The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-03-07
THE STORY OF
HAMMOND'S RISE
Continued from First Page.
up the sponge as legitimate concern
and was an out-and-out bucketshopper
RI date & ~. l.l-.
Beginning Of the Fight.

y.
About this time began the greatest
bucketshop fight in the history Of the
United States, the effort of the Min
neapolis Chamber Of Commerce to pre-
vent the use of the quotations origi-
mating on the floor in the bucketshops.
the chamber fought Hammond by legal
means, and the case now before the
United States supreme court regarding
the property rights of an exchange in
its quotations came about in part from
this fight. Nothing could down Ham
tended his business in every direction.
The most sensational episode of this
bitter fight occurred on Saturday, Jan.
II, 1908.
For long time the chamber had been
making strenuous efforts to stop the
leak in the quotations. That there
might be no loophole anywhere, private
telephones were ordered off the floor,
and grain firms of questionable repute
were compelled to submit, to closest
espionage, not because they were sus-
pected, but because the chamber had
determined to look into every known
avenue OF lngress and egress.
Mystery Of the Wires. -
route, quotations went from the cham
Der floor to st. Paul and came back
here to the bucketshops. This was
stopped and still the quotations leaked.
1t was discovered that the figures were
teiegraphed clear to Chicago over
private wire line and came back here
again, delayed momentarily, but still
fresh enough for bucketshop use. This
was stopped, and still the figures were
up on the blackboards in the bucket
| shops.
The chamber finally concluded that
all these roundabout lines of communi-
cation were but so many circumlocutory
arrangements to cover up the permanent
and more direct line. That this line
must be found and cut off was the
unanimous decision Of the directors, and
shall, then president of the chamber,
and G. F. Eve, chairman of the quota
ton committee, entered into commune
cation with Chicago men who under
stood the detective business as apple
able to this case.
| Accordingly there came into Mime
apolis one day, quietly and without de-
and wire service men in the country
A. E. Tyler and G. S. Baldwin. Silently
and secretly they went to work to find
the wire that carried the quotations
from the Chamber of Commerce to the
Bank of Commerce building, where the
bucketshop headquarters was then To-
, Gated. They worked largely in the
night. For ten days they accomplished
nothing. Then they struck lead and
like bloodhounds they stuck to the
: scent.
The Sensation Of Jan. II, '03.
On Saturday, Jan. II, Minneapolis
, received the greatest commercial shock
, of a decade. A terrific fight occurred
; in the corridor of the Bank Of Com
MERGE building, and out of the melee
came Messrs. Tyler and Baldwin, badly
:, battered up. They were taken to po
a lice headquarters and thrown into jail
r They had been captured by George j.
r Hammond, Amos G. Martin and an as
sociate named Hoyt, who bounced upon
them while, it was alleged, they were
8 trying to burglarize the office OF the
s Coe Commission company. ~
o But if the shock attendant upon thi.
Q announc cement was great, it was as moth
ing compared to that that followed
T when, upon searching the prisoners
o there was found upon them Letters
: signed by Mr.. Marshall and Mr.. Ew'
of a nature to indicate from superficial
reading that the Minneapolis Chambe
of Commerce had hired them to CONF
q here and break into the Bank Of Com
merce. The chamber officials were abb
to show that there never was Sucn IN
tent, but the cry Of conspiracy that tn
buckshops then sent up looked reason
able and hurt the chamber, while ad
=, vertising the shops very widely, ,
Il It was now up to the chamber t.
stand by the men, who lay in Jail owe
Sunday and were arraigned in cour
on Monday morning, Jan. 10: H. V
Mercer for Tyler and General Georg
d P. Wilson for the chamber saw then
thru the legal troubles that followe'
and after a time got them clear.
This was the end of the period o
aggression. The chamber learned tina
its antagonist could fight, too; that
was, in short, Napoleon Of bucket
shoppers, and man not to be take
l. too lightly.