Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1904-12-09

Il IL you must, Out prevent a. VIII bfcdk,
Things at the exchange are bad now.
I'll take care OF Bay State. Look our
for Dominion at once, and when you
are through / must see you--where r.
"At Young's in ten minutes"
'Tli be there"
Ten minutes later / was In Whitney's
headquarters. There pandemonium
reigned. All the c~ocksureness and
bluster OF the machine" had vanished.
excited men l found struggling around
Towle and Whitney. who vainiy sought
TO stay the panic. 1t was not disap-
pointment at the governors message
that had 30 stirred up these hardened
practitioners of politics. but the terror
of impending loss. The majority of the
Whitney band, lawyers. lieutenants and
water carriers, had bought one stock
or both on margin and had assured
their friends it wac safe to plunge TO
the limit.
My talk with whitney and Towie was
brief and pointed.
THE market is bad" / said, talking
quickly. IF time is wasted 1t will be
worse and-and Boston will be a warm
place fer you, Towle. II would not sur
prise me il 1t got warm for Mr.. Whit
ney, too, when the desperate men who
are filing the brokerage shops and the
corridors outside demand a reason why
they were egSed on TO buy stocks on
Mr.. Whttney's word that the governor
would sign. No excuses now. / want
TO know from Mr., Whitney just what
he proposes to do. You both told me
the legislative end was nome of my
business. and, thank heaven, 1t was not.
You said il was your business. Now,
how about it?"
Henry M. Whitney is quite a general.
He, too, can. light his cigar when the
battles on with the friction OF a pas
sing cannon ball.
I'm going to pass it over the row
ernor's veto" he instantly answered.
Can you do it?" / asked.
II can, for i must He meant it. 1t
needed but one look into his and
Towle's eyes to see they both read the
message on the back OF tomorrow's
visiting card.
AS | came out of parlor IL to rush
back 10 my office | said to the despair
ing men who crowded the corridor out
side the headquarters, and who had In
their desperation thrown all cautious
ness or thought of concealment to the
winds: Goal and Gas looks TO me like
good buys" The sudden revulsion of
feeling was pathetic. In a minute the
news had spread by way OF them to
their brokers and their suffering
friends: Its all right, Whitney and
40 a iA5 GNO&Rs - COk III
the exchange almost as SOC as / did.
We turned the market.
The morning papers announced
Whitney had picked up the gauntlet
Governor Wolcott had thrown al his
feet, and--all roads led up Beacon
hill.
1t was a quick, sharp set-to. Every
man was lined up with a jerk and
when they were tallieds down and
Towle had consented to the last raise
In price OF Votes and given way to
the final squeeze, the word went up
and down the line that the Whitney
bill would go flying through both
houses Over the governors veto with
a vote or two to spare On he APP
preaching last day of the session.
Again the prices of the two stocks shot
upward.
Then. sharp and quick as a bolt of light
ming, Mother Fate, who apparently had
been camped ON the trail OF Bay State
Gas and Addicks from the first. let fly
another of her culver contents. On the
morning OF the closing day OF the session,
the one selected for the Whitney coup,
there slipped in and out among the Whit
ney Legislative ranks a mar with a story.
As a legislator listened, his brow
knitted and he nodded assent. The story
was a simple one: In one of Whstney's
former campaigns, desperate like this one,
on payment day Towle went Jack on his
promises and forced the acceptance of a
50-cents-on-the-dollar settlement; and, SO
the story now went. he. Towle, had put
the saved so cents, a matter altogether OF
some $4,000, In his own pocket. Probably
he was now going to repeat the operation
on a larger scale. In an o there came
to Young's hotel a trusty messenger who
delivered to Towle himself the ultimatum
Of the great and general court of the dear
old commonwealth: Money In advance
or no Bill"
CONSERVATION reigned. The army was
quickly recalled to headquarters, and
dispatched back to the statehouse to put
through every maneuyer known TO the
two veterans. but to no purpose. The
great and general court stood its ground,
openly defied the army and hurled back
into Towle's teeth all his frantic threats.
1t was the last day and the great and
general court was ~intrenched inside the
protecting walls OF the state house, and it
new that before 1t could be compelled
to come forth to face TowIe he must de-
eide. A terrible dilemma, surely, for the
a UNITS promised had run up to such an
enormous aggregate that IL was impos-
sible to pay all in 30 short q time. even
If such had been Whitney and Towle's in
tention. Yet to pay one or a few OF the
dangerous indictments meant to pay
everyone, as they had firmly banded them
selves together.
This was the real moment of panic.
Even whitney and Towle were at their
f, wits end. Finally In desperation. as a last
resort. whitney rushed TO the governor
and threw up his hands and asked for
mercy. What would the governor sign?"
Massachusetts able and fearless Gov
| ernor Wolcott. who seemed to have been
| expecting some such outcome OF the bat
tie. gave his answer clear as an anvil
blow:
you have told the people your COM
pany would give them cheap gas. Bind
yourself to do Ii by amending the char
ter SO that the highest price your gas can
be sold at win be 50 cents. Then I will
! Sign
There was nothing else to do. AT the
last minute the amendment was inserted.
The governors representative gave the
word that 1t was satisfactory. and 1t
passed.
I was in my office taking care OF the
market. or the stampede / knew nothing.
Suddenly came the word: THE Whitney
bill has passed on the governors recon-
mendation." Both stocks started to jump:
then a halt. then-~I didn't try to stop the
decline, for / saw something terrible had
happened. In n few minutes the news was
on the street: THE charter vas not
worth the parchment upon which il was
engrossed.
The bitter lac been fatally bitten,