248 



THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



[May 



1902. 



in the country, too poor to live in the city, and even in winter 

 walked from the railway station to his home. He was without 

 capital to invest on his own account, but he possessed a talent 

 which was appreciated by capitalists and promoters, and in 

 time, through aiding in the marketing of securities which had 

 hitherto been unsaleable, he had laid the foundation of a new 

 fortune. 



Standing with a friend in a caf6 Mr. Keene took a look at 

 the tape unwinding from a stock ticker, after which he re- 

 marked : 



" So long as tapes continue to come out of these machines I 

 shall always be able to make a living." 



And doubtless he was right. 



The history of the beginning of Mr. Keene's interest in rub- 

 ber has not been shouted from the house tops. It is not likely 

 that he ever bought rubber stocks with the idea of a perma- 

 nent investment. There may have seemed to be an opportunity 

 at one time, however, to " manipulate" them at a profit. Be- 

 fore the market became so heavily loaded with " industrials," 

 when United States Rubber was paying 8 per cent, dividends 

 on preferred and something occasionally on common stock, 

 the market price was very low for shares yielding such returns. 

 There has been gossip regarding a " Keene interest " since the 

 retirement of Robert D. Evans from the United States Rubber 

 Co., and rumor had it that a " Keene pool " took Mr. Evans's 

 large holdings at 70 for preferred, with an equal number of 

 common shares as a bonus. Some months later there was 

 great activity in the market for " Rubber," and quotations 

 were made as high as 121 for preferred and 54^ for common 

 stock. Some people inferred that the " pool " profited largely, 

 but " manipulation " of stock sometimes calls for a great deal 

 of buying before there can be much selling, and the fact that 

 the Keene holdings to-day are reported to be nearly double 

 what Mr. Evans ever owned might be taken as evidence that 

 Mr. Keene never wholly " unloaded." The extreme high 

 prices were followed by a heavy slump, the decline continu- 

 ing until Rubber preferred sold down to 47 and common to 

 12. Mr. Flint, quoted in the New York Herald (December 

 24, 1 901), said : 



At one time he [ Mr. Keene] helped in a campaign to raise the prices of 

 Rubber stocks, and must have made a great deal of money then. 

 Whether he lost on the decline as much as he made on the rise, I do not 

 know. 



But Mr. Evans was not the only one of the early directors 

 in the United States Rubber Co. who withdrew, and, presuma- 

 bly, sold his stock. There was Mr. Banigan, for instance, 

 and there were others. There has never been a dearth of 

 these shares when anybody wanted to buy. Hence, while 

 Mr. Keene may have been instrumental in sending prices to 

 the highest notch, there were not buyers ready to take mil- 

 lions of dollars worth of shares at those prices. 



There has also been developed a " Keene interest " in Rub- 

 ber gooas shares, powerful enough to have controlled the re- 

 cent annual election. It is supposed to have been augmented 

 by the turning over of the shares in that company held by Mr. 

 Flint at the time of his retirement, last winter. But it is said 

 to have been created prior to that time. The story goes : " Mr. 

 Flint, in planning the International Crude Rubber Co., gained 

 the consent of some large capitalists — directors in the Stand- 

 ard Oil Co. — to serve on the board. Likewise some important 

 crude rubber importing interests were disposed to join the 

 movement. The United States Rubber Co. and the Rubber 

 Goods Manufacturing Co., both presumed to be under Mr. 

 Flint's influence, were, it was claimed, to afltord an important 

 market for the importing trust, besides which the thirteen 



' independent ' rubber shoe manufacturers were to be brought 

 into a ' combine ' friendly to the whole proposition, and the 

 Rubber Goods company was to take over more factories. 

 This was an attractive proposition — for everybody but the out- 

 side manufacturers, who shied at it — and Mr. Keene at that 

 time probably consented to come in 'on the ground floor' by 

 buying shares of both the big manufacturing combinations be- 

 fore their shares should go skyward again. But the whole plan 

 fell through, and now the ' Keene interest ' is constrained to 

 take part in the management of the companies as the readiest 

 way to realize on their holdings of stock." 



THE LEADER OF THE KEENE FORCES. 



Talbot J. Taylor, head of the banking house of Talbot J. 

 Taylor & Co. (New York), and son-in-law of James R. Keene, 

 is the active leader of the forces now seeking control in the 

 rubber industry. Mr. Taylor is rated as one of the strongest 

 of the young men in Wall street, and as a coming figure of im- 

 portance in the financial world. He already has a position of 

 importance and during four years past has been intrusted with 

 the management of not a few large transactions, not only for 

 Mr. Keene but for J. Pierpont Morgan & Co. In 1892 he 

 severed his connection with the Bank of Baltimore, that city 

 being his home, and organized his present company, with a 

 seat in the New York Stock Exchange. A year later Mr. 

 Taylor removed to New York, leaving the Baltimore end of the 

 business in the hands of a brother, under the style of Robert 

 Taylor & Co. The New York firm is composed of Talbot J. 

 Taylor; his brother, James B. Taylor; and his brother-in-law, 

 Foxhall P. Keene, special partner. In the offices of the firm. 

 No. 30 Broad street, Mr. Keene is understood to make his 

 head-quarters, conducting his market operations through the 

 Taylor firm. Mr. Keene has not been in good health of late, 

 and doubtless Mr. Taylor has taken the initiative in many 

 recent movements attributed to him. 



MR. FLINT'S BUSINESS CONNECTIONS. 



IN the latest issue of the " Directory of Directors," pub- 

 lished in New York, Mr. Charles R. Flint is mentioned 

 as a director in the following corporations : 



American Chicle Co. 

 American Ordinance Co. 

 American Woolen Co. 

 Ashland Emery and Corundum Co. 

 Atlantic Coast Steamship Co. 

 Audit Co. of New York. 

 Chanksburg Fuel Co. 

 Flint & Co. 



Georgetown & Western Railroad Co. 

 International Emery and Corundum Co. 

 Knickerbocker Trust Co. 

 Manaos Railway Co. 



National and Providence Worsted Mills Co. 

 National Starch Co. 

 Pacific Packing and Navigation Co. 

 Evergreens Cemetery. 

 United States Casuality Co. 



In addition to being a director in the International Emery 

 and Corundum Co., he is also treasurer of that corporation. 



AN APPRECIATIVE VISITOR. 



TO THE Editor of The India Rubber World : Will you 

 be kind enough to say to the rubber trade for me that I 

 appreciate fully the many courtesies extended to me during my 

 visit to the United States? Certainly its business is developed 

 to a very high degree and the openness and liberality of the 

 men who have created it is marvelous, hans i. w. clouth. 



Culogne-Nippes, Gfriiiaiiy, A[iiil S, 1902. 



