THE GREAT ASPHALT TRUST CATASTROPHE.
One's indignation at the "legalized" robberies so calmly carried on by the leaders of great speculative trusts increases with the reading of each successive article in the series of Modern Methods of "Finance," which is being so ably presented by Mr. Henry George, Jr., in Pearson's Magazine. In the great Asphalt Trust bubble, which was so ingeniously inflated for the benefit of a few great capitalists with already overflowing coffers, thousands in all walks of life who were drawn into the scheme by its specious offers of quick and sure profits were ruined. The stock was so watered, and the finances so ingeniously juggled, that there was no chance for any one but those on the "inside"—the promoters who calmly appropriated the profits accruing from their well-laid schemes—the profits contributed by a confiding public. The adjustment of this question is one of the great problems of the century, and upon its equitable adjustment depends the future peace and prosperity of our country.