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I "MODERN FINANCE." ,

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I "MODERN FINANCE." STARTLING EXPOSURE BY AN AMERICAN j MILLIONAIRE. Some astonishing statements as to the methods I adopted by American "trust" kings in transact- ing deals in which millions are involved have been made to a representative of the "New York World" by Mr. Thomas W. Lawson. Mr. Lawson is the noted speculator in copper, who is involved with Mr. Henry H. Rogers, "the Standard oil magnate." in the litigation arising out of the amalgamation of the Boston gas com- panies. In a recent hearing of the "Gas Case," Mr. Lawson said Henrv H. Rogers and I have had deals aggregating 100,000,000 dols. £ 20,000,000, between us within the past nine years. One of these deals showed 46,000,000 dols. ( £ 9,200,000) profits. No writing ever passed between us in any of these deals." In the interview in the "New York World," which is revised by Mr. Lawson himself, the millionaire explains why, in detfiing with mil- lions, no record of the matter is made. He declared deliberately that no record is made because the nature of the transactions is illegal. A memorandum of many of them would not endure the light of day. "The wholesale finan- cier's word," he said, "is no more sacred, no better than the ordinary business man's. It's simply a matter of policy with the wholesale modern financier. He can't do business any other way. "As society and the law are constituted, it is an absolute impossibility for a few men to make 46,000,000 dols. profit legally. That's the very foundation of the question. j "Take the affairs I have mentioned. More than 46,000,000 dols. profit was made without putting a single dollar in jeopardy. It was made in a very, very short time, and it represented between one and one-half and three times the total capital employed in the transaction. "I am not going to mince words, or dispute the meaning of such words as legally.' But I do say that such transactions show upon their face that, first, the 46,000,000 dols. must have belonged to the public, the people; and, second, that this sum was taken away from the people by a handful of men—how? Clearly not by going to the people and show- ing them that they were to part with 46,000,000 dols. for the benefit of the few men who were afterwards found in possession of it. So that it must have been taken away from them without, in one sense, their knowing they were parting with it, and this could only be done by what wo may call a trick in finance. "It stands to reason on the face of the pro- position that if an undeniable, Unalterable record had been made of how this 46,000,000 dols. was transferred from the people to the men in ques- tion, it would be self-evident that once that tion, it would be self-evident that once that record got back to the people, after they found that their 46,000,000 dols. had been taken away from them, it would be merely a simple matter of their going to the courts, and having it re- turned to them. "That is why I say that as a matter of policy high financiers engaged in an affair of this kind have to depend each on the other's word. The reason is not that one wants to trust the other, Lut because he has to. If they put their agree- ment in writing, and made a record that could be taken to court, they couldn't get the 46,000,000 dols. "Of course, boiled down, it means 'Modern Finance.' It means that this is the way finan- cial business is done to-day, and that any man who is doing financial business on a large scale must find himself in the position I am in to-day, or else in what, to my mind, seems a much worse one—lying to the public."

-, A QUEEN'S WILL.

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i "ACTS" OF ST. PAUL.

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NEWS NOTES.

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! AGED 106 YEARS.

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I MORAL STORTES.-III. I

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I DETECTIVES AND DIVORCE.

!NIGHT ALARM. I

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I-! I JATARRH AND INFLUENZA.…

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