quart. One-quarter of this cent came to us. Three-quarters of it went to
the Trust. Then milk was raised another cent, only we didn't get any
of that cent. Our complaints were useless. The Trust was in control. We
discovered that we were pawns. Finally, the additional quarter of a cent
was denied us. Then the Trust began to squeeze us out. What could we do?
We were squeezed out. There were no dairymen, only a Milk Trust."

"But with milk two cents higher, I should think you could have
competed," Ernest suggested slyly.

"So we thought. We tried it." Mr. Calvin paused a moment. "It broke us.
The Trust could put milk upon the market more cheaply than we. It could
sell still at a slight profit when we were selling at actual loss.
I dropped fifty thousand dollars in that venture. Most of us went
bankrupt.* The dairymen were wiped out of existence."

* Bankruptcy--a peculiar institution that enabled an
individual, who had failed in competitive industry, to
forego paying his debts. The effect was to ameliorate the
too savage conditions of the fang-and-claw social struggle.

"So the Trust took your profits away from you," Ernest said, "and you've
gone into politics in order to legislate the Trust out of existence and
get the profits back?"

Mr. Calvin's face lighted up. "That is precisely what I say in my
speeches to the farmers. That's our whole idea in a nutshell."

"And yet the Trust produces milk more cheaply than could the independent
dairymen?" Ernest queried.