Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-12-31

VI tHe PAST Inontn certainly stamp Ca
| sey as a man who keeps his word
The only weapon Casey has thus far
employed in his war is a circular
which he sent to prospective custo-
mers- when he opened a metal brok-
er's office early in September. The cir
cular ran something like this:
Having left the office of my former
employers. am now conducting bro
kerage business at---street, and trust
that you will honor me with your or
| ders. The United States Metals Sell
ing company. in severing my relations
with them, Informed me that my dis
charge was necessitated by economy
which you will doubtless appreciate
when tell you that the company has
now on hand 36,000,000 pounds of cop
per-
To the layman the circular was an
innocent enough looking document, but
4 it turned the copper market topsy-tur-
Wy. The information that the com
pany had 36,000,00O pounds of idle
copper in stock-a quarter of the
yearly production--came like thun-
derclap to the copper trade. Men in
terested in copper foresaw a possible
panic resulting from so unprecedented
a supply with decreasing demand.
| Investors and spectators threw their
copper securities on the market and
the crash came.
Astonished Himself.
Even Casey himself was astonished
at the effect of the first gun he dis
charged. He admitted this to a re,
porter who talked with him in his of
flee and to whom he unfolded the his
| tory of the war.
When | left the United States Met
ais company last August" he said, Il
told them there would be something
doing They only laughed and said
You can't do any harm, Casey; you're
easy Go down and ask them if they
think Casey's easy now.
Il am a peace-loving, law-abiding
citizen. | dislike fighting. but when |
fight | make the first blow SO effective
that my adversary can't come back. |
knew every one would call me a sore
head, and | frankly admit that | would
never have started this war if | had
not been discharged from the COM
pany. | had worked there, or in an
allied firm, Tor fourteen years, and
thought that to turn me out was hard
ly just. 1t was treading on Casey's
toes, and any one who treads on Cas-
ey's toes purposely must look out.
| After | left l told my friends that
| was going to fight. Fight they ex-
claimed: Why, Casey, how can you
fight? You've no money and the cop
per trust has Millions But that
didn't feaze Casey. The trust, | knew
had millions, and also knew
that in fighting the Amalgamated Cop
per company, of which the United
States Metal Selling company is a sort
of sales agent, | had to fight also the
Standard Oil company But, as head
salesman of the United States Metals
Selling company, | possessed a little
valuable information about the COPPER
trade, and then, | figured that while
the trusts had the millions they didn't
have all the brains in the world. So
said nothing, and bided my time.
His Strong Card.
Il knew that the company had 36
| 900, 600 pounds of copper on hand. al.
SO knew that large quantities of copper
had been imported from Europe, none
OF which had been sold, and which was
brought over to create the impression
that there was great demand for it
| in this country. Instead, the demand
was steady decreasing. The installa.
ton OF the trolly systems. which a
year age took all the copper wire that
could be turned out, had about been
completed. Factories which a year ago
were working night and day had early
IN September scarcely enough business
to keep them busy during the day, and
the manufacturers of copper wire
were buying from hand to month.
Under such conditions, which were
pretty generally well known in copper
circles, | was certain that if could get
before the public the fact that the
Selling company had 36,000,OOO pounds
of the metal on its Lands something
would drop. | hit upon the circular
plan as polite and effective medium
| of conveying the information.
| Il had several thousand circulars
printed and distributed them all over
the world Moreover, / timed the mail
ling of them SO that they would be re-
1 ceived in London, Paris, Berlin, Russia.
Japan, Australia, San Francisco, Chi
cago, Boston, New York and all the
! big cities of this country on the same
morning.
There was no hitch in the execution
of the plan. On the morning of Sep
TENDER 6 the whole world knew that
there were 36,000,000 pounds of copper
lying idle in the storage places of the
United States, and what happened
every one knows. | had no idea that
the result would be so appalling as it
was-but when Casey fights, he fights
hard.
Public Was Amazed.
"Only Casey the salesman could
have done it. Casey the banker, Casey
the merchant, Casey the doctor, Casey
the lawyer might have issued millions
of circulars only to have them tossed
into the trash basket. But Casey, for
merly head salesman for the United
States Metals Selling company, the
copper world realized, knew what he
was talking about, and it stood aghast.
Even at that the market might
have recovered had the issuance of
my circular not been followed by the
passing of the copper dividend Wheth-
ell or not Casey's circular had anything
to do with that is immaterial If it did
it was another point gained; if it
didn't, it shows that Casey spoke the