The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-04-25
small farm, only bigger and more

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complicated.
Prices went down. but debts re-
manned the same and mortgages went
on as before revenues declined, but
loans had to be paid off in the same
hard dollars with which they were
contracted.
Samuel insult found himself no
longer able to raise enough from his
high-tension empire of electric cur
rent to meet the interest on the mort
cages. And so the vast agglomeration
of 100 or more operating companies
known as Middle West Utilities COL
lapsed.
This holding company, and several
related companies, are now in the
hands Of the courts.
The Middle West company's produc-
ing properties are mainly still sound.
Where operating companies do not
owe too much money their future is
secure. The fate of each will depend
upon what each can earn and how far
these earnings will go in paying debts.
OF course it is impossible to make
any general statements about the fu-
ture OF the more than 100 companies
gathered by insult into the fold of
his Middle West Utilities. The hold
ing company which united them all
under one general management will
be taken apart. But it is practically
certain that the constituent proper
ties Will be regrouped, in ways not yet
clear.
All this takes place on pieces of
paper. The generators in Middle
Vests 300 steam-driven stations and
200 waterpower stations will keep on
grinding out current. They are not
affected in any physical way by the
collapse Of all the financiering which
brought them together.
Part Of the tragedy of the receiver
ship is the nature Of the company's
territory. Middle West Utilities was
one OF the greatest American power
systems, yet 1t sold the output mostly
to small towns and the countryside.
There were only q half dozen large
cities on its lines.
That meant two things. In the
first place it meant that its business
would be affected by farming condi-
TONS In the second place It meant
that its securities would be very wide
~ held and that the market for its
securities would be greatly reduced
when the prices of farm products went
down.
1t happened that insults company
needed money very badly just at the
time when thousands Of small towns
were needing money badly, too. Mid
die West Utilities was reported owing
bankers $50, 900 or more at the be-
ginning Of 1882 and insult Saw there
was no hope Of getting the money by
selling securities, as he had always
done.
insult tried desperately to find the
money In New York, but could not.
Returning sadly to Chicago, he
watched the courts administer the
first aid which the law provides for
stricken enterprises.
y Y X
This was the Samuel insult whose
career had been marvellous as an Alger
story. One person in every ten used
his services, including every person
IN Chicago. He was the wealthiest
in the business.
He had come to this country from
England as a young man In 1881. He
had held a number Of jobs in Lon
don, studying stenography nights, and
had happened to answer an adver-
tisement for secretary from a man
who turned out to be Thomas A. Edi-
sons London representative. It was
only natural that, shortly afterwards,
insult should come to America.
Soon Edison'S business manager,
insult had unequaled view Of the be.
ginnings Of the electric light and
power industry close up. Presently he
took a hand himself.
In the year of the Worlds Fair he
became president of the company now
known as Commonwealth Edison, In
Chicago. This ruddy-faced, tireless
young man saw that the road to eff
cheney for the producers Of power and
q fortune for It's owners lay in con-
solidation. He soon brought the power
business Of Chicago into unity-Insull
unity.
The beginnings Of interconnected
electric power, and therefore the be-
ginnings Of the epic Of insult In Amer
lean life, were in 1910. when insult
and his brother, Martin, bought some
rural properties north Of Chicago.
They acquired = dozen isolated power