The Butler weekly times., 1900-05-03
VAST POWER IN
ONE MANS HANDS.
Dangerous Phase of Modern
Trust Conditions.
Views Of a Banker on the Wire Mills
Shut Down.

Edward :. Lacey. president OF th'
Banker National Bank, says;
There is no doubt but that th'
sudden and autocratic closing of 81
many OF the mills OF the American
Steel and Wire Co, has already III
jured the standing with banks Of al
industrials az collateral securities
The action OF Mr. Gates was SO auto
cratic and so inexcusable and was
followed by such wide-reaching re-
suits that no banker can tell when
the ruling spirit in some other big
Industrial concern mas- initiate him.
The tendency will be TO make every
careful banker more conservative in
loaning his banks money upon in
dustrial securities. OF course. there
is no doubt about the stocks OF the
American Steel and wire Co. having
been seriously injured, both as an in
vestment and as a speculative prop
osition.
iN iItt't'iS vi tic tollI lIctii'
should be punished as far as they can
be by "a storm of hostile opinion. OF
course they cannot be reached di-
rectly until the annual stockholders
meeting, and by that time Gates and
his following may have recovered the
control of the stock in the company
which they have undoubtedly given
up for the present that they might
work their schemes successfully. A
congressional investigation which
will place the blame where it belongs
might so arouse public opinion as to
lessen the probability of the recur-
renee OF such a raid.
zone result of the closing of the
mills has been to awaken the public
to n realization of the immense and |
well nigh absolute power that, under
modern conditions, is being vested |
in the hands of few men who CON
troll enormous aggregations of capi- |
tai. Here was one man, John W. |
Gates, able to throw thousands of |
men out of work at a moments no.
tlce, and to cause untold suffering |
among thousands of families unpre-
paired forsuch misfortune. Ofcourse
the proper way to have diminished
the production of the American Steel
and Wire company's products would
have been to work the mills on short
er hours, or to lay off part of the
force portion of the time.
The overproduction alleged by
Mr.. Gates and his directors as the
reason for the stoppage of the mills
did not happen instantaneously. 1t
was the growth of days and weeks
and perhaps months. Yet, instead
of meeting this gradual but steady
accumulation of stock, if there really
was one, in business-lke way, moth
ing was done about it, until suddenly
almost all the mills were shut down
with a thud.
1t is estimated that the loss to
occasioned by the ma {
nipulation of wire and steel stocks
by John W. Gates, will reach into the
millions. Scarcely brokers' office
on LaSalle street escaped. None of ,
the myriads who specuated in the j
property was short" of the issues. |
Mr.. Gates encouraged these pur-
chasers Just before he left for New .
York. His chums i'll the clubs. his !
business associates and his confiden- Y
tlal legal advisers were assured that
fortunes awaited them in the acqui-
sltion OF wire, common and preferred. >
Two lawyers who were thought to
have unusually favorable means of {
obtaining infallible facts. took on a /
huge block of common and preferred !
stock, which they had to let 90 at
S2OO,OO0 loss on Saturday EN- I
ployes of the company-thosein in com
mand of handsome salaries-were
badly scorched Y
Even the directors themselves suf-
fered severely. Col. Isaac l.. Elwood
and Col. John Lambert, according TO
street gossip, were deeply slashed )
1t is stated that the
officers OF the Wire Trust were wholly I
ignorant of the order TO close the
mills and, the report runs, did not r
know of the injunction TO suspend {
business until apprised from Joliet. L
The most encouraging politiea, !
: IN for the Democratic party is tha y