Frenzied Finance Part 30

This decision surprised me at the moment it was concluded, for with my Boston ideas I had regarded the gentlemen we had chosen to preside over the destinies of our great company--all men of the highest prestige and standing in American finance--as so powerful and so independent in their own fields as to be beyond either the coercion or the cajolery of "Standard Oil." It was because of this reputation for integrity and the confidence their names would inspire in the public mind that we had selected them; yet here was Mr. Rogers irreverently using them as the veriest p.a.w.ns in his game, and taking absolutely for granted their immediate consent to the loan of their reputations and honor for any scheme he might put up. The possibility of one of these eminent financiers objecting to be used in any way "Standard Oil" might desire was a contingency evidently so remote as to be unworthy of consideration.

The legal aspects of the problem were considered, but as we felt sure of our ground it was agreed to avoid all delays in this direction. As a matter of form and habit, however, Mr. Rogers said that at the last moment, when the papers were ready to issue, he would have the wise lawyers in charge of the legal department of 26 Broadway run over them, but whether they approved or not, he would allow no technicalities to hold up the flotation. This was certainly a departure from the well-ordered rule of "Standard Oil," but the urgency of the situation seemed to require it.

After our council adjourned, not a moment was lost. The organization was quickly shaped up and got ready, and the time was ripe to broach to Mr.

Stillman the part that he and the funds deposited in the National City Bank were to play in the forthcoming engagement. This was a crucial point, and I saw that Mr. Rogers approached the task with no gusto.

Before he went off that night he spoke about the interview which was to occur after dinner, and he said:

"I don't mind giving Fewer or Olcott or even Morgan but a minute's notice, for every one of them will do about what I ask him to, but I shall feel better when I get through with Stillman."

"But Mr. Stillman would never dare to refuse what you and Mr. William Rockefeller asked, any more than he would the request of John D., would he?" I asked.

"I don't know about that," Mr. Rogers replied. "Stillman has been growing fast of late, and it is not nearly so easy to get him to consent to run deals blindly as it was formerly. Of course, if he were in on the bottom floor with us, it would be different. All I fear is, he may ask questions, and if he does, it will not do for me to refuse an answer.

And too many answers may be dangerous to our plans."

"Why not take him in with us--you, Mr. Rockefeller, and myself?" I suggested. "The profits will stand it, and as far as my share goes I am willing."

"Not by a jugful, Lawson," said Mr. Rogers emphatically. "Stillman will only get what fairly belongs to him. He has had none of the risk or work, and we do not need him in any way except through the bank, and the bank is 'Standard Oil's,' not his. He is lucky to get what I am going to give him."

It is interesting to note in pa.s.sing the authoritative manner in which 26 Broadway speaks of the so-called inst.i.tutions of the people that it controls--the banks, trust companies, and insurance companies, having deposits of hundreds of millions of the public's money. Familiarly they are alluded to as "_our_ bank" or "_our_ insurance company," as the case may be. We are all apt to feel we own the things we use, and that Mr.

Rogers should speak of the millions of the National City Bank as "our funds" is not surprising when he possesses the power and the privileges of doing with them as he pleases. I was too fascinated at that time by the ready magic of "Standard Oil" to observe all the anomalous conditions my relation with it revealed. Such things all seemed a natural attribute of the despotic and all-powerful inst.i.tution that I served.

I was vastly relieved when Mr. Rogers reported, the following morning, that at the dinner with Stillman everything had slipped through very smoothly. Not only would the National City Bank take charge of the subscription, but through the inst.i.tution Mr. Stillman would furnish the millions necessary to form the company. This meant supplying the paraphernalia in loans, checks, and cash necessary to pay in the seventy-five millions capital, thirty-nine millions of which must at once be "book-keepingly" available to pay for the property bought from Daly, Haggin, and Tevis, and purchased by the company.

"It couldn't have gone through easier, Lawson," Mr. Rogers said quietly, "for the fact is, Stillman seems to have got the copper fever as badly as any one else and is as anxious to take a hand as we are to have him.

It will be plain sailing now unless we strike some snag with Sterling or Elliott"--referring to the princ.i.p.al "Standard Oil" lawyers.

By this time such substantial progress had been made with the plans that they were formulated on paper and the time had come when it seemed advisable to try them on the "Standard Oil" law-department. We arranged that night that next morning Mr. Rogers should himself go over the matter with Mr. Sterling. I was waiting in his office when he returned from this consultation, and the expression of his face as he entered indicated plainly that a real snag had been struck. His jaw and the droop of the upper corners of his eyelids gave a curiously sinister aspect to his face.

