Then came a crash.
"I had opposed the innovation of binding myself to buy from one concern;
for I felt intuitively that as soon as the Trust was all-powerful it
would begin to exercise dictatorial sway over the retailer.
"My fears were soon justified.
"The Trust advanced the price of its goods to the retailer, and
compelled the trade to sell at the same retail figures.
"When this system of extortion was successfully launched the Trust
determined to reward its patrons, as a means of pacifying them for
reduced profits.
"The reward came in the shape of discriminating against the
store-keepers who still handled the goods made by the fast vanishing
opposition concerns.
"I was informed that unless I signed an agreement to use only the Trust
brands of cigarettes and tobacco no more goods would be sold to me. As
the Trust embraced all of the leading brands, that meant that I must go
out of business.
"My puritan blood boiled at the thought that I must submit to the
tyranny of a band of robbers. I determined to fight to the last. Four
years of business at a net loss, drove me into insolvency; then a
mortgage was placed upon my freehold, to be followed by foreclosure. I
still struggled on, under the delusion that I was in a free land and
that the Trust iniquities would not be permitted to crush the individual
citizen forever.
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