“What amount do you represent, Mr. Hopper?” asked Henderson.
“With my own and my friends', altogether, rising a million. What do you propose?”
“You got our circular?”
“Yes, and we don't accept the terms.”
“I'm sorry. It is the best that we could do.”
“That is, the best you would do!”
“Pardon me, Mr. Hopper, the best we could do under the circumstances. We gave you your option, to scale down on a fair estimate of the earnings of the short line (the A. and B.), or to surrender your local bonds and take new ones covering the whole consolidation, or, as is of course in your discretion, to hold on and take the chances.”
“Which your operations have practically destroyed.”
“Not at all, Mr. Hopper. We offer you a much better security on the whole system instead of a local road.”
“And you mean to tell me, Mr. Henderson, that it is for our advantage to exchange a seven per cent. bond on a road that has always paid its interest promptly, for a four and a half on a system that is manipulated nobody knows how? I tell you, gentlemen, that it looks to outsiders as if there was crookedness somewhere.”