that
at last the odious Standard-Oil Addicks-Bay State Gas outfit with all
its corruption and unwholesome wrangling was to be deposited outside
the city walls.

The experience of any man who has had to do with political and financial
affairs invariably shows him that nothing ever happens of itself.
Thunderbolts do descend from clear skies, but an enemy and not nature
has hurled them. A clever tactician will always look for his
antagonist's hand behind any isolated or detached fluctuation of public
feeling which bears in the slightest degree upon his problem. In going
over the circumstances, looking for the correct interpretation of the
appearance in our field of this second Richmond, I took into
consideration the fact that H. M. Whitney was deep in a speculative
venture, Dominion Coal, which owned vast tracts of these low-grade coal
lands in Nova Scotia, and it was known he had been trying vainly to
utilize their products in the locomotives of the Boston & Maine Railroad
and several other ventures in which he was a controlling factor. In one
way it seemed reasonable that if Whitney really had found a way to get
something out of his coal, he was justified in making the best possible
use of it. On the other hand, I could not but see how the new project
brought about the very situation at which Rogers had so long been
aiming. Selling gas at 75 or 50 cents, the new company would absolutely
command the business; the old companies must go bankrupt, pass into a
receiver's hands, and in due course would be absorbed by the Whitney
corporation. That would leave but one gas company in complete control of
the Boston field, and it would not be bound to continue the low prices
when competition had disappeared, but would be legally free to go back
to the old rates of $1 and $1.25. In a combination which so completely
went Rogers' way, surely his fine slim Italian hand might be perceived
at the throttle.

Once I had made up my mind by what we were confronted, I lost no time.
Inquiries revealed that Whitney's alleged control of the Legislature was
not exaggerated. In fact, it seemed eager to do his bidding in any
direction. There was no space for negotiation or deliberation, so I
returned his bomb with another, which, exploding in his breastworks,
created as much of a sensation as his own had done. I did not believe
Whitney could do with Nova Scotia coal the things he claimed, but,
whether or not, if he got his charter, Rogers' objec