III
Charles Orsino squirmed in the chair. "Uncle—" he pleaded.
"Yes," F. W. Taylor chuckled, "Old Amadeo and his colleagues were called criminals. They were called bootleggers when they got liquor to people without worrying about the public debt or excise taxes. They were called smugglers when they sold cheap butter in the south and cheap margerine in the north. They were called counterfeiters when they sold cheap cigarettes and transportation tickets. They were called high-jackers when they wrested goods from the normal inflation-ridden chain of middlemen and delivered them at a reasonable price to the consumers.
"They were criminals. Bankers were pillars of society.
"Yet these bankers who dominated society, who were considered the voice of eternal truth when they spoke, who thought i
