Cash from bond sales $8,975,983 Bonds 12,000,000 Stock 18,249,800 ___________ Total $39,225,783 Syndicate’s commission, stock 12,988,500 Retained in Co.’s treasury, unissued 2,000,000 Expenses and discounts on bonds, etc. 785,717 ___________ Total $55,000,000 These figures were not for publication. They told the exact truth. The public knew nothing of the company’s earning capacity, save a few tentative figures from the prospectus, which was a sort of financial gospel according to Greenbaum, but which did not create fanatical devotees among investors. The stock, unlike the Kipling ship, had not found itself. It was not market-proven, not seasoned; no one knew how much dependence to put on it; wherefore the banks would not take it as collateral security on loans and wherefore the “speculative community” (as the newspapers call the stock gamblers) would not touch it, since in a pinch it might prove utterly unvendible. It remained for the syndicate to make a “market” for it, to develop such a condition of affairs that anyone at any time could, without overmuch difficulty and without causing over-great fluctuations, sell readily American Turpentine Company stock. The syndicate would have to earn its commission. All the manufacturers who had received stock in part payment were told most impressively by Mr. Greenbaum not to sell their holdings under any circumstances at any price below $75 a share. Not knowing Mr. Greenbaum, they readily and solemnly promised to obey him. They even permitted themselves to think, after talking to him, that they would some day receive $80 per share for all their holdings. This precluded any untimely “unloading” by the only people outside the syndicate that held any Turpentine stock at all. Mr. Greenbaum took charge of the market conduct of “Turp,” as the tape called the stock of the American Turpentine Company. At first, the price was marked up by means of “matched” orders—preconcerted and therefore not bona fide transactions. Mr. Greenbaum told one of his brokers to sell 1,000 shares of “Turp” to another of his brokers and shortly afterwards the second broker sold the same 1,000 shares to a third, by pre-arrangement—this being the matching process—with the result that the tape recorded transactions of 2,000 shares. After the “matching” had gone on for some time, readers of the tape were supposed to imagine that the stock was legitimately active and strong—two facts which in turn were supposed to whet the buying appetite. It was against the rule of the Exchange to “match” orders, but how could convictions be secured?