Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-07-09

Vandraken had completely forgotten
Bulpitt and the Amalgamated Society
of Corporation Presidents, but they
had not forgotten him. Bulpitt, on his
return, made a complete report on
V~andraken, and the threats he had
made that he would use the money
he had received from the American
people 10 buy back America for them.
The matter was laid before the psy-
Geological expert, who made the first
report on the young millionaire, and
he had written an exhaustive treatise
on the subject, showing how the re-
dictionary tendencies cropping out IN
Vandraken were exactly what might
have been expected, and that he was
extremely likely, should his brain sur
vive the life he was leading, to use 1t
in combination with his vast wealth
along the lines he had threatened.
He showed that the young man was
the pendulum of concentrated wealth
swung in one direction as far as 1t
would go, and that if he failed to dis
sipate that wealth-which was ex-
tremely probable, owing to its tre-
mendous bulk-the usual safety valve
having failed to work, the pendulum
would swing back d%estructively over
the space it had covered in its upward
movement.
The logic of this was plain to Bull
pitt and company; the rebel million
aire must be dispossessed of his mil
lions and made harmless.
Fierce competition, vast resources
of raw material to be handled for a
giant and exuberant young nation,
have created in American brains to
match. Competition having been or
ganized out OF existence, raw mater.
ials running in ordered channels,
which work like syphons, must, in a
other generation, do away with the
giant brains which this one has called
at the head of the Amalgamated So.
ciety of Corporation Presidents were
of the giant type. In a very few weeks
a wonderfully devised system was in
full working order for the destruction
of the rebels fortune.
Curious movements in the stock
market shook the equanimity Of the
operators who were playing the game
on the good old lines. Unexpected
rushes up and down, Of certain stocks,
more particularly those in the Metal
group, had made conversation very
interesting to spectators, and in
creased the custom of the Walled.off
A>Pastoria bar. A bull movement in in
dustrials seemed to be whiting on the
stem. Rumors began to leak out &C
counting and d~iscounting the gradual
decline in Metal stocks and bonds
which followed the puzzling rushes
The machinery, for instance, on which
the. billions. of capitalization were
based, was worn out, and a vast bond
issue, at high rates of interest, was
contemplated, to replace the said use
less plants. 1t leaked out that the sup
posed inexhaustible mines were il
sight of hard pan. The labor leaders
were holding a conference, the objec'
of which, it was rumored, was to de
mand a rise in wages which would
absorb all earnings except six PEI
cent on the real value of the plants
On the very best authority it became
know that dividends were about t,
be suspended. The lower the price, thu
more ominous the rumors, till tht
CHASTITY suggestion Of non-payment 0
interest on bonds, and a receivershil
was referred to in hoarse whispers.
Vandraken never even looked a
stock market quotations. All he knew
was that his income came in taste
than he could spend it; and as for tn
integrity of his agents, were they no
among the most respected bushes
men in New York?
But shortly after his arrival a
Donoyle he was shocked to hear tina
his most trusted man of business
had committed suicide as the resul
Of bankruptcy, caused by the tremen
dous shrinkage in values of Meta
stocks. By the same post he learne'