expected to makeus very sick of our bargain, to benefit by whatever payments we made and finally to get the property back into his own hands unencumbered by undesirable partners.
I did not propose to be frozen out in this manner, however, and was able to borrow enough money from F. M. Churchman, an Indianapolis banker, to purchase our own notes at fourteen cents on the dollar. It happened that Mr. Churchman was not on friendly terms with Mr. English and was the more willing on that account to help me. He and his friends were interested in the gas company and were familiar with the business possibilities of public service corporations. He seemed impressed with my ability to make the railroad pay which, by economy and careful management, it soon commenced to do. We never felt quite safe from Mr. English even after we had paid him off and had acquired the minority stock, but in Mr. Churchman and his friends we had strong and influential allies.
As I look back on those days now there seems to have been no limit to my energy, my ambition, or my capacity for hard work; but then, as in all my later life, I took a great deal of recreation. I couldnât have worked so much, if I had played less. I was fond of baseball, billiards and horseback riding and bicycling and automobiling were to come in their time; but after all I loved my work more than anything else, especially the mechanical side of it â the experimenting and inventing â and that was really my greatest recreation.
III
BUSINESS AND POLITICS
I NOW began to branch out in street railway enterprises on my own account and in 1879 â just ten years after my entrance into the business as an office boy â I became a bidder for a street railway grant in Cleveland. Mark Hanna was a director and Elias Simms the president of a company which was after this same grant.
Captain Simms, as he was called, was an ex-steamboat man and a dredging contractor, a very considerable figure in the community. He was well to do, having made a great deal of money out of dredging contracts which he secured through his hold on the city councils. He openly complained of the methods of his friends in the council somewhat after this fashion: âAll councilmen want is money. Just have to go around with my pocketbook in my hand all the time.â
Largely because of his councilmanic control he became interested in street railways. He knew nothing about the business itself but relied for success on his ability to get grants. He was much more prominent in street railroad matters than Mr. Hanna at this time, Hanna being very much younger and having other business interests.
The law stipulated that new grants should go to the bidder offering the lowest rate of fare, but included also a provision (of which I was ignorant) for extensions to existing lines.
The bid of the Hanna-Simms company provided for a five-cent fare, while mine offered six tickets for a quarter, whereupon the council threw out all the bids and made the grant to Mr. Hanna and his associates as an extension to their lines at the five-cent fare.
So that was the way it was done, was it?
Well, I was only twenty-five and willing to learn.
I now purchased the Pearl street line on the west side and subsequently got my various grants as extensions to that line , though when I bought it, it was under lease to Hanna and Simms and I didnât get possession for over eighteen months.
Most of my operations in Cleveland were based on grants already in existence which I purchased from people who did not know their real value. This city looked like a good field to me for it then had eight street railroads operated by different companies and owned by bankers, politicians, business and professional men who had been successful in various undertakings, but without a street railroad man in the entire list. I thought my knowledge would give me some advantage there.
Cleveland is built on two plateaus some fifty or sixty feet above
I did not propose to be frozen out in this manner, however, and was able to borrow enough money from F. M. Churchman, an Indianapolis banker, to purchase our own notes at fourteen cents on the dollar. It happened that Mr. Churchman was not on friendly terms with Mr. English and was the more willing on that account to help me. He and his friends were interested in the gas company and were familiar with the business possibilities of public service corporations. He seemed impressed with my ability to make the railroad pay which, by economy and careful management, it soon commenced to do. We never felt quite safe from Mr. English even after we had paid him off and had acquired the minority stock, but in Mr. Churchman and his friends we had strong and influential allies.
As I look back on those days now there seems to have been no limit to my energy, my ambition, or my capacity for hard work; but then, as in all my later life, I took a great deal of recreation. I couldnât have worked so much, if I had played less. I was fond of baseball, billiards and horseback riding and bicycling and automobiling were to come in their time; but after all I loved my work more than anything else, especially the mechanical side of it â the experimenting and inventing â and that was really my greatest recreation.
III
BUSINESS AND POLITICS
I NOW began to branch out in street railway enterprises on my own account and in 1879 â just ten years after my entrance into the business as an office boy â I became a bidder for a street railway grant in Cleveland. Mark Hanna was a director and Elias Simms the president of a company which was after this same grant.
Captain Simms, as he was called, was an ex-steamboat man and a dredging contractor, a very considerable figure in the community. He was well to do, having made a great deal of money out of dredging contracts which he secured through his hold on the city councils. He openly complained of the methods of his friends in the council somewhat after this fashion: âAll councilmen want is money. Just have to go around with my pocketbook in my hand all the time.â
Largely because of his councilmanic control he became interested in street railways. He knew nothing about the business itself but relied for success on his ability to get grants. He was much more prominent in street railroad matters than Mr. Hanna at this time, Hanna being very much younger and having other business interests.
The law stipulated that new grants should go to the bidder offering the lowest rate of fare, but included also a provision (of which I was ignorant) for extensions to existing lines.
The bid of the Hanna-Simms company provided for a five-cent fare, while mine offered six tickets for a quarter, whereupon the council threw out all the bids and made the grant to Mr. Hanna and his associates as an extension to their lines at the five-cent fare.
So that was the way it was done, was it?
Well, I was only twenty-five and willing to learn.
I now purchased the Pearl street line on the west side and subsequently got my various grants as extensions to that line , though when I bought it, it was under lease to Hanna and Simms and I didnât get possession for over eighteen months.
Most of my operations in Cleveland were based on grants already in existence which I purchased from people who did not know their real value. This city looked like a good field to me for it then had eight street railroads operated by different companies and owned by bankers, politicians, business and professional men who had been successful in various undertakings, but without a street railroad man in the entire list. I thought my knowledge would give me some advantage there.
Cleveland is built on two plateaus some fifty or sixty feet above
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