THE COPPER CAMPAIGN OPENS
My plans for the great copper campaign were most carefully diagrammed,
then spread before Mr. Rogers and Mr. Rockefeller, who, before
approving, tested every detail of them. The formal scope of our action
decided on, it was agreed that I should be free to work in my own way,
and it was understood that I should, as far as possible, carry the
campaign on my own shoulders, using to the limit my personal capital and
credit. "Coppers" was to be a Lawson operation on the face of it, and I
was determined, for many reasons, to avail myself of "Standard Oil's"
aid only in taking care of completed transactions and not at all in the
preliminary negotiations. This was not always possible, but my attitude
in the matter and my desire to make a brilliant showing explain the
straits I was sometimes put to in conducting some of my deals. From the
start I had a big personal stake in the success of my campaign, for at
the time I first showed Mr. Rogers my hand I had 46,000 shares of Butte
& Boston, and my following among the public owned as many more. They had
agreed that the profits on this stock, when it was taken into the
consolidation, should be mine entirely in payment of my own work and
risk.
There was another transaction I had in mind which also fairly belonged
to me. As I have stated, I had undertaken to dispose of Bay State Gas
stock, and by this time I had succeeded in placing a large number of the
shares. The proceeds, $2,300,000, were in the treasury of the company.
Now the charter of Addicks' company permitted it to buy, sell, and deal
in anything and everything, and I saw here a good opportunity to enable
Bay State to earn the balance of the money necessary to relieve its
indebtedness to Mr. Rogers--between four and six millions of dollars.
So I explained to Mr. Rogers that as soon as our copper deal had
progressed to a point where there was absolutely no risk, and a large
gain was assured, I would make a bargain with Bay State whereby for a
part of the profits I would pilot the investment of the company's cash
in Butte & Boston. This proposition he considered fair, and he agreed
that neither he nor Mr. Rockefeller would consider themselves "in" on
that bargain, save as indirectly profiting by it through the successful
winding up of their Boston gas investments.
It is impossible for any great move to be begun in the stock-market
without some suggestion getting into the air which notifies "the
Street"[19] that "something is up." Not long after my alliance with
Rogers had been formally arranged, the atmosphere of State Street grew
thick with rumors about "Coppers." Some of these announced that I had
hitched up with "Standard Oil"; others denied it; between them all a
movement was created, and the leading stocks became very active and
increased rapidly in price.
We had agreed that the first companies to go into our consolidation
should be Butte & Boston, Boston & Montana, Calumet & Hecla, Osceola,
Quincy, Tamarack, and any other of the long-established properties of
which we could get hold. It would be difficult, we knew, to purchase the
control of the Calumet & Hecla, for its owners thought too highly of
their investment to part with it, but it was safe to buy whatever was
offered, and if we accumulated less than a majority of the shares we
could easily resell at a large profit. I began my operation with Boston
& Montana stock, buying cautiously and obtaining it at fair prices, and
this transaction, though conducted quietly, added fresh fuel to the
rumor blaze. Finally Boston became so excited over the situation that I
came out with a public statement in which I frankly showed what I was
trying to do. In all such affairs, however, the explanations of any man
known in his business as a stock speculator or manipulator are never
accepted as true. It is assumed that such announcements are merely
blinds to disguise his real purpose; that they are feints or
manoeuvres in his campaign. So when I declared that I was working out
plans for the consolidation of all good Boston "Coppers," and that
associated with me were the strongest capitalists in the world, a laugh
went up from a goodly portion of "the Street." The hireling news bureaus
shrieked at my presumption and the absurdity of my combination, and when
after a hot day's operations I was quoted in the financial press as
telling my followers that it was "Standard Oil" money which was to back
"Coppers," Barron, whose News Bureau moulded opinion for the opposing
copper magnates, came out with a statement:
"Lawson is spreading in his peculiar underground ways that
the Standard Oil crowd is looking into Coppers. Just enough
countrymen swallowed his yarns to enable him to boost prices
over six points to-day, but by to-morrow, when the
Rockefellers or Rogers of Standard Oil put their foot down
on his transparent lies, those who were foolish enough to
listen to his ridiculous fakes will find they must sell at a
loss. We can say, on a high authority in Standard Oil, that
they have never bought nor contemplate buying a share of any
copper stock."
