THE DESPOILING OF LEONARD LEWISOHN
A few days later there came another summons from New York. Realizing
that matters of importance were in the balance, I hurried over. Nothing
could surpass the cordiality of Mr. Rogers' greeting as I entered his
office.
"Lawson," he said, "we own Lewisohn Brothers."
"You certainly lost no time," I replied. "Is it actually fixed up
already?"
"Yes," he said, settling back in his chair. "It was about as I outlined
to you the other day. We had a very pleasant sit-down--Leonard Lewisohn
and I--and I frankly told him what I wanted, explained our plans, and
gave him twenty-four hours to think things over. Next day he was in and
we went at it again. He began by talking $15,000,000, and it did come
hard to bring it down to a little less than the actual cash and copper
on hand; but when he saw I intended to have things my way or not at all,
he meekly surrendered, and the United Metals Selling Company ($5,000,000
capital stock) is now a reality. And, Lawson, if I ever had to do with a
better scheme I certainly cannot recall it."
"Did not Lewisohn put up any sort of a fight?" I persisted, surprised
that so able and forceful a man should succumb so easily. "Didn't you
have any words about the matter?"
"Not any but pleasant ones," replied Mr. Rogers, "although Lewisohn did,
in an almost pathetic way, gasp when I emphasized that my only terms
were $5,000,000, fifty-one per cent. to us and forty-nine per cent. to
his people. He told me how he and his brothers had struggled up to
success. They began in a small way as feather merchants, you may
remember, and from one thing to another they progressed until the firm
is known to-day as one of the greatest copper houses and the greatest
coffee house in the world. He explained how he had brought up his three
sons and his daughter's husband in the firm until they had become great
merchants, too; and his ambition was that their sons and grandchildren
should succeed to the institution, enlarging and strengthening it until
the house of Lewisohn was as famous as the house of Rothschild--with
which, by the way, he is closely connected. I tell you, Lawson, I felt a
bit mean when, after he had told me how he had always kept his name's
credit as good as any other man's bond, he asked me almost with tears in
his eyes to let the name of the new company be Lewisohn Brothers.
Indeed, he made a strong argument on the great value of the name to the
copper business; but it did not take me long to show him the evils that
grow out of letting men's personalities get into the public's mind. I
battered down his objections by showing him the wisdom of Mr.
Rockefeller's attitude in this connection. Always, from the first, he
has taken the stand: 'The business first, the man second': with the
result that there has never been jealousy or dissension in Standard
Oil."
"Too bad," I interrupted.
"Yes," Mr. Rogers went on; "I wished I might have done this for him, for
he is a splendid fellow; but it would not do, for after the newness wore
off he, or more probably his sons, would surely imagine that they, and
not we, were the real heads of the business."
As I have explained, Henry H. Rogers, when not working the handle or
hopper end of the "System's" grinder, is a warm-hearted and generous
man. And now, resting from his labors, he was the genial and kindly
gentleman whom his social acquaintances admire so sincerely. I believe
he felt almost as badly as I did over the sad picture he had drawn of
the proud old merchant yielding up his children's birthright. I felt
grieved to the depths of my soul at Leonard Lewisohn's predicament, for
I knew, as did all men connected with Wall Street or Copper, what a
stalwart he was. He had the heart of an ox and the pluck of a lion, and
his white-man squareness and sense of justice belonged to other periods
than that of frenzied finance. No man or woman in distress ever left his
house or office without relief, and he gave as generously of his time
and advice as of his money. Amid the jagged rocks and treacherous cross
currents of Wall Street Leonard Lewisohn stood as a beacon lighting the
way to better things, and men pointed at him and said, "There is still
hope." Amalgamated may not have broken this man's heart as it did
others, but I can imagine the bitterness and distress it caused him,
whose proud boast it was that he had never gone back on his word. One of
the promoters of the company, his name stood, in the minds of many
investors, especially European, for a guarantee of fair play and square
dealing. Yet the course of Amalgamated was one continuous going back on
words. He had never allowed an associate of his to lose through his
ventures, but in Amalgamated there was nothing but loss, and loss by
trick and fraud. After the flotation, with its harvest of disgrace and
scandal, Leonard Lewisohn became a changed man. His old-time happy smile
was seldom seen, and it is said that before he died he summoned his sons
to him and instructed them to destroy the notes and obligations of all
his poor debtors and to return to them their collateral, of which there
was a safe full. This man employed no press agent, and so his golden
deeds were never reported in the papers, nor did he found a college to
perpetuate his name; but he left a million of his estate to found a
great home for the Jewish poor, for he loved and was proud of his race.
I have given you a portrait of this man; let me, by way of contrast,
present another picture, which will help toward an appreciation of how
the votaries of the "System" respond to generosity and chivalrous
self-abnegation. Before Leonard Lewisohn died he organized a tremendous
deal in coffee, and Rogers, Rockefeller, and all the other "Standard
Oil" men were in. A fund of $5,000,000 was subscribed, to which all
contributed in due proportion, and an immense amount of coffee was
bought against a prospective scarcity. The condition Mr. Lewisohn
anticipated did not immediately develop, and instead of rising, coffee
dropped down and down until the $5,000,000 and more were all used up.
Another man would have called on his associates for additional margin,
or, at least, closed up the deal. Not so Leonard Lewisohn. Though some
of the other members of the combination were many times richer than he,
he shouldered the burden alone, saying: "It's my scheme, and I'll carry
it if it breaks me, or until my judgment is proven sound." Still coffee
declined until he had sunk $12,000,000, but never a whimper and not a
word of complaint to his partners. Things were near the worst when he
died, but he had instructed his heirs not to wind the deal up until
every cent of his associates' liability was wiped out.
There came a time not long ago when Leonard Lewisohn's foresight was
vindicated, and an advance in the price of the commodity relieved the
"Standard Oil" coterie of their responsibility. The sons of the old man
then desired to dispose of the great holdings of coffee, and so close
the deal and secure the locked-up millions for the estate. They went to
the various members of the syndicate and asked them to sign a release
simply agreeing to relieve the estate of liability for presumptive
profits growing out of further advances in coffee after they had sold
out. It was a very ordinary legal precaution, and no great favor to the
Lewisohns under the circumstances. The members of the syndicate signed
the release in due course, until the document finally came to Henry H.
Rogers, and this is the contrasting picture:
"Coffee is going up, I think," said the "Standard Oil" magnate, "and now
that the Lewisohns have extricated themselves from a bad hole, they may
as well carry the stuff until I get some profit out of it. Neither Mr.
Rockefeller nor I will sign that document."