The Cartoon represents the formation of trusts during the Gilded Age. Trusts were the result of strong capitalist competition in the era, as corporations wanted to dominate an industry. In a trust, a smaller businesses would leave their stocks to the boards of larger corporations, merging them with the more powerful group, resulting in the trust having enormous power over an industry. The formation of suge giant and powerful trusts was possible in part because of the interpretation by courts of the Fourteenth amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment stated that no person could be denied their property without due process. The courts of the time interpreted corporations to be considered legal persons, making it very difficult for one to be able to