of monopoly and the gold standard contradict the history, statistics and facts discovered by the champions of the people. There can be only one truthful history of the crime of seventy-three, and the seventy-three other crimes of the shirkers against the workers. Figures do not lie. Only one set of statistics, as to the rise in the value of the gold dollar, can possibly be correct. Facts do not conflict. When men contradict each other upon a question of fact, one side is wrong. Whose history and statistics are we to believe in this campaign?