Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-01-29
Qbe Sion ano the 111ouse
The Greatest Serial of the Day.
BY CHARLES KLEIN AND ARTHUR HoRNBLow
Copyrighted by Dillingham; Co
The Greatest Serial of the Day.
Copyrighted by G. w. Dillingham; Co.


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freight, discriminating against certain
localities without reason or justice,
and favoring other points where its
own interests lay. BY corrupting gov
eminent officials and other unlawful
methods it appropriated lands, and
tnere was no escape from it's eXac.
lions and brigandage Other roads
were built and for a brief period there
was held out the hope Of relief that in
.varlably comes from honest competi-
ton. But the railroad either obserbed
It's rivals OR pooled interest with them,
and thereafter there were several mas
] tiers instead of one.
Soon the, railroads began to war
among themselves, and in a mad
scramble to secure business at any
price they cut each others rates and
unlaWfully entered into secret COM
pacts with certain big shippers, per-
m1tting the latter to enjoy lower
freight rates than their competitors.
The smaller shippers were soon crush
ed out of existence in this way Com.
petition was throttled and prices went
up, making the railroad barons richer
and the people poorer. That was the
beginning of the giant Trusts. the
greatest evil American civilization has
yet produced, and one which, unless
checked, will inevitably drag this coun.
try into the throes of civil strife.
From out this quagmire of corrup-
tion and rascality emerged the Colos-
sus, man so stupendously rich and
with such unlimited powers for evil
that the world has never looked upon
his like. The famous Croesus, whose
fortune was estimated at only eight
millions in our money. was pauper
compared with John Burkett Ryder,
whose holdings no man could count,
but which were approximately esti-
mated at thousand millions of dol
lars. The railroads had created the
Trust, the ogre of corporate greed, of
which Ryder was the incarnation, and
| in time the Trust became master of
the railroads which after all seemed
but retributive justice.
John Burkett Ryder, the richest man
in the world-the man whose name
had spread to the farthest corners Of
the earth because of his wealth and
whose money. instead of being bless
ing, promised to become not only a
curse to himself, but a source Of dire
peril 70 all mankind-was a genius
born of the railroad age. No other age
could have brought him forth; his Pc
culiar talents fitted exactly the condi-
lions of his time. Attracted early in
life to the newly discovered Oil fields
of Pennsylvania, he became dealer in
the raw product and later a refiner, ac-
quiring with capital laboriously saved,
first one refinery, then another. The
railroads were cutting each others
Threats to secure the freight business
of the oil men. and John Burkett
Ryder saw his opportunity. He made
secret overtures to the road, guaran-
teeing a vast amount of business if he
could get exceptionally low rates, and
| the Illegal compact was made. His
competitors, undersold in the market,
stood no chance. and one by one, they
were crushed out of existence. Ryder
called these manoeuvres business"
/ the world called them brigandage. But
the Colossus prospered ami slowly
built up the foundations of the extra
ordinary fortune which is the talk and
wonder of the world today. Master
now of the oil situation, Ryder succeed
ed in his ambition of organizing the
Empire Trading Company, the most
powerful, the most secretive, and the
most wealthy business institution the
commercial world has yet known.
Yet with all this success John Bur-
kett Ryder was still not content.
He was now a ricn man, richer
by many millions than he had
dreamed he could ever be, but still he
was unsatlsfed. He became money
mad He wanted to be richer STILL to
be the richest man in the world, the
richest man the world had ever known.
And the richer he got the stronger the
idea grew upon him with all the force
of morbid obession He thought of
money by day, he dreamed of 1T at
night. No matter by what question
able device it was to be procured,
more gold and more must flow into his
already overlooking Golfers. So each
day, instead of spending the rest of his
years liz peace in the enjoyment
of the wealth he had accumulated,
he went down town like any
y-dollar-a.week clerk to the
tall building in lower Broadway and,
closeted with his associates, toiled and
plotted to make more money.
! He acquired vast copper mines and
secured control of this and that rail-
4 road He had invested heavily in the
/ Southern and Transcontinental road
ana was CndlTIudu VI lis UOdiu VI VI
rectocs. Then he and his fellow-con-
spirarors planned a great financial
coup. The millions we're not coming in
\ fast enough. They must make hun
dred millions at one stroke. They
4 foated a great mining company to
which the public was invited to SUBJ
scribe. The scheme having the en-
dorsement of the Empire Trading COM
pany no one suspected snare, and
such was the magic of John Ryder's
name that gold flowed from every
point of the compass. The stock sold
away above par the day 1t was issued.
Men deemed themselves fortunate If
they were even granted an allotment.
What matter if, few days later, the
4 house of cards came tamblfng down,
and a dozen suicides were strewn
along Wall Street, that sinister thor
oughfare, which as wit has said,
has a graveyard at one end and the
river at the other! Had Ryder any