When a few men get possession of one of the necessaries of life, either through ownership of a natural resource or through unfair business methods, and use that control to extort undue profits, as in the recent cases of the Sugar Trust and the beef-packers, they injure the average man without good reason, and they are guilty of a moral wrong.

It does not matter whether the undue profit comes through stifling competition by rebates or other crooked devices, through corruption of public officials, or through seizing and monopolizing resources which belong to the people.

The result is always the same--a toll levied on the cost of living through special privilege.
The income of the average family in the United States is less than $600 a year.

To increase the cost of living to such a family beyond the reasonable profits of legitimate business is wrong.

It is not merely a question of a few cents more a day for the necessaries of life, or of a few cents less a day for wages.