"Well," said he, "Sterling says if we carry out that plan there may be h--l to pay some day."

"Wherein does he say it is wrong?" I asked, not over-surprised.

"Everywhere. He says if there is any slip-up in the future Mr.

Rockefeller and myself may have to pay back a lot of money."

"Well, what are you going to do?" I said.

"Just what we started to do." No lawyer's warnings could hold him back from the bursting barrels now in sight. He went on:

"I told Sterling to forget I had asked him to pa.s.s on the matter, and that I would have my own counsel take the responsibility. So we go right ahead, and nothing is to be said to any one, not even to William Rockefeller. I have always argued that it is fool business to go to a lawyer with a scheme that depends entirely on how it is carried through as to whether it is perilous or not. I could have told Sterling there is apt to be more danger in a deal in which one makes thirty-five to forty million dollars without turning a hair, than in furnishing staid advice from an office-chair for a fixed sum per diem."

The concentrated incisiveness of these sentences! Opposition, the mere suggestion of danger, had stimulated his determination to proceed rather than enjoined caution. Himself convinced of the expediency of our deal, no power on earth could make him deviate or face about. Truly a man of blood and iron, as Bismarck or Moltke was, his erected will is a sword and a vise. To gain a predetermined goal Henry H. Rogers will go through h.e.l.l, fire, and water, swing about and make the return trip, and then repeat, until death interferes or his object is attained. Such men as he in other days subjugated kingdoms or made deserts where they operated; in religion they became St. Pauls or Savonarolas.

It may occur to my readers that in depicting Henry H. Rogers I use more whitewash than tar, and that if he is half as determined and relentless as my characterization of him, he will surely exact a terrible reprisal for what I have written here. In describing the man I adhere to the facts, and before I began this crusade I weighed well the consequences.

From the implacable wrath of Henry H. Rogers and his a.s.sociates, from a thirst for vengeance which grows more bitter as it is deferred, nothing can save me, nothing but--myself.

And now events flew. Mr. Rogers took the forenoon to notify Governor Flower, President Frederic P. Olcott, of the Central Trust Company; Marcus Daly, and J. P. Morgan, that they, in connection with William Rockefeller, himself, his counsel, and James Stillman, were to const.i.tute the directors of the new company.

"There, Lawson," he said, when he returned to 26 Broadway, "that job is done, and I am glad it's off my hands. It was all pleasant enough but the Morgan part. I wish it were possible for us to get along without having his a.s.sistance, but it isn't. Leaving him out would create comment, from which it would be only a short step to Wall Street's nosing around and manufacturing something uncomfortable, even if they didn't discover it. I don't like Morgan a bit, and he likes us less. It won't be long before one or the other of us will be able to do business without knowing what the other's about, much less consulting him--not very long."

As the "not very long" shot out from between his lips much as the tail-end of an up-chimney wind switches itself around the angle of the fireplace, I felt there was little doubt in his mind who would be left to do business after the final drag-out and clean-up. At the same time it did not dissipate a sort of come-and-go confidence I had that the old terrapin around whom so many of Wall Street's eddies have swirled would cause the 26-Broadway crowd many a broken knife-blade before crawling or being pushed into his sh.e.l.l. Turtles are not much good as sprinters, but they're blue-ribbon winners when it comes to the staying cla.s.s.

"You didn't meet with any set-back with Morgan, did you?" I asked.

"Oh, no," Mr. Rogers replied; "he simply said it would be best, everything considered, for us to put in his right-hand man, Robert Bacon, instead of himself, and I agreed with him; in fact, I think it much better, as Bacon is a rattling good fellow who takes no interest in the other fellow's business, even when he does happen to be a director in the other fellow's company, and he will recognize that this copper affair is mine, not Morgan's." He stopped abruptly. "Now, Lawson, let us settle upon what in this case is an important point, the name of the company." He had asked me the day before to think of a suitable t.i.tle for our organization, and I had put in some time with a pad and pencil experimenting. I had several names ready for him, but after I had run over them and given my reasons, he said:

"There is nothing more important than to have just the right name for a company which is going to make history, is there?"

I agreed; in fact, even more than he I was impressed with the desirability of a suitable name for a corporation whose stock was bound to become a great market star, and I was not satisfied with any I had dug up. Give a stock or a book a good name, and it is sure to be numbered among the best sellers.

