governed by the basest motives, plundering in every direction, it
viewed every member of its own class with suspicion and rapacity.
Then it turned about, and with immense airs of superiority,
attributed all of its own vices and crimes to the impoverished masses
which its own system had created, whether in America or elsewhere.

The apologist may hasten forward with the explanation that the
commercial class was not to be judged by Vanderbilt's methods and
qualities. In truth, however, Vanderbilt was not more inhuman than
many of the contemporary shining lights of the business world.


"HONESTY AND INDUSTRY" ANALYZED.

If there is any one fortune commonly praised as having been acquired
"by honesty and industry," it is the Borden millions, made from
cotton factories. At the time Vanderbilt was blackmailing, the
founder of this fortune, Colonel Borden, was running cotton mills in
Fall River. His factory operatives worked from five o'clock in the
morning to seven in the evening, with but two half hours of
intermission, one for breakfast, the other for dinner. The workday of
these men, women and children was thus thirteen hours; their wages
were wretchedly low, their life was one of actual slavery.
Insufficient nourishment, overwork, and the unsanitary and disgusting
conditions in the mills, prematurely aged and debilitated them, and
were a constant source of disease, killing off considerable numbers,
especially the children.

In 1850, the operatives asked Borden for better wages and shorter
hours. This was his reply: "I saw that mill built stone by stone; I