I think I have made clear so far the conditions under which these vital statements were put forward and have lodged the legal responsibility for them where it belongs. The National City Bank is plainly liable for violation of the published stipulations under which subscriptions were allotted, and it is common knowledge that the stock was allotted one share in five subscribed for, while the original list of subscriptions shows that the total allotment was less than twenty-seven millions and the full subscription less than double the amount to be allotted.
It is common knowledge that the dividends were cut to two per cent., and are at the present time, the best ever known in the copper business, only four per cent., and that they have been cut under eight per cent., so they either could not have been twelve to sixteen per cent. at the time it was stated they were, or there has been great fraud committed since. As we are dealing with the greatest national bank in the country, it will be simple for the Government and banking officials at Washington instantly to disprove my statements if they are false; otherwise they must take action, civil and criminal, against the National City Bank.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE SUBSCRIPTION OPENS
When Mr. Rogers on returning from his conference with James Stillman and William Rockefeller had given the word that the course was clear, I was conscious of the necessity of clinching the decision so that there could be no further backing and filling. I told Mr. Rogers so and suggested that we insert at once the advertisement of the City Bank and the Amalgamated Company in the New York papers, and that the following day I have arrangements concluded with my advertising agents for their publication throughout the country. The announcements appeared in New York and the following day they were spread before the public in the great papers of this country and England. Thus was Amalgamated launched.
With the appearance of these long anticipated announcements the pent-up copper excitement burst forth, and an avalanche of queries began to pour in upon us all. The interest was tremendous, and I felt certain we were to reap a greater success than I had dared dream of. The days preceding the opening of the subscription were taken up in answering a thousand questions regarding conditions, in supervising the advertising, and steering "Coppers" in the market. On the eve of the opening day Mr. Rogers said to me:
"Lawson, at last we are to know how well your work has been done. The time of talk ends to-night and after that we'll have facts to go upon. What do you place the subscription at?"
"I'll stake my prospective profits that when the books close there will be from forty to fifty millions subscribed and that when your 'Standard Oil' experts have analyzed the subscriptions they will tell you that three-quarters of all have come from the country—from my campaign—and not over a quarter from the 'Standard Oil's' following and Wall Street," I answered. "Then you and Mr. Rockefeller will admit I was right when I told you that the public will respond to open and fair treatment when it is deaf and blind to stock trickery and manipulation."