Mr. Rogers continued:

"Lawson, we want something as good as 'Standard Oil,' if it is possible to find it. Now"--and he drew over one of his little writing-pads and taking a slim gold pencil from his pocket slowly wrote something and handed it to me--"how do you like this?"

I read "'Amalgamated Copper Company.' Perfect!" I exclaimed.

"I thought you would say so"; and he reached over and wrote underneath the name, "A second Standard Oil." It was an impressive moment for both of us. I folded the slip, and putting it in my pocket said: "You will see this again, Mr. Rogers, when its stock sells for as much as Standard Oil."

Surely an adder crawled from that tiny golden cylinder and upon the smooth white paper distilled its subtle venom. I, poor fool, exulting in the splendid throes of accomplishment, never dreamed that the real christening of my bantling was the toast the Master of h.e.l.l drank as the name "Amalgamated" was slowly traced upon the pad before my eyes; never dreamed that this cherished offspring on whose rearing I had lavished all I possessed of dollars, of ideals, of generous hopes and high expectations--whose growth I had literally watered with my sweat--was an imp of darkness. My fool's paradise I had planted with all manner of fair flowers and lordly trees, and in my folly believed that those who had been my friends were forever after a.s.sured of pleasant places, lovely perfumes, and grateful shade; but like the Grecian in the ancient fable, I found I had sown dragon's teeth, and the crop I reaped was of hatred and envy, pa.s.sion and revenge.

CHAPTER XXI

FIXING THE RESPONSIBILITY

On the day before Amalgamated's incorporation, Mr. Rogers and I conferred long and earnestly upon the plan of campaign for the company's organization. It was very necessary to avoid all errors, and to have everything cut and dried in advance. We were obliged to railroad things through, once started, a hitch or a side-track might be fatal, and I desired to have Mr. Rogers pa.s.s upon the programme I had drawn up.

Therein was set down the work of each captain, lieutenant, and water-carrier who was to take part, and we discussed every detail to a finish. When he had approved everything up to the point where formation ended and the flotation began, I said:

"Now comes the most important part of all--the offer to the public; for a slip-up, the misuse of a single phrase, or even of a word, at this point might destroy our whole structure."

"Quite true, Lawson," he answered, "but I have no fear of you there. Let me have your idea."

"First," I replied, "there should be an advertis.e.m.e.nt of the National City Bank, and one of the Amalgamated Company, and in this advertis.e.m.e.nt the story of the good things we have collected must be told in strong terms."

I am now about to explain exactly of what the First Crime of Amalgamated consisted, and it behooves my readers to weigh carefully the details, for I make the claim here that without further proof they will be able to realize not only my own position and purpose at this, the crucial, stage of the Amalgamated enterprise, but to grasp the cold-blooded villany of the men I am exposing.

At this time I was in a most uncomfortable and uncertain position. Each day that I did business with Mr. Rogers and his a.s.sociates increased my knowledge of their heartless brutality in dollar-making. I knew I was on dangerous ground; but to retreat meant not only my own destruction but terrible losses to my friends who had followed me and to the public which had come in on my advice. So I had made up my mind to go on but to keep my eyelids pinned back, my tongue anch.o.r.ed, and what gray matter I possessed oscillating. Remember, I was in no way sure that Mr. Rogers intended to misuse the public, but I suspected that his coat-sleeves contained more things than his shirt-cuffs, and that he was playing a game other than the one he let me see. Up to now Mr. Rogers and William Rockefeller had kept me between the people and their legal responsibility by having all public statements made over my signature. I had half-way concluded that this was done to avoid future accounting, but there might be other reasons. I determined when it came to the flotation, which would be the first time they took openly the public's money, to connect them publicly with my statements. It is next to impossible for any man to sit in front of Henry H. Rogers and give one reason for his actions and have another about his person; but this was a desperate situation and I resolved at any cost to carry my point. How difficult a task I had undertaken I did not realize until I was well into it. When I had stated the form I thought Amalgamated's first announcement should have, Mr. Rogers paused. He repeated:

"The City Bank--that's a question. Now, how do you propose to go about that advertis.e.m.e.nt?"

"Simply this way," I replied. "I will draw up a memorandum of the main strong points about the Amalgamated Company, and you will ask Mr.

Stillman to have some of his people write them into a good, clear statement. This we will publish as an advertis.e.m.e.nt over the bank's signature, and have the Amalgamated Company indorse it, showing that it is joined with the bank in responsibility for the truth of the announcement."

Mr. Rogers said nothing, but continued to gaze inquiringly at me. I went on: