Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-04

! Napoleon of politics as well as Ma
| poleon Of finance. He thought he could
see his way clear to the goverrorship
| and probably TO a United States senator
ship. He may even have dreamed Of
| going to the white house. There were
J certainly no known limits to either his
1 ambition or his Imagination.
/ He realized, however. that high politi-
/ cal honors I'm Michigan meant money. A
/ long dynasty of millionaire senators had
taught him that. The three leading can
i didates for the Republican nomination
for governor in 1900 had spent nearly
] $3.50 900 in the contest. Although An
drews was now rich he realized that his
money would not enable him to stay in
/ definitely in contest where the finan-
cial demand was so great.
So he entered upon the last stage Of
/ his financial career in a reckless en-
! deavor to achieve a fortune that would
give him immediate action on his polit-
/ zeal ambitions.
AS a preliminary step he organized a
stock company that bought the Detroit
Journal, the leading Republican news
paper of the state. He undertook to
/ buy The Free Press but was unsuccess-
| full. His journalistic adventure, how
ever. played an Insignificant part in his
drama: the controlling stock Of The Jour
I nal was held by other persons, and An
| drews made no attempt to influence the
policy of the newspaper
! Had Police Charge Crowd.
BY this time Andrews was the most
talked-about man in Michigan. AS COM
missioner of police and boss of the
! council he was the ruler of Detroit. By
means of the Mcmillan wires the legisla-
ture and the government of Michigan had
been subordinated to his will.
Financially he lowered over everybody
on Griswold street.
Andrews believed that the money-maK-
| ing faculty was born in men. He was
| accustomed TO say that some men had
a talent for literature, others for draw
ing. others for music. others for me-
chanics; but he had a genius for making
millions. Consequently he devoted no
concentrated thought TO his operations.
He trusted implicitly to his intuitions
believing II was impossible for him to
lose. The thing that came into his mind
, TO do he did instantly.
One act I'm his regime as commissioner
of police shows the play of the mind.
Complaint had been made that the Cam
pus Martins was INSTRUCTED evenings by
radical orators and various fakirs. The
police were called on to suppress the null
sance. and a bitter controversy grew out
of ii, which was inspired more by per-
sonal hostility to Andrews than by re-
spect for the right of free speech. A tick
fish state of public opinion had been ere
ated in respect to tie Campus matter,
but Andrews ignored it. He conceived IL
to be his duty to clear the Campus and
he set about it much as he would have
set about clearing the snow off the side
walk.
One evening he brought a squadron of
mounted police downtown and ordered
them to charge the crowd. riot en-
sued. Intense public indignation was
created by the action of Andrews Cos
/ sacks"
! Andrews was not only astonished but
terrified at the resistance which his eff
fort to break up the crowds had inspired
but he had utterly failed to perceive the
improperly of adopting Russian police
methods in dealing with an American as
sembly. From his point of view the quick
est and surest method of accomplishing a
purpose must necessarily be the best.
Opened Wall Street office.
He was a busy man during the summer
and fall of 1901. He was building large
apartment-house in fashionable part of
the city and was preparing to erect an
eighteen-story building on some of his
downtown property.
He had just unloaded one electric subur-
ban railway and was constructing another
from Grand Rapids to Holland. He was
exploiting the Ophir mine in which he
held several hundred thousand shares of
stock. He was interested in Mexican rail-
way and mining concessions.
He had opened an office on Wall street.
| in New York. He had become to all in
! tents and purposes the city savings bank
He had the confidence of nearly every
banker of the city, although everybody
! knew he was specializing heavily-nobody
but Andrews knew how heavily.
He kept no books. His memory and a
| pocket memorandum supplied all the
records he needed for transactions ag-
| gregating millions. He was feverishly
active. and at times seems to have
| chased securities from one end of Girls
/ void street to the other for the mere ex-
element of the thing. His patronage was
immensely profitable to the banks. He
would sometimes ask to have checks for
/ 100000 held over for twenty-four hours
or kept out of the clearinghouse for
| that day, but his kiting propensities ex-
cited no distrust. Besides. the banks
charged him handsomely for these con-
cessions, and believed with him in his
| destiny.
II was his practice in glittering loans
| TO allow the bank to make its own terms
as to security. His usual method was to
| rush into the cashiers office with bum
| die of securities, throw them on the desk,
| ask for $50 600 or 500 coo, sign a blank note,
| tell the cashier TO fish out what securities
he desired for collateral and figure up the
discount.
Then he would disappear like a whirl-
| wind, to return in. an hour, gather up
the remaining securities, take a check
/ for the loan and dash down the street
1 like a stampeded steer.
| 1t was asserted at his trial that he
never made out deposit slips or kept any
/ track Of his bank account. He took up
his notes when they were due, raced his
| securities out of one bank into another
and was a never-faning source of divi-
dends to all the institutions he patronized.
Plunge on Copper.
In the late fall Andrews began to
plunge on Amalgamated. He knew moth
/ ing about the state of the copper mar
/ ket commercially, but he took it for
| granted that any stocks on which he
plunged must necessarily advance in val
! ue. for the season that he was buying
| them. There were no natural laws of
/ trade that he concerned himself about,
and he was ignorant of the fact that GER
/ tain citizens Of New York, who controlled
\ the destinies of Amalgamated were weary
/ of acting as caryatides for the copper
market and getting ready to quit, with
/ the inevitable result.
| He thought he saw in Amalgamated an
/ opportunity to clear up a million or so,
/ and he wanted the money, although he
| was wealthy.
| Andrews proceeded to load up on Anal
| gamated from 80 to 120, and when the
! slump came he found himself in a fnan-
| cial quicksand. Good money followed bad