ROGERS GRASPS "COPPERS"
The next day our gas business brought me to New York, and after Mr.
Rogers and myself had threshed out the matter I had come about, he said
with a smile:
"Well, I've heard from John Moore. Are you satisfied now? Will you drop
that copper will-o'-the-wisp?"
"Far from it," I replied. "I'm surer than ever of my position. In going
over the ground with Moore I got the whole business in perspective, and
now I know I'm right. All his argument amounted to anyway was that it
was impossible for so gigantic a thing to have lain out in the travelled
highways all these years."
I ran on vigorously for a few moments, in a way I felt might pique his
curiosity, if it did not gain my point. Finally he said:
"Well, Lawson, what more can I do?"
"This," I answered: "go over the matter fully with me yourself. I will
surely carry it through one way or another; if not with you, with
others, and I cannot drop it with you until I have your personal
judgment."
Instantly came one of those flash decisions for which H. H. Rogers is
noted among his business associates, the oft-proved correctness of which
goes far toward making him the pre-eminent American financier of the
day.
"Lawson," he said, "be in New York next Sunday, and I will listen until
you have run the subject out."
That decision changed the face of the copper world.
Sunday is Mr. Rogers' pick of days for a lengthy hearing, and returning
from church, he came directly to the "stowaway" rooms at the Murray Hill
Hotel, at which we frequently met while the Wall Street world was
trying to trace and keep track of our movements. I had been there for
some time awaiting him and was keyed for the struggle.
Of my ability to land John Moore I had felt confident, yet I had failed;
but this time in advance I knew success was mine. Experience has taught
me that in all dollar matters the man to "talk up to" is the actual
owner of the dollars you are after, who when he hears your story and
weighs your goods can deal out the _yes_ or _no_ which means business. I
had discovered some years before that few bull's-eyes are scored
shooting at a target by mail or messenger. One's finest word-pictures
sound better than they read, and if you would have the next man see them
in as vivid colors as they appear on your mind's canvas, you must paint
them before his eyes. The enthusiasm of the artist, his love of the
subject, the deep or high tones of his voice, the very movements of his
hands, are all factors in aiding the other man's vision. When he sees
what you do, you have won. Nowadays when I have things to sell, I engage
the eyes as well as the ears of my purchaser. When the other fellow
would make me his customer, he must first sell his goods to my
secretary, who may, if he can, sell them to me. Thus I am always able to
dispose of the only merchandise I keep in stock, honest goods, and I
seldom buy chromos for oils.
As I waited the coming of my most powerful customer, I could not keep my
mind off the momentousness of the interview before me. I knew I was at a
fork of the road, at one of those departure points from which coming
events must date, and I thought of a dream I had had years before in
which I found myself drifting with the grim ferryman across the brimming
flood, the far bank of which is eternity. In my hand was a long staff
with strange and irregular notches on it. And these represented the
actions of my life. Some were shallow, others deep and wide, and as I
ran my fingers up and down, I seemed to remember what each nick
commemorated--the good things and the bad things, here a death, there a
disappointment, this a victory, that an error. I wondered, as the
circumstances of the dream came to my mind, what kind of marking this
day's events would make on my life staff, and I felt a conviction that
it would be both deep and wide.
Then, as I heard Mr. Rogers' footstep outside my door, I forgot all
about dreams and notches and plunged into my argument.
"Mr. Rogers," I began, "you and your associates have unlimited money.
You have not always had it. You have obtained it through business
projects and you are using it in business projects to get more. There
are two ways of adding new dollars to those in your possession: by
taking them from others so they are losers and you the gainer, whereby
you win at the cost of their happiness; or by expanding the world's
wealth so that others gain when you do. You, I know, prefer the latter,
that others should make money when you do, rather than that they should
lose and suffer when you are benefited."
I did not then know "Standard Oil's" and the "System's" religion as I do
now. I had yet to learn the cruelly cynical principles that guide this
financial Juggernaut in its relation with men and things. I imputed to
it the generosity and freedom which seemed to characterize Henry H.
Rogers' personality, ignorant that the man and the machine he served
might stand for different things. The "System's" Big Book says: "A
dollar honestly made makes another for some one else; but a dollar taken
is two dollars, because it increases our power and diminishes the
people's. Between the 'System' and the people must be eternal war, and
it is the price of the 'System's' existence that all opportunities of
weakening the people are sternly utilized."
