The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-10-18
BY FORREST DAVIS
Times Staf Writer

lines stan nfittF
Copyright. 1892. by the NeW York World
Telegram corporationl
GAM INSULTS money need
- mounted geometrically in the
calamitous autumn of 1929. He
had, in fighting Cyrus Eaton, got
a bear by the tail, and he couldn't
let go.
His treasury, renewed periodi-
cally by the magic of stock issues,
seemed to empty even faster than
it filed.
That plague business Of Sup
porting the market took all a
mans courage and wit.
The power king was discover
ing, as did Kreuger, the match
king, that pouring millions into
contrariwise, headstrong mar
ket was equivalent to pouring
sand in a rathole.
Yet it had become a disheart-
ening necessity for insult. If the
price Of millions of shares in
what was getting to be myriad
of corporations did not stand up,
how interest the public in new
issues?
And new issues were impera-
lively needed to supply fresh
money to bolster the market.
1t became, as insult must have
o0r1rnhpndnH 11o o;~oIo
of futility.
There stood Cy Eaton, native of
Pugwash, Nova Scotia, soft-man-
nered as a suburban Baptist
preacher but relentless as any
Wall Street pirate of the nine
tenth century; Eaton, buttressed
by steel, utility and banking mil
lions in Cleveland, standing
patiently just outside the ram
parts Of insults dynastic hold
ings.
Eaton, at As, an old hand at the
game of stock market marauding.
glacial, reserved, winning all the
skirmiSheS as he would in the
end carry off the honorS in this
epical strife.
insult, rising, 70, but a relative
greenhorn at this subtle business,
losing steadily, beaten back,
forced increasingly to enlist the
public money in his fight.
n n
THERE they were ranged as
Il the December nor'easters
whipped Lake Michigan into
whitecaps in 1929 and La Sale
street, responsive to the debacle in
Wall Street, rang with exciting
rumors; the frantic baIlyhoo for
new insult securities.
insult still held the fort; his
house flag still flew above Com
monwealth Edison, Peoples Gas,
Public Service, Middle West UtiI-
tiles and a hundred operating
subsidiaries.
He still supported the market,
held 1t relatively steady in the
trying days of October and early
November, when wave after wave
of selling deluged Wall Street;
held it steady at Lord knows what
cost in anxiety and the peoples
money.
insult fought on two fronts;
Eaton on but one. The power
king must pump money into the
market to keep prices up.
He at the same time bought,
bought, bought into the three key
properties in Chicago to withhold
control from Eaton.
Between Sept. % and Nov. IS
the warfare along the first front
proved incessant.
On the earlier date, insult
promised a -for-one splitup in
Middle West stock as of the lat
ter date. Rights were given to
holders of four shares to buy one
at 5000.
Middle West skyrocketed to $40
and promptly fell away. In Oc-
tober, when the countrywide Ii
quotation struck La Sale street,
Middle West wavered, weakened
and would have sunk below 200.
= n
TT was critical moment. If the
Il price went below 200, rights
would not be taken up. insult
needed the expected cash des-
perately. The house of insult
manned the pumps.
Buying orders swamped the In
sull brokers. Middle West re-
sponded, shot up above 200. Chi
cago acclaimed insult, that oak,
in a speculative storm, and took
up the rights.
Middle West gained $4,000. 600
from the shareholders; retired
$20000,00O in gold notes due on
Dec. 2.
Small wonder that Insull-Alad-
din, Santa Claus and Lorenzo the