small combination not a trust, but you are aware yourself of its lack
of strength. You are beginning to divine your own end. You feel
yourself and your branch stores a pawn in the game. You see the powerful
interests rising and growing more powerful day by day; you feel their
mailed hands descending upon your profits and taking a pinch here and
a pinch there--the railroad trust, the oil trust, the steel trust, the
coal trust; and you know that in the end they will destroy you, take
away from you the last per cent of your little profits.

"You, sir, are a poor gamester. When you squeezed out the three small
groceries here in Berkeley by virtue of your superior combination, you
swelled out your chest, talked about efficiency and enterprise, and sent
your wife to Europe on the profits you had gained by eating up the three
small groceries. It is dog eat dog, and you ate them up. But, on the
other hand, you are being eaten up in turn by the bigger dogs, wherefore
you squeal. And what I say to you is true of all of you at this table.
You are all squealing. You are all playing the losing game, and you are
all squealing about it.

"But when you squeal you don't state the situation flatly, as I have
stated it. You don't say that you like to squeeze profits out of others,
and that you are making all the row because others are squeezing your
profits out of you. No, you are too cunning for that. You say something
else. You make small-capitalist political speeches such as Mr. Calvin
made. What did he say? Here are a few of his phrases I caught: 'Our
original principles are all right,' 'What this country requires is a
return to fundamental American methods--free opportunity for all,' 'The
spirit of liberty in which this nation was born,' 'Let us return to the
principles of our forefathers.'