Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1900-05-11
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES.
THE BAD GATES.

John W. Gates Ol chicago =. IN tlle
opinion of a large number of his former
business associates and friends. a very
wicked man. who ought to be in the peni
tertiary. because he has "dOne" them to
the tune OF million or so when they
thought he was helpiug them do others.
Mr.. Gates has an interesting history. He
appears to have been from his youth up
a great financer He has certainly been
most successful promoter and specula-
tor and the browning act of his career up
10 date is so audacious and nervY that it
has given Chicago and New York chill
from which they will not soon recover.
He organized and financed the American
steel and Wire company and the Federal
steel company, capitalizing them at POO
millions. which was more than half water,
and took ten million in stock for his servi-
Ies He also took the management of the
steel and Wire company. He is a friend
" man and he was very close 70 Congress
man Lorimer and other prominent Chica-
70 politicians who had helped him with
some of his ventures and who looked to
him to show them how to get rlch by Civ
ing them tips" on the markets in which
the shares in his steel companies were
sold. He ackr owledgcd his obligation to
them and promised to discharge it.
About a fortnight ago he told two or
three of them conf lentiallv To buy steel,
TO get together all the money they could
neg or borrow and buy steel upon
margins. for steel was surely going up.
At that time ;he preferred stock sold at
- and the common at 60. They took his
advice and bought. They told their
friends and they bought. Every dollar
The crowd could raise went into steel
margins and Gates stood by and winked
and Winked. A. it has since developed he
did something else. The stock they
bought was his and he peddled il out to
chem as fast as they could take 1t until he
had unloaded upon them 10000 shares of
preferred and 30, 600 shares of common.
Then he amazed the iron trade and the
brokers board by issuing AN order to close
twelve of the cOmpanv's plants and turn
1000 men out of employment, because, as
he said, the production was greater than
the demand. \ few DAYS later hc issued
another edict reducing the price of the
products Of the mills twenty dollars a Ton.
Of course the stock went down like lead.
he preferred from so 10 so, the COM
mon from $50 10 $40. the margins which
his victims bad put up were wiped out
and he turned up in New York with their
losses. which amounted to million and
half, in his pocket, in cold cash. ana as
MS stock cost him nothing his winnings
were really much more than thaf.
Congressman Lorimer, his dear friend,
1.
balance was distributed in sum, of
100000 and less And now they are
bankrupt and mad and say prisons are
useless if they are not for such rascals as
ne. If he had done what he might have
done and what they expected him 10 do ;
if he had by declaring an extra dividend
or some other trick run the stock UP ten
dollars a share and allowed them to un-
load. at profit Of a million, upon the
outside suckers who had no "tip-." II
would have been i'm their estimation all
right and they would have regarded him
a they did before, a. the most honorable
gentleman in the business and the great
est financial Napoleon of. the time.
What they really complain of is that he
skinned then instead of ten thousand
other fool, that hc done" them instead
Of helping them "do" the farmers and
mechanics who iu one way and another
are induced 10 take the Watercd took of
thc trusts.
Bur for Aughr we sec thev must Stew i'm
thclr own grease. "Our johnnie" Insult
done anything illegal. He is in mo- dan
ger of filling vacancy ina the prison. lie
isn't even liable I'D receive the cold shout
der In the stock rXchauge. All ho has
done is 60 lie 20 hi. friends and walk away
with their money. and that's nothing
among iiuauciers of his class.-Mir, on
aud Farmer
COMMAEDANT ROTHA, THE NEW BOEF
LEADER.
Although lac was the Youngest of the
noted Boer leaders, Loui, Botha, the vic
tor of Spion kop and ColensO, succeeded
General JOubert in command of the re-
publican armies. His stOical country
men are slow to set up heroes, but his
dramatic achievements commanded uni
versa admiration and made him distinct
lively the popular leader of the war. lie
was the popular as well as the Oflicia
choice for commanding general upon the
death of JOubert, and was also mentioned
as possible candidate for the presidency
of the Transvaal Republic.
Botha is only 3G, little more than hal
the age OF Joubert, and, like most of thu
Boer leaders, is not professional sol