Page 73 - TAGR-Companion Text

FAITH 73
501 broad Morgan shoulders. Thus he left out, by design, a number of the larger
502 concerns upon which the Walruses and Carpenters of Wall Street had cast
503 hungry eyes.
504 "When dawn came, Morgan rose and straightened his back. Only one question
505 remained. "Do you think you can persuade Andrew Carnegie to sell?' he asked.
506 "I can try," said Schwab.
507 "If you can get him to sell, I will undertake the matter,' said Morgan.
508 "So far so good. But would Carnegie sell? How much would he demand?
509 (Schwab thought about $320,000,000). What would he take payment in?
510 Common or preferred stocks? Bonds? Cash? No-body could raise a third of a
511 billion dollars in cash.
512 "There was a golf game in January on the frost-cracking heath of the St. Andrews
513 links in Westchester, with Andrew bundled up in sweaters against the cold, and
514 Charlie talking volubly, as usual, to keep his spirits up. But no word of business
515 was mentioned until the pair sat down in the cozy warmth of the Carnegie
516 cottage hard by. Then, with the same persuasiveness that had hypnotized eighty
517 millionaires at the University Club, Schwab poured out the glittering promises of
518 retirement in comfort, of untold millions to satisfy the old man's social caprices.
519 Carnegie capitulated, wrote a figure on a slip of paper, handed it to Schwab and
520 said, all right, that's what we'll sell for.'
521 "The figure was approximately $400,000,000, and was reached by taking the
522 $320,000,000 mentioned by Schwab as a basic figure, and adding to it
523 $80,000,000 to represent the increased capital value over the previous two years.
524 "Later, on the deck of a trans-Atlantic liner, the Scotsman said ruefully to
525 Morgan, I wish I had asked you for $100,000,000 more.'
526 "If you had asked for it, you'd have gotten it,' Morgan told him cheerfully. *******