gers
intended to misuse the public, but I suspected that his coat-sleeves
contained more things than his shirt-cuffs, and that he was playing a
game other than the one he let me see. Up to now Mr. Rogers and William
Rockefeller had kept me between the people and their legal
responsibility by having all public statements made over my signature. I
had half-way concluded that this was done to avoid future accounting,
but there might be other reasons. I determined when it came to the
flotation, which would be the first time they took openly the public's
money, to connect them publicly with my statements. It is next to
impossible for any man to sit in front of Henry H. Rogers and give one
reason for his actions and have another about his person; but this was a
desperate situation and I resolved at any cost to carry my point. How
difficult a task I had undertaken I did not realize until I was well
into it. When I had stated the form I thought Amalgamated's first
announcement should have, Mr. Rogers paused. He repeated:

"The City Bank--that's a question. Now, how do you propose to go about
that advertisement?"

"Simply this way," I replied. "I will draw up a memorandum of the main
strong points about the Amalgamated Company, and you will ask Mr.
Stillman to have some of his people write them into a good, clear
statement. This we will publish as an advertisement over the bank's
signature, and have the Amalgamated Company indorse it, showing that it
is joined with the bank in responsibility for the truth of the
announcement."

Mr. Rogers said nothing, but continued to gaze inquiringly at me. I went
on:

"Or, the Amalgamated Company can be the principal and the bank the
indorser."

"Just what is the bank to say in this statement?" he asked very
seriously.

"The big things about our enterprise that I have been telling the
public. We will put them forward in an old-fashioned, unequivocal
way--that should accomplish what we want," I replied.

He was looking at me in a curiously searching manner as I spoke. He
said:

"Let us have the strongest one or two as an illustration."

"Well, for instance, what I have advertised so often, that this stock is
so good the 'Standard Oil' people who formerly owned the property behind
it would prefer to own all the stock and hold it as a permanent
investment, but that the enterprise is so large their interests will be
better served by letting the public in than going it alone. You and