re eagerly
sought than the first. So with the third and other sections
contemplated, until in time the whole stock would be distributed among
the investors of the world, and assuming that part of our enormous
profits would always be used to keep up its market price, there could be
no possible decline. Thus Amalgamated, like "Standard Oil" or a
Government bond, must always be worth more than par, first because there
would be value to justify it, and second because its holders would have
absolute confidence that the security could always be sold for as much
or more than they had paid for it.

So far, I had carefully refrained from discussing with Mr. Rogers how we
should go about securing our part of the subscription. I had not
forgotten it. Indeed, I had it well in mind and was ready to enter upon
the matter when it came up. An iron-bound contract held the Amalgamated
Company and the National City Bank over the signatures of a Rogers, a
Rockefeller, and a Stillman to allow the public to subscribe for
$75,000,000 of stock, and the terms were that every subscription must be
in the bank at noon, May 4th, and that each subscription must be
accompanied by a certified check of $5 for every share applied for. _As
we had agreed that the public should be sold but five millions of the
stock, that meant that we proposed to retain seventy millions of it
ourselves, but to obtain this allotment legally, we must comply with the
conditions of the advertisement exactly as outsiders had. So it was
necessary that we have a bid in before noon on Thursday for our seventy
millions, accompanied by a check for_ $3,500,000, _which would secure us
our quota provided the public subscription was no more than five
millions._ If the public subscription ran over five millions, then the
bank must throw out all additional subscriptions over that amount, for
the advertised contract specifically declared that all accepted
subscriptions would be allowed pro rata. By my suppression of the usual
condition that the Bank reserve the right to reject any part of any
subscription, it was absolutely precluded from the common method of
dealing with such an emergency and so could not reject _parts_ of
subscriptions. There was a way out--without practising fraud. If at noon
on Thursday the public had subscribed ten or fifteen millions then the
insiders must put in bids of $140,000,000 to $210,000,000, in which
event the entire subscription would be divided by allotti