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
The organization of the Amalgamated Copper Company of New Jersey now
being complete, and the company being in possession of all the property
which had formerly belonged to Mr. Rogers and William Rockefeller, and
which had cost them $39,000,000, and the clerk having again come into
possession of his $75,000,000 check, and Mr. Rogers and William
Rockefeller being the sole owners of the $75,000,000 of Amalgamated
stock, the second part of this transaction was completed. The third
began by the office-boys and clerks resigning from their positions as
directors and officers of the Amalgamated Copper Company of New Jersey
in favor of the more responsible and better known "Standard Oil"
votaries. Mr. Rogers and William Rockefeller then had the National City
Bank of New York offer for sale to the public the $75,000,000 of stock
in such a way that, although it was then the private property of Mr.
Rogers and William Rockefeller, the public were led to believe it was
the property of the Amalgamated Copper Company. Simultaneously, the
National City Bank of New York offered to loan the public its deposits
at the rate of ninety cents on the dollar, on any amount of the
Amalgamated stock it, the public, purchased; whereupon the public,
taking advantage of this offer, agreed to purchase from the National
City Bank of New York the $75,000,000 of stock for $75,000,000, thereby
enabling it to certify upon its books that the $39,000,000 it had loaned
to Messrs. Rogers and Rockefeller had been repaid, and enabling Mr.
Rogers and William Rockefeller, after paying said debts to the National
City Bank of New York, to become the absolute owners of $36,000,000 of
money, none of which they had owned before, and which they had "made" as
absolutely as though they had coined it by permit from the Government
of the people who had parted with it.[3]
The fourth part of the transaction began when months afterward the
public, who had borrowed their money from the National City Bank of New
York and other banks and trust and insurance companies to buy
Amalgamated stock at 100 cents on the dollar, were compelled to repay
it, and to do so were obliged to sell the Amalgamated stock which they
had purchased at $100 per share for the best price they could get, which
was $33 per share; and if we suppose for a moment that the "Standard
Oil," after repurchasing it at $33 per share, at a later day repeated
the operation of selling it for $100 per share, it will be seen that
"Standard Oil," the "Private Thing," would thereby "make" an additional
$50,000,000, as absolutely as though they had been allowed by the
Government to coin it.[4]
This explanation is not the creation of an extravagant fancy. It is not
romance, but reality. The thing described was a supreme manifestation of
the "System," of the perfect working of that tremendous financial
machine which reaps, grinds, and harvests for its own benefit, the
earned savings of the American people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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