positive that they had lied
to me about the cost and worth of the Amalgamated mines.

My answer to Question 1 practically disposes of part of Question 2, and
my replies to the other inquiries above take care of another part.

I did expect Mr. Rogers to make an honest subscription for that part of
the stock which we were to retain and which I was doing all in my power
to have him retain, not because I desired to hold all of the good thing
and so cheat the public, but because I did not think it safe for the
public to hold so many shares that it would be to Rogers's and
Rockefeller's interest to "bear" prices later and take shares away from
the holders at slaughter prices. In one sense it was not fair to lead
people to imagine that they were being offered $75,000,000 of an issue
when as a matter of fact they were really offered only $5,000,000, but
if only $5,000,000 were offered no harm could come to them, because
every one who got some of it would make a profit, and those who received
none would not suffer.

STEEL COMMON AND PREFERRED

A definite accusation of misrepresentation was presented in a letter
that came to me early in the year in criticism of Steel facts and
figures I had used in illustrating the artificial advance and depression
of stocks:

CINCINNATI, O., January 24, 1905.

THOMAS W. LAWSON.

_Sir_: Lawson, you are both a fakir and a fool. A fakir
because you misrepresent, and a fool because you do not
begin to understand the people.

When you said the stockholders of the Steel Corporation lost
$500,000,000, you knew that you lied. Because the difference
in price of the stock to-day and when it was quoted on the
New York Stock Exchange for the first time in 1901 does not
approach that amount. I say that you knew this when you made
that statement, but you thought and hoped that the general
public would not be posted in the matter.

The whole substance of your magazine articles has been
nothing but half-truths, and a half-truth is worse than a
lie. You know that it is to gratify your personal spite, and
not to help the general public, that you have engaged in
your frenzied writings. The public is wiser than you think,
although your conceit has blinded you to that fact.

Respectfully,
F. F. METHVEN.

This frenzied nincompoop is evidently ignorant of the fact that
360,281,000 shares of Steel Prefe