My enemies were numerous and powerful, and there were many other
announcements of the same character as Barron's tending to cast ridicule
on my movement and expose me as a falsifier. Indeed, notwithstanding the
merits of the plan and the benefit it must confer on all copper
properties, I was assailed as fiercely as though I had advocated anarchy
or had prepared a scheme of wholesale plundering. In stock affairs
innovations are resented and resisted even more fiercely than in other
walks of life, and the Boston money crowd fought me tooth and nail. The
titles I acquired in those days were varied and startling. For one set I
was a "charlatan," "wizard," "fakir," an "unprincipled manipulator"; in
another I was a "copper king" or a "prince of plungers." Feeling ran
high, and prices rose and fell in the most erratic and extravagant
fashion. Certain stocks advanced or receded from five to ten points in
as many hours or minutes. Fortunes were made and lost daily. Many
people, confused by the conflict of opinions and announcements, sold
their holdings, only to repurchase at higher prices as prices continued
to mount. So fiercely was I attacked that it almost seemed at times as
if my enemies might prevail in spite of the great powers at my back.
Indeed, there were tense moments when my fate as well as my plans
trembled in the balance. Several times I was sent for by Rogers and his
colleagues for a war council, and sometimes, as I detailed my lines of
defence and enumerated my resources, I suspected that even these
storm-seasoned warriors were tiring of the fray.
The fiercest fighting at that early period centred round Butte & Boston
and Boston & Montana. Many a spirited engagement we fought on the floor
of the Exchange. Perhaps the fiercest of these began when, after a
strenuous rush one morning, I rapidly carried the price of Butte up.
This exploit so enraged my adversaries that they got together and
organized a powerful combination against me. This included several of
the leading banks and trust companies of Boston that held large amounts
of stocks as collateral for my loans. At a given moment it was arranged
that all these loans, aggregating millions of dollars, should be called;
and further to intensify the complication they expected to bring about,
a great friend in common attempted to scare Mr. Rockefeller and Mr.
Rogers by informing them that the titles to the copper properties were
defective, and that a man, then unknown, named Heinze, who had made
himself very strong with the Montana courts, was about to make a move to
confiscate them. There was a hurry call for me from New York, and this
time the explanations had to be very full, for "Standard Oil" had an
impression that while my general plan might be meritorious, it was
possible that I had the details "skewed." However, I satisfied them as
to the facts and then hurried back to tackle my own problem, for these
individual engagements I handled myself, using my own personal resources
to take care of them. The emergency that had developed thus suddenly was
so serious as to be alarming, and it devolved on me to act, and at
once. Blows in finance are like those at sea--the most dangerous are the
quick-come-quick-go kind. I recalled one I had run into a short time
before on my sailing yacht. We were broad-reaching down the New England
coast, close in, with a 20-knot sou'wester blowing. Suddenly, without
apparent reason, my skipper put the wheel hard down and brought the
craft up standing. A second later a "twister" from the hills hit us, and
adroitly he headed her into it.
"How in the world did you know that was coming?" I asked.
"I smelt her, sir," the old sea-dog replied, "just smelt her."
For those unacquainted with the freaky ways of our New England coast
winds it may be explained that when a "twister" off the hills gets ready
to do business in a 20-knot sou'wester it sends no messenger boys ahead
to distribute its itinerary handbills. You hear one shriek and the blow
is upon you; and woe betide the unthinking skipper who attempts holding
his craft to her course or paying her off till she catches it full. He
is likely to have mourners at home if a married man, and "cussing"
owners if the craft is not his own. As my old sea-dog afterward wisely
observed: "When you smell a land 'twister,' act first and think
atterwards, or your widow 'ill get blear-eyed watching for you to make
harbor."
In the stock-market it was decidedly a case of "act first and think
atterwards." The "twister" was a fierce one, for not only were my stocks
assailed, but the rumor machines were turning out all sorts of yarns
affecting my credit, as the knowledge gradually filtered through the
market that my loans had been called. My stocks broke badly, and when
the market closed it really seemed as though I might have to verify the
report that they would wind me up the next day.
It was at this particular stage that the Bay State was let into the
deal. I had a long consultation with Addicks that night and showed him
my hand. He agreed that with what I already had of the stock and
"Standard Oil's" backing, the venture came as near being an absolutely
sure thing as could ever be found in stocks. My proposition was that I
should secure for the Bay State Company 50,000 shares of Butte at an
average of 20 to 25, and that I should have half the profits of the
venture provided they aggregated over two millions of dollars. Coming to
Addicks in this emergency was cold-blooded business on my part, and, it
goes without saying, was frozen-blooded business on his, for he
evidently saw then what I did not until later, that there was an
excellent opportunity to practise his pet game--make money and
double-cross his partner while doing so. We clinched the deal that
night, and next day in the market I turned the tables, for I took every
share my opponents offered for sale, and the stock, instead of dropping
out of sight, became firm, then began to mount, and never after fell
again.
