John Fitzgerald GB 05 Great Bra (8 page)

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the back taxes could have the land.

It was right after we returned from our fishing trip that a man named Wilbur Cummings arrived in town. He registered at the Sheepmen’s Hotel. He purchased a dozen fruit-canning jars at the Z. C. M. I. store. The full name of the store was Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institute. There was one of these stores owned by the Mormon church in every town in Utah. The only thing Mr. Har-mon, the manager of the store, found out about Mr. Cummings was that he was a chemical engineer.

Mr. Cummings rented a horse and buggy at the livery stable and drove out to Alkali Flats. He took samples of the alkali soil in twelve different places, putting the soil in the twelve fruit-canning jars. Upon his return he went to the courthouse where he was told Alkali Flats could be purchased for back taxes. This caused a lot of curiosity in town. But Mr. Cummings refused to answer any questions before leaving Adenville.

A few days later another stranger arrived on the morning train from Salt Lake City. He was a distinguished-looking gentleman with gray hair, a gray mustache and goatee, and he was wearing very fashionable clothes. He took the most expensive suite at the Sheepmen’s Hotel and registered as Francis K. Pendleton from Chicago.

Mr. Pendleton went to the courthouse after eating lunch at the hotel. He purchased Alkali Flats in the name of Alkali Products Incorporated for two hundred and ten dollars in back taxes. Then he rented a horse and rig and drove out to the farm of Carl Underwood. He told the farmer he wanted an option to build a spur track from the railroad across the south pasture of his farm to Alkali Flats. He offered a hundred dollars for a thirty-day option

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to purchase the right-of-way for fifteen hundred dollars before the option expired-Mr. Underwood was delighted because he would have sold his whole farm for two thousand dollars. He rode into town with Mr. Pendleton. They went to the law office of Judge Potter, where the option papers were signed and the hundred dollars in cash given to Mr. Underwood.

The next morning Mr. Pendleton went to the telegraph office. He sent a telegram to Frederick Ames Hollingsworth. President, Alkali Products Incorporated, Salt Lake City branch office in the Newman Building. Nels Lar5on, who was the telegrapher, station master, and everything else at the depot, made a copy of the telegram.

Calvin Whitlock, the town mayor and president of

the Adenville Bank was seated in his private office when Nels entered.

“I know it’s against the rules,” Nels said, “but I made a copy of a telegram I think you should see.” He handed the copy to the banker. It read:

PROPERTY KNOWN HERE AS ALKALI FLATS IS NOW OWNED BY ALKALI PRODUCTS INCORPORATED. OPTION FOR SPUR TRACK RIGHT OF WAY THROUGH UNDERWOOD FARM HAS BEEN NEGOTIATED. ESTIMATE WE WILL NEED APPROXIMATELY FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS TO BEGIN MINING OPERATION HERE. SUGGEST COMPANY RAISE NEEDED CAPITAL BY ISSUING ONE THOUSAND SHARES OF FIFTY DOLLAR PAR VALUE PREFERRED STOCK FOR SALE TO CHICAGO BROKERAGE HOUSES AT TEN PERCENT DISCOUNT. WILL ARRANGE FOR SURVEY OF PROPERTY TODAY.

FRANCIS K. PENDLETON VICE PRESIDENT

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Mr. Whitlock sent tor Papa after reading the telegram.

“This is the biggest economic development that could happen to Adenville,” he told Papa. “You and I are going to call on Mr. Pendleton and convince him that the citizens of Adenville should be permitted to buy stock in the company.”

The banker telephoned the hotel. Mr. Pendleton wasn’t in but Mr. Whitlock knew Robert Meredith was the only surveyor in town. He reached Mr. Pendleton in the surveyor’s office. Mr. Pendleton told the banker he was going out to Alkali Flats with Mr. Meredith that morning but would meet Mr. Whitlock and Papa in his hotel suite at two o’clock.

Mr. Pendleton was such a high-class fellow that he didn’t go to a barber shop for a haircut. Danny Forester’s father was cutting Mr. Pendleton’s hair in the suite when Mr. Whitlock and Papa arrived. The banker introduced himself and Papa.

