THE CRISIS
What is of more value to civilization, or what commands a greater premium
in the world than successful leadership? Successful leaders are few, and
the masses follow. Honor, fame, power, and wealth are some of the rewards
of great leadership. The confidences bestowed and the responsibilities
assumed are often very great. A betrayal of important trusts, or a
failure to discharge responsibilities, usually brings swift and terrible
punishment, poverty, prison, disgrace, and dishonor to descendants.
George Ingram had proved himself a successful leader, and those who knew
him best, by study of his methods and his works, saw his capacity for
leadership. Hence the popular demand for him to stand as candidate for
mayor of Harrisville. His practical intelligence, and his acuteness in
observation of character, had served him well in organizing, developing,
and controlling the greatest model steel-plant of his generation, which
for quality, quantity, and minimum cost of products had attracted the
attention of manufacturers and scientists. Politicians soon discovered in
George Ingram natural prudence and tact in behavior. The strong religious
element of the city conceded that he possessed, as a certain doctor of
divinity said, "a nice sense of what is right, just and true, with a
course of life corresponding thereto."
The alert women of the city were in hearty approval of conferring the
honor of Mayor upon George Ingram. They knew that the completeness of his
character resulted in no small degree from the influence of his gifted
wife. The practical business men of the city saw that the proposed
candidate for mayor had good common sense. So all party spirit was laid
aside, as it should be in local politics, and George Ingram was nominated
and elected unanimously as the mayor of Harrisville. His cabinet,
composed of the heads of several departments, was filled with able men,
who with zest took up their portfolios not with the thought of personal
gain but with the lofty purpose of securing the utmost good to every
citizen.
Fortunately the city had adopted the just principle of paying its
servants liberally for all services rendered. By the so-called "Federal
Plan" the number of members of the Cabinet, of the Board of Control, of
the Council, and of the School Board, has been so reduced that at their
meetings speeches and angry discussions were tabooed; each associate
member was respected, if not on his own account, then on behalf of his
constituency, and all business was discussed and consummated with
the same courtesy and efficiency, as at a well regulated board of bank
directors.
Never before were streets so well paved, cleaned and sprinkled; never
were city improvements so promptly made without increase of debt, and
never did public schools prosper better. Men of experience on all lines
were drafted on special committees and commissions, and vigorous work
toward practical ends went forward on river, harbor, and other
improvements.
Electricity, supplied by the city, furnished power, heat, and light. High
pressure water relegated the steam fire-engine to the Historical Society,
and low pressure water, at minimum cost, was supplied to the people in
such abundance that during the summer season, before sunrise, all paved
streets were cleansed by running water and brush brooms. All sewerage and
garbage were promptly removed, and used to enrich the suburban
market-gardens.
Every country road leading into the city had its electric railway with
combination passenger and freight cars, and farm products for the people
were delivered in better condition, earlier at the markets, and at much
reduced prices. The advantages enjoyed by rich and poor in Harrisville
were soon noised abroad, and the influx of new comers constantly
increased the growth of the city. Mayor Ingram had been given a
re-election. Prosperity in his own business had brought great returns,
and the mayor's chief concern was, what to do with his accumulations.
One day the County Commissioners, the City Government, the Chamber of
Commerce, and the Board of Education were equally surprised to receive
from George Ingram the announcement that he would build for the people at
his own expense a court house, a city hall, a public library, and public
baths. He had often wondered how it was possible that other millionaires
could overlook and miss such opportunities to distribute surplus funds
among the people. Gertrude early observed the city's needs, and had
pointed out the opportunity to George, urging that part of her father's
money should be united with their own increasing wealth to supply funds
for the execution of their plans.
The four committees appointed by city and county acted speedily in the
consideration of details. It was decided to construct a group of
buildings on the park. The architecture adopted for all four structures
was Romanesque in style; granite was used for wall work, and darker stone
for ornamentation. The plans accepted exhibited less massiveness than the
original Romanesque, and showed a tendency towards the lightness and
delicacy of finish which modern culture demands.
The new court house located on the park enabled the architect to connect
it by an historical "Bridge of Sighs" with the prison and old court house
across the street. The city hall was properly made the most prominent of
the group of buildings. Its first floor and basement were combined in a
great assembly hall, capable of seating 10,000 people with an abundance
of light, fresh air, and eight broad entrances for exit. As the belfry or
tower was a leading feature of most mediaeval town-halls, so the artistic
feature of the Harrisville city hall was its lofty tower, containing
chimes, above which was to be placed an appropriate bronze statue. The
library and the baths were built on the park.
