It is the brain of the Plutocracy that controls the government, and this brain consists of seven* small and powerful groups of men.

And do not forget that these groups are working to-day practically in unison.
* Even as late as 1907, it was considered that eleven groups dominated the country, but this number was reduced by the amalgamation of the five railroad groups into a supreme combination of all the railroads.

These five groups so amalgamated, along with their financial and political allies, were (1) James J.Hill with his control of the Northwest; (2) the Pennsylvania railway group, Schiff financial manager, with big banking firms of Philadelphia and New York; (3) Harriman, with Frick for counsel and Odell as political lieutenant, controlling the central continental, Southwestern and Southern Pacific Coast lines of transportation; (4) the Gould family railway interests; and (5) Moore, Reid, and Leeds, known as the "Rock Island crowd." These strong oligarchs arose out of the conflict of competition and travelled the inevitable road toward combination.
"Let me point out the power of but one of them, the railroad group.

It employs forty thousand lawyers to defeat the people in the courts.

It issues countless thousands of free passes to judges, bankers, editors, ministers, university men, members of state legislatures, and of Congress.