"Mr. Rogers," I continued, "I have discovered in 'Coppers' an
opportunity whereby you and your associates can, by the investment of a
hundred millions of dollars, obtain these results: _First_, your money
will be as safe as in anything you now have it invested in. _Second_, by
indorsing this form of investment with the seal of your business
success, you will make it known to all who have money and there will at
once arise a tremendous demand for its securities. This demand will
drive prices up until dividend returns are in normal proportion to the
legitimate value of the security, namely, four to six per cent., which
is, as I can prove to you, a little more than can be got from anything
else but 'Copper' with the same elements of safety. _Third_, when the
advance I foresee occurs, your one hundred millions have doubled, and
all those who have joined us in the venture or have held on to their
stock will gain in the same proportion. As I estimate that we will have
but a third interest in all the good American 'Coppers,' there should be
something like $200,000,000 for the people, while we will have made
$100,000,000. To bring this about I have planned a campaign which will
make what you have done known from one end of the world to the other,
and will persuade the people at large to look at 'Standard Oil' in a
more favorable light than they do now. And, what is more, all this money
can be made and all these benefits rendered without taxing any one a
single additional dollar, for there will not be a penny a ton added to
the price of copper the metal, nor a reduction of a mill a year taken
from the wages of those who mine it or work it."
Here I halted. I had made a beginning, and I was familiar with Mr.
Rogers' system of diagnosis and treatment. Propositions placed on his
operating-table are invariably dissected in parts--this is the winner's
method; so if, under the probe of his keen mind, one section or limb is
found stiff, dead, or unhitchable to that to which it belongs, he at
once stops operating and the corpse is removed.
"How is it the situation is as you outline it?"
I drew the picture of copper Boston as I have given it in the early part
of this chapter. It astonished him.
"How do you prove that safety in this class of investment is more
assured than in others?"
I reeled off the facts: A copper-mine, from the very nature of the
business, must be developed years and years ahead before it entered the
ranks as a regular producer. The price of the metal being practically
fixed within certain limits, the mine's value, present and future, could
always be told to a certainty.
He saw it. He put me through a thorough examination about my second
claim that the price would advance 100 per cent. I again astonished him
by showing him what a market there was and had been for many years for
copper stocks, and that it was simply a question of educating investors
at large to their merits to advance them to the price my plans called
for.
When he came to the question of the amount to be invested and the
aggregate amount of profit, he did not attempt to disguise his surprise
when I showed him there were 150,000 shares of Boston & Montana which
had been selling at 20-odd and were now 50-odd, and could surely be
bought between 50 and 100; and 200,000 shares of Butte & Boston, 100,000
outside of what I and those who had bought with me owned that could be
had at an average of 20 or 25; that there were 100,000 shares of Calumet
& Hecla, selling at 250, large quantities of which could be gathered in
between that price and 400, and so on through the list. Mine after mine
I enumerated to him, all as sure dividend earners in the future as they
had been in the past, to an aggregate, without touching any of the
uncertain ones, which it would surely take one hundred millions to
purchase, and as I called them off, he listened patiently while I gave
him a full history of each.
Then I outlined my sensational but never before attempted plan of
campaign for educating the public, he vigorously questioning me as to
details and particulars the while.
It does not take Henry H. Rogers months, weeks, nor even days to grasp
any plan, however vast, nor many minutes to come to a decision after he
has grasped it. I believe he would, if the world were going to be
auctioned off next week, be the first man on earth to decide upon a
limit price that he would take it at, and three minutes after it was
knocked down to him he would be selling stock in it at 150 per cent.
profit.
Just before lunch-time I saw that the effect of my arguments on Mr.
Rogers was the exact opposite to that they had made on John Moore. When
I had come to a finish, Mr. Rogers simply said: "It's curious, Lawson,
why I have not listened to you before. I'll talk with William
Rockefeller to-morrow. No--I'll make it this afternoon if I can get at
him."
And his eyes snapped a bit when, as I was helping him on with his coat,
he said, "We must not lose a minute in getting to work."
As he left the hotel and before I crossed the street to the Grand
Central to take my train back to Boston--I suppose I should not say it,
but I shook my own hand in self-congratulation. How many times since I
have thought that had old Dame Fate but hung out a danger-signal for
this faithful servitor of her behests, or had but given him a glimpse
ahead through the years 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, and 1904, instead
of using his hands in cordial self-clasping he would have employed his
feet in the more fitting task of kicking himself.
