COURTS AND CORRUPTION 371 



was forced into line by pressure from quarters 

 which he dare not oppose and it was only when 

 less than one per cent of the total indebtedness 

 was unpledged that the effort was finally blocked 

 by a bank with the smallest claim. The two men 

 who controlled it openly declared that their claim 

 was so small that big creditors could afford to 

 concede their payment in cash rather than per- 

 mit the settlement to fail. To this suggestion 

 one creditor voiced the indignation of all by say- 

 ing — but there was too much profanity in the 

 remark to justify its repetition here. 



I have reached the end of the Wall Street part 

 of my story. If it had to be begun again it 

 would not be written. As memory unrolled the 

 film it was like a continuous nightmare, the tri- 

 umphs were so paltry and the failures so vivid 

 that the physical pain came back, the heart 

 throbs, the goose flesh as the blood seemed to chill 

 in the veins and the flesh to creep. 



For more than half a century I have known 

 the men of the hour and their methods and have 

 seen their feet of clay. Consolidations, stock 



