ANSWER
I would advise the reading, by the members of the club, of such books as the following: “Politics in New Zealand,” “Poverty,” by Robert Hunter; “The Menace of Privilege,” by Henry George; “Letters and Addresses of Thomas Jefferson,” recently published by The Unit Book Publishing Co., New York, “Bossism and Monopoly,” by Spelling.
These books will not cost a great deal, and they will give you a very complete survey of our political and economic condition.
Washington, D. C., January 17, 1906.
Hon. Thomas E. Watson, New York.
Dear Sir: As you will notice in the wording of the question printed above, which we shall debate with the University of Cincinnati, the entire discussion will probably hinge on the term “Capitalistic combinations called trusts.”
In order to get the consensus of authoritative opinion as to what capitalistic combinations are called trusts by those who are most competent to use the term intelligently, we are taking the liberty of asking the editors of a dozen of the most prominent monthlies, weeklies and dailies in the United States to give us their definition of this term.
Will you, therefore, be kind enough to sacrifice enough of your time to state briefly what capitalistic combinations, in your opinion, should be called trusts.
Very respectfully,