As I have previously stated, I had no personal knowledge of the conditions in the several properties comprising the first section of Amalgamated, but the facts and figures which were put forward in this advertisement were supplied me by Henry H. Rogers and through him by Marcus Daly, who vouched for them, and furthermore the three advertisements were carefully read and scanned by Mr. Rogers himself. If I had not believed them to be true I should not have put them forward nor allowed them to be published, but I accepted them as the public and the financiers did when they read them over the signature of the known agent and mouthpiece for Amalgamated and "Standard Oil," myself. I showed that I believed them by putting my signature to them. I was and am personally responsible for the truth of these statements, but more so are H. H. Rogers, William G. Rockefeller, the National City Bank, and the Amalgamated Company. Even if it had not been a matter of public knowledge that I was the agent of the City Bank and the Amalgamated Company and the "Standard Oil" party; if it had not been a fact, as it was, that I inserted these three advertisements by agreement with those who were responsible for them and who were doing business directly with the public; if it had not been a fact that these people through me paid for these advertisements, thereby directly showing I was their authorized agent; if I had not taken the precaution to see that such payment was made by a check signed by William G. Rockefeller, treasurer of the Amalgamated Company, and yet made to the order of the newspaper people and handed by me to them, thereby clinching my agency, nevertheless the advertisement itself would have made it clear that I was the full and authorized agent, or it would have been stopped there and then and the bank and the company would have refused to proceed further, for I say: "I advise all intending subscribers to send their subscriptions personally or through their banking or brokerage house direct to the National City Bank of New York. While my firm will, for the convenience of its clients, forward subscriptions, I would have it understood that such subscribers will receive the same treatment if they send their applications direct. "My firm will also furnish subscription blanks to those who, through lack of time or otherwise, cannot secure them elsewhere." 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.