get me to abandon my efforts to
secure justice for the thousands I assisted in duping, have stated for
the first time that Marcus Daly deceived them and really, to use the
words of their chief counsel, sold them a "gold brick."

After this examination I felt convinced that the properties "Standard
Oil" insisted on substituting for those originally intended for the
first section of Amalgamated were such that the public, if honestly
dealt with, could not possibly meet with loss in purchasing. But even
then I only consented to go ahead with the flotation under a definite
agreement which seemed to me completely to guard against all
contingencies of jugglery or deception. This agreement stipulated that
all the profits from the transaction should be taken by those to whom
they were due in the stock of the Amalgamated Company, and no part of
them in cash--that the public should be sold, at the flotation, only
$5,000,000 of the $75,000,000, and that "Standard Oil" and all
associated with "Standard Oil" in the profits should retain the
remaining $70,000,000 until such time as it had been absolutely
demonstrated to the public that the property behind the $75,000,000 of
stock was worth more than the amount it had been capitalized for.
Furthermore, I was also promised that the $5,000,000 cash to be taken
from the public should be kept intact, and in my handling of the market
it should always be available for the repurchase from the investors of
what had been sold to them, at the price which they had paid for it.

This was the basis on which I went on with Amalgamated. I would not have
my readers understand me as asserting it would have been possible for me
to have stopped the flotation had I attempted it. But, on the other
hand, I would not have them think that I desire to be absolved from the
disastrous results of the great mistake I made at this time in not at
any cost doing that which after-happenings have shown would have been
the most honest course for me to have pursued. Nor would I have them
think I desire to be absolved from the consequences of many other
mistakes which this one led me into--mistakes in temporizing with the
situation and postponing action which I should have boldly and
fearlessly forced, regardless of all consequences to the public, my
friends, and myself.

The subsequent proceedings, the manner in which Amalgamated was actually
sold to the public, the flagrant disregard of the conditions of my
agreemen