Mr. Eben Hale, Money Baron: 

Dear Sir,—­We desire you to realize upon whatever portion of your vast holdings is necessary to obtain, in cash, twenty millions of dollars.  This sum we require you to pay over to us, or to our agents.  You will note we do not specify any given time, for it is not our wish to hurry you in this matter.  You may even, if it be easier for you, pay us in ten, fifteen, or twenty instalments; but we will accept no single instalment of less than a million.

Believe us, dear Mr. Hale, when we say that we embark upon this course of action utterly devoid of animus.  We are members of that intellectual proletariat, the increasing numbers of which mark in red lettering the last days of the nineteenth century.  We have, from a thorough study of economics, decided to enter upon this business.  It has many merits, chief among which may be noted that we can indulge in large and lucrative operations without capital.  So far, we have been fairly successful, and we hope our dealings with you may be pleasant and satisfactory.

Pray attend while we explain our views more fully.  At the base of the present system of society is to be found the property right.  And this right of the individual to hold property is demonstrated, in the last analysis, to rest solely and wholly upon might.  The mailed gentlemen of William the Conqueror divided and apportioned England amongst themselves with the naked sword.  This, we are sure you will grant, is true of all feudal possessions.  With the invention of steam and the Industrial Revolution there came into existence the Capitalist Class, in the modern sense of the word.  These capitalists quickly towered above the ancient nobility.  The captains of industry have virtually dispossessed the descendants of the captains of war.  Mind, and not muscle, wins in to-day’s struggle for existence.  But this state of affairs is none the less based upon might.  The change has been qualitative.  The old-time Feudal Baronage ravaged the world with fire and sword; the modern Money Baronage exploits the world by mastering and applying the world’s economic forces.  Brain, and not brawn, endures; and those best fitted to survive are the intellectually and commercially powerful.

We, the M. of M., are not content to become wage slaves.  The great trusts and business combinations (with which you have your rating) prevent us from rising to the place among you which our intellects qualify us to occupy.  Why?  Because we are without capital.  We are of the unwashed, but with this difference:  our brains are of the best, and we have no foolish ethical nor social scruples.  As wage slaves, toiling early and late, and living abstemiously, we could not save in threescore years—­nor in twenty times threescore years—­a sum of money sufficient successfully to cope with the great aggregations of massed capital which now exist.  Nevertheless, we have entered the arena.  We now throw down the gage to the capital of the world.  Whether it wishes to fight or not, it shall have to fight.