r the Legislature
for it we will go you a few hundred thousand better."

We argued for hours. I showed him that if he finally prevailed and got
what he was after, his charter would bind him to the absolute fulfilment
of his promise under bonds that would make it unprofitable and
dangerous. He finally made up his mind that such a victory was not worth
winning, and he said to me:

"What kind of a hitch-up can I make with you and your companies?"

"Any fair one," I replied. "This is the situation as I see it, and I'm
going to be frank: You say you have a good scheme, but you certainly
have a Legislature, and you have evidently entered into a compact with
Rogers whereby he is to utilize what you have, to knock us on the head.
Now we have fairly checkmated you, and Rogers is out. Seems to me you
owe it to us and yourself to give us the same chance you offered him.
Let us utilize your plans to save ourselves and to knock Rogers on the
head. But first, are you free to go on with us without explaining things
to 'Standard Oil'?"

Whitney assured me that his arrangement with Rogers was tentative,
depending on whether he could get the charter and could carry out his
other plans.

After some further manoeuvring we agreed that we should withdraw our
offer from the Legislature, that Whitney should secure the new charter,
and that it should be so worded as expressly to allow his company to lay
pipes, manufacture, buy or sell gas, and to consolidate any or all of
the existing or new gas companies in the State of Massachusetts; and
that when the charter was granted it should belong equally to the
Addicks Boston gas companies and to Whitney. Upon their part the Boston
gas companies would buy of the new company all the gas it produced at
something less than it was costing them to manufacture it under the old
process. That bound us to nothing dangerous, and we were not forced to
take Whitney's gas unless he actually got the results he promised.

At this time I knew nothing whatever of the workings or the
wire-pullings of State legislatures. My business life had been engaged
at the stock end of corporate transactions, and I had not troubled
myself about franchises, or how they were obtained, being content to
play my part with the manufactured product with which we dealt on the
market. In a general way I knew political corruption existed. That
Rogers had obtained favors for his Brookline Company through bribing
officials I had good gr