The Bay State's venture showed a profit afterward of four millions of
dollars, but of my share of this large sum I was deprived, as I will
detail later.
At this juncture there occurred one of those strange and sad fatalities
which with its attendant circumstances helps to explain why those of us
who play with stock-markets grow superstitious. I have spoken of my
secretary, Mr. Vinal, a man of admirable discretion and absolute
loyalty, who was my right hand in executing the minutiae of the various
operations I then was engaged in. In such affairs the fidelity of one's
aides must be beyond all question, for if the merest detail of one's
plans leaks out at the critical moment, one is undone beyond recovery.
After my talk with Addicks I had laid out the campaign for the next
day's engagement and called in Vinal to explain to him his own part. He
was to attend to taking up and transferring the loans that had been
called, and I armed him with my power of attorney and blank checks,
instructing him to put these matters through without further
consultation with me, for my entire time must belong to my brokers
during the battle of prices which I knew must inevitably come with the
stroke of the gong that opened the Exchange next morning at ten, and
which would rage until its close at three. As I had anticipated, the
assault was fierce. It was give and take, charge and retreat, all day. A
few minutes after twelve, Vinal pushed through a crowd of brokers to me
and said: "I'm about half through my shifting, but a telephone has just
come from Mrs. Lawson saying that something has happened at the school
and will I at once get a carriage and bring your daughters home. It will
take half an hour. Shall I go?" I replied: "You had better, but get back
as quickly as possible." A minute later a thought occurred to me, and I
sent a boy to call Vinal back. He reported that my secretary had jumped
into "Ben's" cab ("Ben" was a cabman whose stand had been in front of my
office, 33 State Street, since my boyhood days). I returned to the fray.
Fifteen minutes later the appalling message that startled all Boston at
the time came over the ticker tape: "Terrible Explosion! Boston Gas
Company's pipes in the Subway have blown scores to death." Then there
floated in to me a rumor, vague, indefinite, that Vinal was a victim. I
jumped into a cab and in a few moments was at the undertaker's to whose
place the corpses were being removed. The undertaker stepped up to me
and said: "Poor Vinal! Don't look at him, for it is frightful. He was on
the very apex of the explosion, and he and 'Ben' were both instantly
killed and are frightfully burned. The only thing recognizable is this
envelope, which I found among the rags that were left of his coat." He
handed me over the large envelope in which I had seen Vinal that very
morning depositing the various documents, checks, and securities which
he required for his day's operations. It was burned around the edges,
but the contents were uninjured, and among the papers was a carefully
prepared memorandum showing to a dot where my secretary had left off in
his exchanges. He had evidently just finished making notes, for so
carefully arranged were the contents of the envelope that all that was
necessary to complete the business was to turn it over to Vinal's
assistant. No further explanation was required. That envelope
represented two millions of money and securities.
Poor Vinal! Another victim of that soulless corporation hag, Boston Gas,
to prolong whose life he had spent some of the best years of his own.
Vinal was very dear to me. He had filled my canteen, held my ammunition,
and carried my knapsack through many a hard-fought battle, willingly
allowing others to do the cheering in victory, but reserving to himself
the right to suggest and console when the clouds lowered and we were
left alone on the field of defeat or the dusty road of retreat. Poor
Vinal! He was worth a hundred copper deals or corporation hags.
Between death and life, success and failure, what a hair's-breadth after
all. If Vinal had stubbed his toe, or had been able to take the first
cab he found; if he had heard my call which would have brought him back;
if he had tarried a moment longer in the Young Men's Christian
Association where he had stopped to deliver a message, he would have
escaped. The thought did not occur to me at the moment, for Vinal's
death was too keen a personal sorrow to allow me to estimate my own
narrow escape, but if that envelope, so miraculously preserved, had been
burned as were the other papers in my secretary's pocket, there might
have been no Amalgamated. "Coppers" must have dropped back to the lowly
place from which Rogers had lifted them, for I should have been
financially ruined.
To show the marvelous workings of Him who tempers the wind to the shorn
lamb: At the same moment that I was called away from my guns, the
commanding general of the opposing forces received the same call. The
aged mother of the President of the Boston & Montana and Butte & Boston,
while riding in her carriage, had been a victim of the same explosion.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] "The Street" is a general term used to designate the stock operators,
the fraternity in New York being known as Wall Street, in Boston as State
Street, and in Philadelphia as Broad Street; these streets are the centre
of the financial districts of their respective cities, the Stock Exchanges
being situated on them.