payment that could be
traced back to him. He pointed out the sources of hazard; first, through
treachery on the part of Foster, Braman, or Addicks, he might be accused
of bribing a court officer, the receiver; Addicks might blackmail him by
charging him with conspiracy, or a conspiracy charge might be brought by
Bay State stockholders, and he be held for tremendous damages. He
refused to put himself into any such trap. I put forward a dozen ways to
meet the emergency, but he would have none of them. Finally he suggested
a method which was certainly perfect of its kind. He began by letting me
into the secret that the chances of a McKinley victory in the election
the following week looked pretty bad, and that the latest canvass of the
State showed that unless something radical were done, Bryan would surely
win. Hanna had called into consultation half a dozen of the biggest
financiers in Wall Street, and it was decided to turn at least five of
the doubtful States. For this purpose a fund of $5,000,000 had been
raised under Rogers' direction,[13] to be turned over to Mark Hanna and
McKinley's cousin, Osborne, through John Moore, the Wall Street broker,
who was acting as Rogers' representative in collecting the money. It
would be legitimate for the National Committee to pay out money to carry
Delaware, and he, Rogers, would arrange it that the coin to satisfy
Braman and Foster should come through this channel. Thus he would be
completely protected.

"Lawson," said Mr. Rogers, looking at me with intense and deadly
seriousness, his voice charged with conviction, "if Bryan's elected,
there will be such a panic in this country as the world has never seen,
and with his money ideas and the crazy-headed radicals he will call to
Washington to administer the nation's affairs, business will surely be
destroyed and the working people will suffer untold misery. You know we
all hate to do what Uncle Mark says is necessary, but it's a case of
some of us sacrificing something for the country's good. Bryan's
election would set our country back a century, and I believe it's the
sacred duty of every honest American to do what he can to save his land
from such a calamity."[14]

The "System's" conscience has its own quaint logic--the logic of
self-interest--and this is how it reasoned: "The election of Bryan would
disturb our control of American institutions, therefore American
institutions would be destroyed by Bryan's election. On us, the
'