CORPORATE FACTORS IN PROGRESS 381 



"The proposition was made to me, by a thoroughly 

 responsible man financially, that if I would call the stock and 

 insist upon delivery he would sell 500,000 shares of the stock 

 and give me half the profits for doing it. Morgan's people 

 sent to my hotel and awakened me at 1 :30 in the morning, 

 and stated that at a meeting of bankers it had been deter- 

 mined that we were the owners of the Louisville, and wanted 

 to know what we proposed to do, stating that it meant a 

 panic probably greater than the May panic. I told them the 

 proposition that had been made to me; but said that under 

 no circumstances would we insist upon specific performance 

 of the deliveries of Louisville." 



In any other country than the United States Mr. Gates 

 and his confederates would very probably have had to answer 

 a charge of criminal conspiracy. But never a suspicion or a 

 fear of that kind seems to have entered their minds. They 

 laid their plans most deliberately and carried them out step 

 by step — an expert examination of the Louisville company's 

 books; cautious buying of over 300,000 shares, which must 

 have taken some weeks; an arrangement to "call" the shares 

 suddenly — in other words, to insist on immediate delivery 

 at a critical moment; and, by way of grand finale, an agree- 

 ment with another confederate to supply the frightened bears 

 with as many shares as could be worked off on them during 

 the bear panic. Apparently it was intended to sell half a 

 million shares against the three hundred thousand held, so 

 that the corner would have ended in the cornerers being 

 themselves short of two hundred thousand shares. 



Wall street would probably say that it was a Napoleonic 

 scheme, and if it had succeeded the consequent panic would 

 have been almost forgiven for the sake of the skill and daring 

 of its authors. But the New York banks were not in a posi- 

 tion to let Mr. Gates and his fireworks have their own way. 

 They were thoroughly alarmed, and to add to their terror 

 Mr. Pierpont Morgan, the deus ex machina of Wall street, 

 was away in Europe. In great haste the Atlantic cables were 

 set to work, and a message came back for Mr. Gates which he 

 dare not defy. Without Mr. Pierpont Morgan and the Mor- 

 gan banks Mr. John Gates would be a very small Napoleon 



