To these two triumphs was now added a third, which, in its many-sidedness, gave me more satisfaction than either of the others.
It came in the course of my campaign to push out of my industrial combination the minor elements that had to be conciliated when I was forming it. These were the little fellows who were the chief original owners of the various concerns of which it was composed. They were no longer of the slightest use to the industry; they were simply clinging to it, mere parasites fattening upon my brains. I felt that the time had come for shaking them off, and forcing them to give up their holdings. I needed every share either for my own investment purposes or to bind to me the men I had put in direct charge.
Having always had the shaking off of the parasites in mind, I had never let the combination develop its full earning capacity. As my first move toward complete possession, I caused it to be given out that I was privately much disappointed with the outlook for the industry and for the combination, and was thinking of disposing of my holdings quietly. When this rumour that I was about to “unload” was brought to my attention, I refused either to confirm or to deny it. I followed this with some slight manipulations of rates, prices, and the stock market. I was, of course, careful to do nothing violent. I never forget, nowadays, that I am one of the bulwarks of conservatism and stability; I and my fellow-occupants of the field of high finance sternly repress all the stock-raiding moves of the little fellows who are struggling to get together in a hurry the millions that would enable them to break into our company.
My moves against my combination sent its stock slowly down. The minority stockholders unloaded—the most timid upon the least timid; then, as fear spread and infected the most hopeful among them, all unloaded upon the public. Finally, I gave the stock a hard blow that sent it tumbling—almost openly I sold ten thousand shares, and the sale was regarded by the public as ominously significant, because it was known that I no longer speculated, and that I frowned upon speculation and speculators. When I had gathered in what I wanted, at bottom prices, I came to the rescue, put up the price with a strong hand, denounced those who had attacked it, expressed my great faith in the future of the industry and of my combination—and caught in the net, along with a lot of bona fide sellers, a vast shoal of wriggling and gasping speculators in “shorts.”
The one of these fish that peculiarly interested me was—my son Walter. I knew he would be there, and had known it since the third week of my campaign. As I have never permitted him to see into the machinery of my financial plant, he fancied that he could operate without my finding it out. But one of my spies had brought the news to my chief brokers when he placed his second selling order. I was astonished that another son of mine had gone into such low and stupid and even dishonourable business—yes, dishonourable. My own speculative operations were never of the petty character and for the petty purposes that constitute gambling. I sent at once for a transcript of his bank account—a man in my position must have at his command every possible source of inside information and I have made getting at bank accounts one of my specialties. My astonishment became amazement when I learned that four cash items in that account, making in the total nearly the whole of his gambling capital, were four checks for fifty thousand dollars each—from his mother!
I had tried many times to get hold of her bank account; but she, partly through craft, partly through the perversity of luck, did business with one of the banks into whose secrets I had never been able to penetrate. I understand at a glance where the two hundred thousand had come from. They were her “commissions” got from me by stealth, by juggling household and personal accounts. I saw that I had the opportunity to give Walter a vivid lesson, to get back my money, and to reduce my wife once more to a proper complete dependence. So I talked business with Walter a great deal during those three months, taking always a gloomy view of prospects of my combination. From time to time through my spies I learned that he was eagerly taking advantage of these “tips,” was plunging deeper and deeper in his betting that the stock of my industrial would continue to fall. When I suddenly put up the price of the stock, he was on the wrong side of the market to the extent of all his cash, and, like scores of other fools, far beyond.
I went home to lunch on the day I hauled in my net, for I wished to be where I could brand the lesson indelibly upon my wife. I had ordered my men to give out my strong statement and to rocket the market not earlier than a quarter past one and not later than half past—our lunch hour. We had been at table about ten minutes when my wife was called away to the telephone. She was in high good-humour as she left the room; indeed, for nearly two months her confident hopes of profits that would give her a million or more in her own right had made her almost youthful in looks and in spirits. She was gone a long time, so long that I was just sending for her when she entered. The change in her was shocking. For a moment I was alarmed lest my lesson had been too severe.
Helen started up, upsetting her chair in her fright at her mother’s grey old face. “Mother!” she exclaimed, “what is it?”
Her mother tried to smile, but gave me a frightened, cowed glance. “I—I—I’m not well all of a sudden,” she said. Then she abruptly left the room, Helen following her.
As I and Ridley and Cress were smoking our after-lunch cigars, she sent for me. I found her alone in her darkened sitting-room, lying on the lounge. She asked me to sit, and then she began: “I wish to speak to you about—about Walter.”