If Henry H. Rogers had been slow at getting started on "Coppers," once
in he made up for his early tardiness. After our Sunday interview things
moved swiftly forward. Before noon next day he called me up on the
telephone to say that both he and William Rockefeller were impatient to
have my facts and figures verified, and would I at once send my data to
start his experts on? I mailed him a bale of "pointers," and from that
hour until the flotation of Amalgamated Mr. Rogers' enthusiasm on
"Coppers" constantly grew until there actually came a time when it went
beyond my own. It took him months to complete that rounding-up of the
situation which is the absolutely necessary preliminary to the making of
final decisions on any far-reaching and important project to which the
magic name of "Standard Oil" is to be permanently attached.
This period of waiting I duly improved by continuing my fight on Butte &
Boston, and by way of intensifying the campaign I included Boston &
Montana in the tussle, and led a fierce attack into the stronghold of my
opponents. While this war was at its bitter height I received word from
26 Broadway that at last reports were all in, and that they were ready
to talk business. Next day I was in New York.
"Lawson," said Mr. Rogers, "our experts have examined your plans step
by step and have verified your conclusions. It is an exceptional
situation, and one we are equipped to handle."
Then and there we had a "to-a-finish-sit-down," and while I had in my
time gone pretty thoroughly into the general subject of "Coppers," and
thought myself well informed thereon, I was surprised at the
completeness and detail of the reports that had been prepared for the
"System's" master. In beautiful shape, concise, clear, comprehensive,
the entire copper industry of the world was spread out before me. Every
mine had its place and its history--not merely the mines of America, but
those of Europe as well; and fully set forth were the extent and cost of
the product of each, the profit it made, the men who owned it,
and--miraculous "Standard Oil"--the standing, financial and otherwise,
of the men who might have to be dealt with in our prospective trades.
Rogers smiled watching my growing surprise as I ran over the
extraordinary budget of facts he had collected. I said to him:
"This is wonderful. You have here all there's to be known about the
subject, and I marvel how you got hold of so much inside information."
"'Standard Oil' has its own way of doing things," he replied. "You told
us your copper plans would mean an investment of $100,000,000 of our
money, and now's the time, not after we have parted with it, to find
just what we are to get for it."
The world has never yet heard of "Standard Oil" locking its barn door
after some one has stolen its mule; for that matter, it is not of record
that any one ever locked the gate after his barn had been visited by
"Standard Oil." The reason is that, with the thoroughness characteristic
of this great reaping-machine, it never fails to take the barn with the
mule.
At this meeting it was agreed that Henry H. Rogers, William Rockefeller,
and myself should become partners in my plan of "Coppers," they to
furnish the capital and to have three-quarters of the profit, I to have
the remaining quarter. The campaign for the execution of the enterprise
I agreed to work out and submit as soon as possible, and we parted.
As I bade them good-by Mr. Rogers said to me:
"Your baby is born, Lawson, and if you put the same kind of work on
raising it you have in bringing it into the world, it will be a giant."
From that day it was understood that we were together, and that all my
dealings in "Coppers" outside Butte & Boston were for the joint
account--that is, they were to have the right to come into all my
operations. Those they did not care to join in I had the right to put
through alone. On the other hand, I must not undertake anything on their
behalf without a specific understanding with them.
Thus began Amalgamated, that extraordinary dollar-thing which shot up in
a night and grew as grows the whirlwind, until even its creators
wondered at its mightiness. It waxed greater and stronger while the
world watched and waited, until finally there came that tremendous and
unprecedented culmination when lines of investors fought round the
portals of the greatest money mart in America, the National City Bank,
for a chance to obtain the $100 shares of this $75,000,000 institution.
And the world wondered indeed when it was announced that Amalgamated had
been oversubscribed over $300,000,000.
Thus began Amalgamated. It might have brought to all the world good-will
and happiness, and to the men who made it much glory and the great
regard of their fellows. Instead, it has wrought havoc and desolation,
and its Apache-like trail is strewn with the scalped and mutilated
corpses of its victims. The very name _Amalgamated_ conjures up visions
of hatred and betrayal, of ambush, pitfalls, and assassination. It
stands forth the Judas of corporations, a monument to greed and a
warning to rapacity. May the story that I am to tell so set forth its
infamies and horrors that never again shall such a monster be suffered
to violate and defile our civilization.