n knowledge that the dividends were cut to two per cent., and
are at the present time, the best ever known in the copper business,
only four per cent., and that they have been cut under eight per cent.,
so they either could not have been twelve to sixteen per cent. at the
time it was stated they were, or there has been great fraud committed
since. As we are dealing with the greatest national bank in the country,
it will be simple for the Government and banking officials at Washington
instantly to disprove my statements if they are false; otherwise they
must take action, civil and criminal, against the National City Bank.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE SUBSCRIPTION OPENS

When Mr. Rogers on returning from his conference with James Stillman and
William Rockefeller had given the word that the course was clear, I was
conscious of the necessity of clinching the decision so that there could
be no further backing and filling. I told Mr. Rogers so and suggested
that we insert at once the advertisement of the City Bank and the
Amalgamated Company in the New York papers, and that the following day I
have arrangements concluded with my advertising agents for their
publication throughout the country. The announcements appeared in New
York and the following day they were spread before the public in the
great papers of this country and England. Thus was Amalgamated launched.

With the appearance of these long anticipated announcements the pent-up
copper excitement burst forth, and an avalanche of queries began to pour
in upon us all. The interest was tremendous, and I felt certain we were
to reap a greater success than I had dared dream of. The days preceding
the opening of the subscription were taken up in answering a thousand
questions regarding conditions, in supervising the advertising, and
steering "Coppers" in the market. On the eve of the opening day Mr.
Rogers said to me:

"Lawson, at last we are to know how well your work has been done. The
time of talk ends to-night and after that we'll have facts to go upon.
What do you place the subscription at?"

"I'll stake my prospective profits that when the books close there will
be from forty to fifty millions subscribed and that when your 'Standard
Oil' experts have analyzed the subscriptions they will tell you that
three-quarters of all have come from the country--from my campaign--and
not over a quarter from the 'Standard Oil's' following and Wall Street,"
I answered. "Then you