The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-08

It's perfectly simple. he said.
That evening at o'clock Graham,
general manager of the International
and Universal, was ushered into Pot
ter's private office.
Potter was standing up, leaning for
ward, over one side of his desk his
right elbow on its top and his face sup
ported on his right hand. He was star
ing out of the window and with his
right forefinger beating a regular tat
too against the side of his beak-like
nose.
L shall want twenty-five thousand
dollars down." said Peter Potter, pres
emily, .'and fifty thousand dollars more
when the Independent company goes
into the hands of a receiver. And it
will take at least ninety days, perhaps
longer, to get results"
That's a big fee, Mr.. Potter" said
Graham.
so are the chances 1 take" Potter
announced. IF it wasn't to teach Old
ham a lesson I wouldn't care about
fooling with it at all"
Are you sure about it?''
well. now, look here. if you have
any doubts you'd better handle the
thing yourself"
The next day Jacobson, chairman of
the board of directors of the Interna-
tional and Universal Corporation, drew
$4,000 from his personal account, and
Graham took the money over to Pot
ter's office.
And now l don't care to see you or
hear from you until the failure of the
Independent company is announced"
said Potter. ut will be three months
from now at the shortest"
The same afternoon Peter Potter took
the train for Milwaukee. where he put
up at leading club. During the even
ing there came into the library where
Potter was sitting the junior member
and active manager of large jobbing
firm in the grocery line. He did not
seem to be especially glad to see Pot
| ter, nor did the latter display any sur
prising warmth in greeting the whole
sale merchant. For all that the two
men sat down side by side and talked
| together for an hour over a cigar and
highball or two.
IF you follow my directions" Potter
said, its perfectly safe. There isn't
chance against you. Here's five
thousand down and the minute you get
all the goods out I'll pay you twenty
! five thousand dollars more"
! The jobber walked home that night
with his head in a whirl.
THAT Potter" he said slowly to him
self, shaking his head. half in admira-
ton and half in something like fear,
! THAT Potter! He's a very devil
Potter went straight back to Chicago
| During the next week the Independent
Match company received an order from
the jobbing house of Parsons & Taft
| in Milwaukee the biggest house in its
| line in the state and one with which
the Independent people had never be-
! fore been able to do any business. The
order called for five carloads of
matches and the managers of the In
dependent company were overjoyed
President Oldham of the Universal
heard of it and ordered his brokers to
sell out the twenty thousand shares of
] Universal stock they had bought for
| him. The deal Melted him a slight loss,
but he saw great opportunities on the
other side of the market. A few more
sales like that reported to Parsons &
Taft would certainly cause a big drop
| in the trust stock. He would play that
end of the game to his own profit.
1t happened strangely enough that on
the day the five carloads of matches
were received in Milwaukee the house
of Parsons & Taft found itself with a
strike of freight handlers on it's hands
A great lot Of goods were coming in at
the same time, and Mr.. Taft was
obliged to assume personal direction in
handling them. In addition to its regu-
| lar store the firm conducted a large
cold-storage warehouse, and in the con-
/ fusion incident to the strike a good
many errors were made. Goods which
should have been sent to the cold stor-
age plant were sent to the store, and
vice versa.
The strike lasted only forty-eight
hours Then things took their normal
course again and peace and quiet set
tied down over the whole tangled sit
ua alton.
About forty days went by. Then ali
the travelling statesmen of Parsons &
Taft, who covered the states of Wis
ecnsin, Iowa and Minnesota in their
journeyings, began to sell Independent
matches to the retail dealers. They
met the cut rates made by the sales
men of the trust and appealed to the
sympathies of the rural dealers to pat
ronize an independent. They were sue
cessfUl.
At least one dealer i'm almost every
town in the three states ordered anti
trust matches. The goods were
shipped.
One week later Taft of Parsons &
Taft found a letter in his mornings
mail which caused him to suppress a
smile 1t came from a retail grocer
at Beloit, Wis:
Parsons & Taft: Gents-The indie
pendent matches you sold me are no
good the - things won't even light.
Everybody I sold them to has brought
'em back. l won't pay for them. You
Continued on Page II.