138 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
138 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 11 Num. 02
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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SECRET MEETING AT THE HOUSE OF MORGAN
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On January 2, 1889, a circular marked "Private and Confidential,"
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was issued by the three banking houses of Drexel, Morgan &
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Company, Brown Brothers & Company, and Kidder, Peabody & Company.
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The most painstaking care was exercised that this document should
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not find its way into the press, or otherwise become public.
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Indeed, extraordinary measures were taken to surround its
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contents with every precaution of secrecy.
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Why this fear? Because the circular was an invitation, tacitly
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understood as a command, to the great railroad magnates to
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assemble at J.P. Morgan's house, No. 219 Madison avenue, and
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there form, in the phrase of the day, an iron-clad combination.
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The plan was to make a strict compact which would efface
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competition among certain railroads, and unite those interests in
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an agreement by which the people of the United States could be
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bled even more effectively than before.
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That circular was a historic document, well worth more than
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passing notice; and he who was familiar with the forces then at
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work rightly considered it of far greater importance than a
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series of Presidents' messages, ordainments of Congress or
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Courts' decrees.
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At a time when the whole gravamen of law and juridical precedent
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was being used to insist upon industrial forces remaining
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stationary and stagnant, this circular came as a proclamation of
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defiance. Common and statute law sternly declared that the thing
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called competition in trade must be kept alive, and that if it
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could not sustain itself by its own merits, the law should demand
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its maintenance. The causes producing and justifying competition
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were passing away, but none of the law-making bodies recognized
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the newer conditions, nor made any provisions for them. But the
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magnates realized that the old indiscriminate system of
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competition was rapidly becoming archaic, and that the time was
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ripe for a more systematic organization of industry. And so,
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while Congress and the legislatures were busily enacting law
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after law, supposedly edicts of "the sovereign people of the
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United States," a few magnates issued a brief circular which
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intrinsically was of far, far more binding weight than entire
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volumes of statutes impotent.
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A momentous gathering it certainly was that assembled in Morgan's
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mansion on January 8, 1889. Who were they we note there?
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Apparently private citizens; in reality monarchs of the land:
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Jay Gould with his son George; Stickney, of the Northwest
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territory; Roberts, of the Pennsylvania Railroad; sleek Depew,
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echoing the Vanderbilts; Sloan, of the Delaware, Lackawanna &
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Western Railroad, and a half dozen more magnates or their
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accredited mouthpieces. The honorable legislature could gravely
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discuss the advisability of this or that legislation; the noisy
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"Congress of the United States" could solemnly meet and after
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wearing out months in rodomontade, profess to make laws; the high
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and mighty Courts could blink austerely and pompously hand down
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their decisions. But in that room in Morgan's house sat many of
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the actual rulers of the United States; the men who had the power
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in the final say of ordering what should be done.
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Morgan was chairman of the meeting, and with wonted brusque
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directness went straight to the point. Thanks to a stenographic
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report of the proceedings which fortunately we were able to get
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hold of, the work of that meeting was clear. The name of the
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organization was to be the "Interstate Commerce Railway
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Commission"; its essential purpose the cessation of competition
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among its members. But how was any magnate to be prevented from
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competing with another, or stopped from encroaching upon
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another's domain? What penalties should there be, and how could
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they be enforced? Certainly no law could be invoked to compel
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the carrying out of such an agreement, for the law explicitly
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prohibited combinations, and any legislation would not only be
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outlawed, but would reveal the extent of the whole criminal
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compact.
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There was, however, a far greater power than that of law, namely,
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the power of massed money. If any magnate present were inclined
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to balk at the prepared program he was brought to an instant
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realization of the punishment when Morgan announced:
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I am authorized to say, I think, on behalf of the banking
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houses represented here that if an organization can be
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formed practically upon the basis submitted by the
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committee, and with an executive committee able to enforce
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its provisions, upon which the bankers shall be
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represented, they are prepared to say that they will not
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negotiate, and will do everything in their power to prevent
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the negotiation of any securities for the construction of
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parallel lines, or the extension of lines not approved by
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that executive committee. I wish that distinctly
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understood.
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The threat, or promise, as it could be differently interpreted,
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was assuredly understood. Vast as was the wealth of the magnates
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present or represented, neither any one or a combination of them,
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dared (had they been so disposed) to defy such an ultimatum. To
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do so meant inviting the vindictive, crushing wrath of a clique
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of national and international bankers whose money and power could
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be used with the most destructive results.
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[Excerpts from *History of the Great American Fortunes* by
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Gustavus Myers. (1936)]
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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For related stories, visit:
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http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
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http://feustel.mixi.net
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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