y have steadily
forged ahead, both in riches and in influence, until to-day they have
actually supplanted John D. Rockefeller in the kingship of finance. At
that day, though his had always been the master-mind of "Standard Oil,"
I don't believe Mr. Rogers was worth, all told, over twelve to fifteen
millions, while to-day he is probably a hundred and fifty times a
millionnaire.

It must be remembered that there was good cause for trepidation over
this venture, for though the stock markets buzzed with "Coppers" it was
all guesswork as to how far the public would go with us. The question
was, What would they do now that our stock was within their reach? It
was a tremendous proposition we had put forth, for remember this was
before the period of the great trustifications, and ten to twenty
millions figured as the limit of large flotations. Even these were of
well-known properties and invariably were offered below par. To come
into the open, offering at $100 a share a brand-new stock capitalized at
$75,000,000, was breaking the record, and we might well wonder what was
before us.

So far as man could do I had safeguarded the public and my own
reputation, and believed that the assurances I had secured eliminated
all opportunities of fleecing investors. Mr. Rogers and Mr. Rockefeller
had each pledged me his solemn word, under no circumstances to sell to
subscribers over five million dollars of the stock, and to place at my
disposal the five millions cash received, to use in the open market for
the purpose of protecting the stock so that it should never decline
below par. That this promise should be kept was of the utmost
consequence. While "Standard Oil" held the large majority of the
Amalgamated stock and the public but a small minority, there was no
danger of the latter being slaughtered, whereas if the public was loaded
up with stock at $100 per share, it would be profitable for Rogers,
Rockefeller, and Stillman to practise the method I was fast beginning to
see was their favorite device for accumulating wealth--selling stock and
then dropping its price and taking it away from its holders at
twenty-five to fifty per cent. below what they had purchased it at. If
my plan of guarding against this possibility were adhered to, I knew
that there would be such a demand for the shares in the open market
after the allotment that when the second section of seventy-five or one
hundred millions came to be offered, it would be even mo