ABSTRACT
The loosely cohering plutocracy is of very recent birth. Today, more than ever before, a plutocratic group has power, prestige, and pretensions, with a favored economic position and a wide notoriety. The plutocratic economy is based upon a narrowing control of enlarging funds; upon a unity of command in the industrial world; upon the leadership of the large purse. The plutocracy made its profits under the new regime, but it formed its habits and gained its appetites under the old. Without the support of the small investors and of many men who have not even the wherewithal to purchase a single share of stock, the pillars of the resplendent plutocracy would crumble and fall. The plutocracy can only maintain itself so long as the mass of investors, large and small, are its adherents. To prevent the democracy, through its control of politics, from conquering the industrial field, the plutocracy enters politics.