“I assume, gentlemen.” Mr. Pendleton said, “that you are here to learn why Alkali Products Incorporated purchased Alkali Flats. Our company manufactures lye, soap, and Epsom salts. Our present source of supply for raw material is getting low. We sent our chemical engineer, Mr. Cummings, west to locate a large bed of al-kali soil rich in the chemicals needed for our products. With the help of state boards of agriculture Mr. Cummings located large alkali deposits in Kansas, Colorado, and Utah. But the others were either too far from a railroad or so poor in the chemicals needed as to be worthless.”

“Excuse me,” Mr. Forester said, as he moved Mr. Pendleton’s head slightly to continue the haircut.

“To go on, gentlemen,” Mr. Pendleton said. “One alkali bed suggested to Mr. Cummings was Alkali Flats. You will be glad to know that the soil is very rich in the chemicals needed for our products and only half a mile from the main railroad line. We expect to be mining and shipping carloads of raw material to our Chicago plant in about two months. We will employ approximately twenty-five local men when mining operations begin. I believe that answers all of your questions, gentlemen.”

“Not quite,” Mr. Whitlock said. “Mr. Larson showed us a copy of the telegram you sent.”

At first Mr. Pendleton was angry. “Doesn’t your Mr. Larson know that is against the rules and regulations?” he asked. “I could have the man terminated for it.” Then he shrugged. “No real harm has been done. Whatever was in the telegram will become public knowledge when the new stock is issued.”

“That is what we wanted to talk to you about,” Mr. Whitlock said. “As mayor of Adenville, may I suggest that your company permit our citizens to invest in the first big industry to locate here?”

“I’m sorry,” Mr. Pendleton said, “but that is impossible. The thousand shares of stock will be sold to stockbrokers in blocks of one hundred shares at forty-five dollars a share. This will enable the company to get the capital needed immediately. The brokers will then sell shares of stock to the public. You can purchase stock that way. Instead of paying forty-five dollars a share, the stock will cost you about fifty-five dollars a share. The brokerage firms must pay their salesmen a commission and make a

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profit. But even at fifty-five dollars a share the stock is a bargain. It will be worth a great deal more when we pay our first dividend in about six months.”

Mr. Whitlock didn’t become a banker because he didn’t know his arithmetic, “Assume that other citizens and I,” he said, “wanted to purchase a block of one hundred shares. Could we buy them at the same price as a stockbroker?”

Mr. Pendleton thought about it for a moment. “I can’t think of any possible objection,” he said. “I would, of course, have to get President Hollingsworth’s approval. And I would have to be certain that the money to pay for the stock was on deposit in your bank.”

“I see your point,” Mr. Whitlock said. “Some people might say they want to buy shares and then change their minds at the last moment. But I can set up a special account in the bank to handle it.”

Mr. Forester finally finished the haircut and left the suite with the first gratuity of his life. Mr. Pendleton gave him a fifty-cent tip.

“Now, gentlemen,” Mr. Pendleton said, after putting on his frock coat and removing a business card from his wallet. He handed it to Mr. Whitlock. “Send me a telegram to our Salt Lake City branch office certifying you have the cash in a special account to purchase a hundred shares of stock.”

“What if we want to purchase more than a hundred shares?” Mr. Whitlock asked.

“Let me know how many shares you want to purchase in the telegram,” Mr. Pendleton said. “I will then take it up with Mr. Hollingsworth. But you do understand that the stock must be purchased in blocks of one hundred

shares. And Mr. Fitzgerald, please don’t print anything about this in your newspaper or notify the Salt Lake City papers. If it became known that our company was permitting the citizens of Adenville to buy the stock at forty-five dollars a share, we would be deluged with demands from investors to sell them stock at the same price.”

Papa was certainly excited when he came home that evening. Before supper, during supper, and after supper, he talked about his visit with Mr. Pendleton.

Mamma let Papa ramble on until he said he was go-ing to mortgage the house to buy stock.

“You will do no such thing,” she said. “There are enough of the worthless stocks you’ve bought in a trunk in the attic to paper the walls of this parlor.”

“But those were high-risk stocks, Tena,” Papa protested, “with no guarantee that the companies would find gold or silver or oil on the property. This is a company that manufactures lye, soap, and Epsom salts.”

“I have never seen the name Alkali Products Incorporated on any I’ve bought,” Mamma said.

“That is because their market is in the central states,” Papa said.

They were still arguing about it when the time came for Frankie and me to go to bed. Papa was a good talker but I knew Mamma would never let him mortgage the house. I stayed awake until Tom came up at nine.

“Papa could make us rich,” I said, “if Mamma let him mortgage the house.”

