Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated

by Thomas William Lawson

"Call all that true," angrily replied Mr. Rogers, "and you don't alter the fact that such a scheme as you map out is impossible. You must get to work and figure out some plan which is practical."

"I knew that we should find this a difficult matter to get right," I said. "Now, what is your idea of how it should be gone about?"

This time the burden of explanation was fairly upon Mr. Rogers, and I waited his answer expectantly. He replied, in much milder tones:

"There is no real difference between us, Lawson, except that you don't seem to realize the actual position we are in. We are going to do what is fair and right in this enterprise—indeed, there is no necessity for anything else—but we must not put the bank or ourselves in such a place that either or both of us can be held legally responsible for anything that happens in connection with this company. You must keep in mind Sterling's words, that the thing is risky enough anyway, and that even under the best circumstances and conditions we may find ourselves in a hole. Exactly how to do it I have not figured out, but the City Bank must appear as offering the subscriptions, and the Amalgamated Company as owning the stock, and simultaneously some one else must tell all about the advantages. Unless this latter is very fully done, the public will not only refuse to subscribe, but will get suspicious, and there might be a big scandal. It seems to me as though this part of the job is yours to do, and to do just right."

So far in our argument we were even. We eyed each other as fighters do in a ring—looking for an opening. Both sparred for an idea. Mr. Rogers' reluctance to shoulder any legal responsibility deepened my suspicions, and inwardly I sweated blood at the thought of the deviltry that might be piled up around the affair. However, there was nothing for it but to square away and keep sparring, for if I lost my temper and exploded, it meant that I should be ground up or disappear in the hopper, and then, good-by to independence. It was the first time I had ever sat in a finish game with the master of "Standard Oil," and I trembled at the possible outcome. Yet this duel—for it was as clearly a fight for life on my side as though we both were armed with deadly weapons—was but one of a thousand similar encounters the Rogerses and Rockefellers had had with other adversaries as fearless and as honest as I, and out of these heart-breaking and soul-crushing sit-downs they had always emerged survivors, while behind the "Standard Oil" juggernaut, defeated and submissive, trudged the men who had dared oppose them. Should the fate of these others be also mine? Across my mind flitted "not while my brain retains its fly-wheels and my hands their power"; and I found myself wondering if there were not some stage at which a man cornered by arbitrary conditions and legal observances was justified in bursting all such trammels and meeting artifice with physical violence. Murder is a crime against society and against nature, and we must all observe the canons of God and the regulations of the law; but at least a dozen times in my wrestles with the exasperating, grinding, hell-generating machine, it was only my inborn reverence for God's law and man's that prevented me from—well, shall I say, strangling the fox?

All this, however, was between me and my mind. I showed not a vestige of it on the surface, but went on with much earnestness:

"Mr. Rogers, I think I understand the situation perfectly, but let us see if I do. We have reached a point where we are out in the open, and the whole world is in position to pass judgment on us and our venture. There must be between us unanimity of purpose, for the time is past when I can say one thing, you another, and Stillman and his bank confuse all concerned by agreeing with one story and denying the second. It is essential that we all pull together, yet conditions are such—and no one's to blame for them, for they have so developed—that we cannot have a general pow-wow to organize a programme. We, you and I, must formulate a plan which can be sent out to the public with the approval of all concerned, all the parties to it being sure they understand absolutely its meaning, while in reality it means something different to each of them. Isn't that about it?"

"You have covered the situation fully, Lawson," approved Mr. Rogers. "You must understand that this tie-up is due to our having departed from our usual way of doing business. 'Standard Oil' never goes to the public direct for money, but works up its projects through some of our"—he almost said "dummies," but caught himself—"our lieutenants. You have worked up this affair in our name instead of your own, as would have been the safer way."

I thought to myself, "You cannot, whatever you do, evade responsibility for the millions you are to take this time"; but I went on smoothly:

"This, then, is how I see our procedure: We will write out an advertisement for the City Bank. You will have Mr. Stillman pass it for the bank, by authorizing me to publish it. You will then authorize me to publish a second advertisement on behalf of the Amalgamated Company. If there is any slip-up, I, as the agent of both, will have to become responsible instead of you. Is that right?"