We stepped upon the elevator and in a moment more were ushered into one of the upper stories, and I found myself confronted by a display, such as would characterize a first-class exposition of the present day in the United States; with this difference, however; it represented the poverty and misery of the hovel as faithfully as it did the grandeur of the palace. Everything seemed familiar and I felt as if I had been suddenly transported to New York or London. Every feature of the competitive system of production and distribution was appropriately illustrated, together with the inevitable consequences to the people; wealth beyond the dreams of avarice for a favored few and hopeless poverty and degradation for the many.
The clothing of the workmen in contrast with the gorgeous apparel of the fashionable bon ton; the furnishings of the hovels of the poor and the mansions of the rich placed side by side; the coarse and homely fare of the wealth producer compared with the dainty viands of the non-producer; all told more plainly than words the story of undeserved poverty, and in millions of cases, the abject want and misery of the most useful classes of society, in striking contrast with the unearned abundance of the idle, and for all practical purposes, the useless rich. The manner in which the wealth created by the toiling millions, passed through the channels of trade, into the possession of a few wealthy speculators, was illustrated by pictures and printed explanations, in almost endless variety, so that even the most obtuse observers, could not fail to get a clear idea of the practical workings of a system of commercial exchange, under the operation of which, interest, profit and rent were always added to the market price of the product, every time it changed hands.
One of these illustrations was entitled, "Thirteen Usuries on One Hog." It represented a hog passing from the farmer at one end of a long bridge to the workman at the other. From the time the hog starts from the producer on the farm until it reaches its destination in the workshop of the consumer, its size (price) has become colossal.
In exchange for the hog a plow starts from the shop to the farm, and the size (price) increases in the same proportion. Every time any commodity passed one of the commercial toll gates established between the producer and the consumer, the price was increased for the benefit of speculators who contributed nothing to its value. All this was of course to the manifest loss of the producers. The long bridge was labeled, THE PROFIT SYSTEM.