Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-10-21

One day he got as high as $50, 900
subscriptions.
Fessenden Succeeds Chase.
Shortly after this Secretary Chase
was succeeded by William Pitt Fessen-
den, who had conceived the idea that
Jay Cooke had. been the favorite of
Chase and On this account had been
given the work of representing the
government as it's financial agent.
The new secretary CURLY dismissed
him and inaugurated the plan of using
only the banks of the country as
agents This plan would not work
and it was not long before Cooke was
sent for to talk to the new secretary
of the treasury. The latter frankly
told him of his straits and the neces-
sity there was for at once getting
money to pay Off the troops in the
field, some of whom had been without
pay for six months. Cooke asked
him how much he need at once, and
when told $t2,000,000 he promptly
replied that he would take it himself,
paying for it one-third in draft and
the remainder in three days. Fessen-
den was thunderstruck at the manner
in which the one man undertook to do
ON his personal account what the, Wall
street bankers had failed or declined
to do among them, and he expressed
his qualification and made amends by
honestly confessing that he had been
under the impression that Cooke was
a protege Of Chase and had been
favored by the latter. Instead of
that being the fact am inclined to be-
lieve that he was a protege of yours, :"
added the secretary at the close OF
this confession. The result Of this
interview was that Jay Cooke & Co
again became the financial agents of
the government, and so we'll was the
work done that it called out the words
of General Grant quoted in this arti-
Gle. 1t has been said that the firm of
Jay Cooke & Co. did not profit by this
work for the government directly and
that the commission of one-eighth of
1 per cent. in most cases paid for the
negotiation of bonds was just about
expended in the advertisement and
other expense incident to dfsposing
of them The firm did profit, however.
by the reputation which the head
the world Nobody before his time Or
since has ever under like conditions
performed such feats.
After the assassination of President
Lincoln and before the stock ex-
changes could open the next morning
Jay Cooke sent Geographic messages
to the agents of the firm ordering
them to advance the price of govern
ment bonds. After a short interval he
ordered them to make another adj
vance and by this procedure the pos
sibility of a panic was averted. The
financial world was surprised, as there
had been nothing less than a sharp de-
cline of the governments securities
as soon as the boards opened 1t was
on the third day after the death of
the president before Jay Cooke wired
TO the secretary Of the treasury at
Washington and asked if he would be
supported in his action The reply
was that he would This promptness
in undertaking on his own re-
sponsibility the task of holding up the
credit of the government was charac-
teristic of the business methods of Jay
Cooke. He made his millions because
he had faith in his country, it's re-
sources, it's citizens and it's govern
ment when there was doubt in the
minds of most of the people.
Pacific Railroad Brings Trouble.
After the war the firm of Jay Cooke
became interested in the building Of
the Northern Pacific railroad Cooke
sent out in 1867 engineers and on their
report he began the operations that
finally led to the downfall of his house.
He believed then in the great re
sources of the northwest and in his
last days he had the satisfaction of
seeing the enterprise completed and
the stock of the railroad selling at par
on the markets Of the world The
enterprise was beset with difficulties
and luck was against it. The efforts
to raise the money were defeated two
or three times by outside happenings.
In 1871 Jay Cooke had completed ar
rangements with syndicate of Ger
man bankers to raise $5O,000,000 for
the work. Just on the eve of the
closing of the matter war was de-
clared by France against Germany
and everything was off. A little
later another arrangement had been
made with English banks for big
loan almost as large as the former
and this was nipped in the bud when
everything seemed about settled by
the Alabama claims award and the
threatened war between the two
countries. Then he got together two
or three millions from private sources
put into the work and then came the
failure Of the banking firm Of Jay
Cooke & Co., in September. 1873.
With the failure all of the private
property, including the $1,000,000 resi-
n ~ L