The Romanesque style of all the buildings gave fine opportunity to
introduce elaborate carvings about the entrance arches, and across the
façades to chisel quaint faces above the windows, and grotesque heads out
of corbels at the eaves.
The group of public buildings was finally completed and dedicated with
much formality. The city government unanimously adopted resolutions as
follows:--
"Resolved,--That the City of Harrisville accepts, with profound
gratitude, from Mayor George Ingram, the munificent gift of buildings for
a City Hall and Public Library as stated in his letters of ----; That
the City accepts the three noble gifts upon the conditions in said
letter, which it will faithfully and gladly observe, as a sacred trust in
accordance with his desire.
"Resolved,--That in gratefully accepting these gifts, the City
tenders to Mayor George Ingram its heartfelt thanks, and desires to
express its deep sense of obligation for the elegant buildings, for years
of wise counsel and unselfish service, and for the free use of valuable
patents. The City recognizes the Christian faith, generosity, and public
spirit that have prompted him to supply the long felt wants by these
gifts of great and permanent usefulness."
Similar resolutions were adopted by the county commissioners.
Nearly three millions were thus disposed of by the mayor and his wife.
Close attention to business, and the severe labors in behalf of the city,
undermined the health of George Ingram, and his physical and mental
strength failed him at the wrong time, for his ship was now approaching
a cyclone on the financial sea.
Tariff matters had been drifting from bad to worse, politicians were
seeking to secure advantages for their constituents by changes in the
tariff schedule, speculation was running wild in the stock exchanges of
the country, cautious business men and bankers in the larger cities
discovered an ominous black cloud rising out of the horizon. Bank rates
of interest increased, more frequent renewals were made, deposits
dwindled, country bankers weakened, and financiers in the metropolis
were calling loans made to the interior. With the financial cyclone at
its height, the demands were so great upon The Harris-Ingram Steel Co.
that creditors threatened to close the steel plant.
The cry for help went up from the Harris-Ingram mills, but their trusted
leader was powerless. George Ingram lay insensible at death's door, the
victim of pneumonia. For a week, the directors of the steel company
struggled night and day with their difficulties. Gertrude could neither
leave the bedside of her dying husband, nor would she give her consent to
have the Harris-Ingram Experiment wrecked. She had already pledged as
collateral for the creditors of the steel company all their stock and
personal property, and had telephoned the directors to keep the company
afloat another day, if in their power.
The ablest physicians of the city were standing at George Ingram's
bedside in despair, as all hope of his recovery had vanished. Gertrude
stepped aside into her library, and was in the very agony of prayer for
help, when in rushed her brother Alfonso, whom the family believed dead.
He had come from California with his wife, and stopping at the company's
office, had learned of the terrible trouble of his family.
Lifting up his broken-hearted sister, who for a moment thought that
she had met her brother on the threshold of the other world, he kissed
Gertrude and said, "Be brave, go back to your husband, and trust your
brother to look after the steel company's matters."
Alfonso learned that one million dollars were needed at once to tide over
the company's affairs; he drew two checks, for five hundred thousand
dollars each, upon his banks in San Francisco and requested the creditors
to wire to the coast. Before two o'clock replies came that Alfonso
Harris's cheeks were good, and the only son of Reuben Harris had saved
the "Harris-Ingram Experiment." Mariposa's band of beaten gold had worked
its magic.
* * * * *
A public funeral was given George Ingram. He was a man the city could ill
afford to lose, and every citizen felt he had lost a personal friend. All
business was suspended, and the mills were shut down. For two days the
body of the dead mayor lay in state in the city hall he had built and
given to the people. The long line of citizens that filed past the coffin
continued through the night till dawn, and even then, great throngs stood
in the rain with flowers for his casket.
As a token of their high regard the people voted to change the name of
the city of Harrisville to Harris-Ingram, the suburb which was annexed,
and to place a bronze statue of George Ingram on the tower above the city
hall, which now became his fitting monument. Labor and capital united in
electing for the head of the great Harris-Ingram Steel Company, Alfonso,
the millionaire and artist-son of Reuben Harris.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Harris-Ingram Experiment, by Charles E. Bolton