Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of AmalgamatedLawson, Thomas William
History
Frenzied Finance, Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated
Lawson, Thomas William
Amalgamated Copper Co.; Gas companies -- Massachusetts -- Boston; Insurance -- United States; Speculation; Standard Oil Company
I have dwelt on this Utah episode because it shows phases of the
"System's" methods never heretofore made public, just as episodes which
are to follow in the narrative will develop other startling and
ingenious deviltries. But, before going on, the sequel to the Utah
affair deserves a place in the story. A sequel there was, and my readers
will agree, I think, that it has a mordant humor quite its own. To-day,
after the years that have gone by, I cannot think of this tremendous
bunco game, in spite of its cruel and tragic phases, without a laugh at
the manner in which the smart gentlemen who composed the Utah
Consolidated crowd were "outwitted." Bear in mind that Clark, Ward & Co.
were among the "flyest" operators in Wall Street's juggle factories.
They asked no odds of any one in shuffling and dealing their cards, and
with them was the eminent Samuel Untermyer, surely the head of his class
of corporation counsellors, and himself a master in the fine arts of
copper financiering. On the conclusion of the deal, these gentlemen and
their partners in Utah assumed all the airs and graces they conceived
proper for associates of "Standard Oil," and at once enlarged their
hatbands and let out their waistcoats. Some of them, I believe, went so
far as to be measured for copper crowns. The stories they set afloat
about the richness of Utah, as proved by "Standard Oil's" determination
to have its 150,000 shares, would have made the constructor of Aladdin's
palace look to his laurels as a treasure-house creator, and the
stockholders of the corporation felt so good over their prospects that
in London and New York two large banquets were simultaneously given at
which the prospective millionaires tossed cable congratulations at one
another across the Atlantic and toasted in vintage champagnes the
brilliant promoters who had worked such wonders. At these entertainments
there was no question but that Utah was destined to be the foundation
company in the coming great copper consolidation.
With this roseate view Mr. Rogers did not entirely coincide. His
diagnosis of the situation had all that whichever-way-the-cat-jumps
frankness I had learned to look upon as characteristic of the man. He
said to me:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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