The stock market
was falling to pieces--some of the leading stocks were falling
several points between transactions, and Wyman and Hegan and the Oil
and Steel people were hammering the market and getting ready for the
killing. And at the same time, representatives of Waterman in
Washington were interviewing the President, and setting before him
the desperate plight of the Mississippi Steel Company. Already the
structure of the country's finances was tottering; and here was one
more big failure threatening. Realising the desperate situation, the
Steel Trust was willing to do its part to save the country--it would
take over the Mississippi Steel Company, provided only that the
Government would not interfere. The desired promise was given; and
so that last of Waterman's purposes was accomplished.
But there was one factor in the problem upon which few had reckoned,
and that was the vast public which furnished all the money for the
game--the people to whom dollars were not simply gamblers' chips,
but to whom they stood for the necessities of life; business men who
must have them to pay their clerks on Saturday afternoon;
working-men who needed them for rent and food; helpless widows and
orphans to whom they meant safety from starvation.
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