“Mamma knows that Papa doesn’t know beans about stock,” Tom said. “If Mr. Whitlock is going to invest, I just might buy a share of stock myself. I’m not a fellow

who passes up a chance to almost double his money in six months. But I am also not a fellow who puts up forty-five dollars without knowing a lot more about Alkali Products

Incorporated.”

The next morning Tom went for a ride on Sweyn’s mustang, Dusty. That afternoon he went to the post office to mail two letters and a mysterious package. I asked him what it was all about.

“Just protecting my forty-five dollars,” he said, and that was all 1 could get out of him.

Mr. Forester didn’t waste any time telling people what he had heard in the hotel suite. Everybody who could scrape up forty-five dollars or more was demanding that Mr. Whitlock let them buy shares of stock. The banker had his bookkeeper, Frank Collopy, record how many shares each person wanted to buy and made them deposit the money in the special account. Papa got a loan on the Advocate building to buy twenty shares of stock. Tom took forty-five dollars from his bank account to buy one share. The total amount of money deposited in the special account was enough to buy two hundred and twenty-one shares. Mr, Whitlock himself said he would purchase seventy-nine shares to bring the total up to three hundred.

He sent a telegram to Mr. Pendleton at the Salt Lake City branch office stating there was $13,500 in the special account—enough money to purchase three hundred shares. He received a telegram back stating that President Hollingsworth had approved the sale. Mr. Pendleton also re-quested that Mr. Whitlock mail him the name of each shareholder and the number of shares each person was buying. This was so the stock certificates could be issued

in their names.

Tom went to the post office and opened our box every day. Finally, on Saturday, he received a letter from a boy

he knew at the academy who lived in Salt Lake City. The letter read:

Dear Tom:

1 went down to the Newman Building like you asked me to do. There was no Alkali Products Incorporated on the directory. I went up to the room number you gave me. It is just a place you can receive mail, telegrams, and phone calls by paying three dollars a month. Sure miss you and Tony and Jerry.

Your Friend, Phil

1 handed the letter back to Tom. “Does that make Mr. Pendleton a crook?” I asked.

, “I’ll need the answer to my other letter before I can convince Papa or anyone of that.” Tom said.

The other letter arrived on Monday. It was from the State Board of Agriculture and read:

Dear Mr. Fitzgerald:

Our department has made a chemical analysis of the alkali soil you sent to us. The soil is unsuitable for the following reasons. There is not enough so-dium hydroxide present to profitably manufacture lye or hard soap. There is not enough potassium hydroxide present to profitably manufacture soft soap. There is not enough magnesium sulfate present to profitably manufacture epsom salts. In short, this is a very poor grade of alkali soil for commercial purposes.

Yours truly, Herbert Garrison

“I guess this proves Mr. Pendleton is a crook,” Tom said. “Let’s go tell Papa.”

We ran all the way to the Advocate office. Papa and Sweyn were both setting type.

“Hold the front page for the biggest story of the year!” Tom shouted. “Mr. Pendleton is a confidence man.”

Sweyn laughed a sort of dirty laugh. “It takes one to know one,” he said.

“What nonsense is this?” Papa asked.

“There is no nonsense about it,” Tom said. “I’ve got the proof that Mr. Pendleton is a crook.” He handed Papa the two letters.

Papa read the letter from Tom’s friend first and then handed it back. “It is a common practice,” he said, “for a company to use a mailing and telephone service tem-porarily until they find a suitable location for a branch office.”

“‘Read the other one,” Tom said. “I’ll bet that will convince you that Mr, Pendleton is a crook.”

Papa read the letter from the department of agriculture. “Where did you get the sample of alkali soil you sent them?” he asked, as he handed the letter back to Tom.

“About twenty feet from the edge,” Tom answered.

“That explains it,” Papa said. “In as large a deposit of alkali soil as Alkali Flats, the chemical content is going to vary. And it stands to reason that the closer you get to the edge, the less alkali in the soil. That is why Mr. Cummings took samples in twelve different places.”

“Then you don’t believe Mr. Pendleton is a crook?” Tom asked, looking as flabbergasted as a rooster that has just laid an egg.

“I know you meant well, T. D.,” Papa said, “but

please leave such business matters to me. Mr. Pendleton and the president of the company will arrive on the eleven o’clock train tomorrow morning. I don’t want you showing or mentioning those two letters to a soul. I will not permit