The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-09-20
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 4 Trust.

When my man took possession Of the
air engine plant il occupied two small
rooms on the upper story OF block given
over 20 light manufacturing. The work
ing force consisted OF TWO men and 2
boy in the factory division, while the
Office force was made UP OF one red
headed hungry-lOoking youth, who was
willing TO act as private secretary. book
keeper, salesman. errand boy ana janiJor.
Is occasion warranted When my man
paid over his 8, 01o he had used up ali the
money he had or could borrow and he
was face 10 face with weekly pay roll
Of see. which has never looked quite as
large 10 him, though il now amounts 70
SS0.000.
The men who had sold out TO him had
scheduled as part Of the assets OF the
! firm prOmissOry notes, which they de-
| clared TO be good 10 the amount of $500.
| These notes, they assured him, would be
! paid at the rate OF so a week, so that
he would have no difficulty in meeting
/ the running expenses Of the business
But though the first thing my man did
was to send out the notes which were due
for collection, he got absolutely no re-
Spouse from any Of them, and when the
| first Saturday night pay roll was made
| Up he had no money TO meet IL with. lie
borrowed $50 from q personal friend TO
| at night. hoping and expecting that the
mail on Monday morning would bring re-
mittances from some Of the firms debt
ors
Sunday he spent going over more care
] fully the books and papers left behind
| by the old owners, and he discovered
among other things he had not known
| that he was bound by contract TO pay
| royalty of $ 10 the inventor on every air
| engine he sold. When he-got down on
/ Monday the only mail which came in was
| a letter from this same inventor saying
I
| sold and that he would like draft for
800 at once. or he would be obliged TO
/ bring suit for the recovery of his patents.
! He had received, he declared, another
and better offer for the use OF the patents
/ and he should expect either draft for
$4oG or the patents by return mail. The
same morning a man called with 8 bill
for 500 for sheet brass and another man
/ telephoned TO ask II it would be convent
ent TO pay that little account of S45 for
painting and vanishing. To them all
my man replied that he had just taken
! possession of the plant and that until he
had time TO investigate all claims no
checks would be sent out.
He sold 100000 worth OF preferred
stock last year at a premium, but that
doesn't alter the fact that he was up
against a hard proposition twenty years
ago
My man never yet failed to get anything
lux ldIh VI dSN-llS LOE IL dlAu 4lt AdLAlg
canvassed the town in the effort TO raise
a thousand dollars. Everybody refused
him, though, and things looked darker
than they ever have since when he went
home that night and told his mother that
il looked as If he would have to let 80
ana lose all he had put in for lack of a
poor little thousand dollars. That was
the time when the old lady showed the
stuff she was made Of
You go right downtown and put a
mortgage for $1,000 on the homestead,
William" she said. You are not going
to fail. You are going to win
1 tell you a lot of US trusts would
never have been in existence today If If
had not been for the fact that the men
who made US had had mothers of that
kind.
Ny man put the mortgage on the place
and got the money from one Of the
banks. But he was too wise 20 pay IL
all out on old debts. He called in the
brass man and the paint man. showed
them the bank book with a thousand to
his credit. and asked them to wait a few
weeks till he got things running well. My
man-was so terribly in earnest and 50
sure that he was going 10 make sue
cess Of ii that he persuaded both the
men to wait / guess both OF them are
glad now they did. For all my mans
brass and paint are still bought from
these same men and both of them are
some hundreds of thousands better off
than they would be If they had refused !
TO let those little accounts stand over.
But even with that thousand in the 1
bank my mans troubles were just begin (
ming. In the first place there was no de- /
mand for the air engines. and he had TO 4
make one out Of worse than nothing. It /
was not only that people did not want /
his air engine. but they didn't want air /
engines of any kind. Steam was good 1
nr,re frrh for fr mi
pertinent they said They had no money +
to waste that way. Besides, nobody /
knew how TO run them. They refused in /
most cases even to look at the model. /
That was one job he undertook which 1
was big enough for any life-sized man. j
Then. With couple Of days. the orig 4
inal invent sent formal notice through 1
q lawyer that he would consider his as
signment Of patents revoked and that |
he had reassigned them 20 another firm
and wished to serve notice on my man
that he must stop making air engines
under them. The same day the head man
in the factory quit work without giving
any reason. leaving only an inexperi-
enced man and boy TO attend 20 that
part OF the work.
That evening my man found out that
IL was ali a scheme on the part OF one
af the men who had formerly held the
chief interest in the company TO freeze
him out and get possession Of the prop
erty again.
we might as well get enough money
from that young fellow. was the way /
he had put IL. Ito make ourselves even.
Then We can turn in and freeze him out
in a month or two and take possession
again. We might as well have his g. 90
as anybody else"
Nv man went to see a lawyer. The
man he consulted was one OF the shrewd-
est and most successful lawyers In the
country. Before he gave my man any
advice at all he charged him a fee OF $50.
which was just one-quarter OF his work
ing capital
The thing for you 70 do IS 70 bring
suit against the original inventor and
against the firm 10 which he has re-
assigned his patents for infringing the
patents under which YOU are working.
Sue them for damages. too. Tell the
story OF the lob which has been set I'D
or YOU in the bill you file I'm court. Then
the newspapers Viii print IL You need
publicity just row and you can't get too
much of il. 7 u give YOU that advice for
nothing. what I am going 20 charge you
for IS this II you are just starting il
business and a man tries 10 impose on
you IN any way put your back 20 the
wall and dEht him. Don { hstea - talk
~ q coupraTnise OF settlement q any
zind. And keep or fighting After YOU
have zon half a dozen sights OF this
kind ycuu have a reputation IS fighter
which viii be worth mitch mere than All
sen have paid FOR T.
Nv man went back home az started Z !
three suits IN each 81 them la made IT.
.eresting statements which were written
lu as matters ~ news in the newspapers.
and ir that way good many people +
uh7 rad never heard az the air engine