1908 - Tour of Inspection

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Thu Jan 10 05:32:48 EST 2008


Roanoke Times - January 10, 1908

TOUR OF INSPECTION

Tidewater Officials Arrived in City Wednesday and Left Last Night

The private car "Dixie", of the Tidewater railroad, carrying three
of the Tidewater officials, arrived in the city on Wednesday night,
leaving last night for Norfolk. The Tidewater officials on the car
are E. W. Knight, general counsel for the Tidewater; Mr. H.
Fernstrum, chief engineer, and Judge R. C. McClaugherty, of
Bluefield, division counsel. These gentlemen, it is stated, are
making a tour of inspection over certain sections of the new road.
From all accounts, they have been very much encouraged at the
general condition of things and at the outlook. In passing through
Roanoke, on their way west, early in the week, they were joined by
Mr. H. T. Hall, of the law firm of Robertson, Hall, Woods, & Jackson,
who accompanied them on an inspection trip through Giles county,
where they looked over the work that has been done in that section.
It is said that the task of building the four big viaducts that
lie east of Roanoke, within a distance of fifteen miles, is being
pushed ahead as rapidly as possible, and it is expected that the new
structures will be completed in the near future. When this work is
done, every effort will be made to rush the remainder of the work on
the road to completion.
The following thrilling account of H. H. Rogers' connection with
the Tidewater and his enormous expenditures in the enterprise,
appeared in an article in the last number of Everybody's Magazine,
and it will undoubtedly be read with deepest interest by people of Roanoke:

How the Game Got H. H. Rogers.

But with the March slump came a warning to all business. The
country at large realized that there was not enough money to do the
tremendous volume of business in sight, and merchants and
manufactures began to reduce their purchases of raw material. The
consumers of the metal said: "We will use up what we have on hand
before we buy fresh supplies." The demand for copper ceased so
abruptly and completely that it seemed the work of black magic. And
the price fell, first gradually and then violently. Copper shares
broke badly; millions upon millions were lost by speculators, and
also by investors who shared Mr. Rogers' opinion of King Copper; and
the stays were thereby greased for the panic to slide on.
And Henry H. Rogers, compelled to abandon cherished plans, forced
out of one thing at enormous losses in order to be able to avert
still more enormous losses in other schemes, saw the ruin of his
hopes and then of his health. That was the tragedy of the Street,
relentless as destiny, inevitable as death. Mr. Rogers had gone into
Amalgamated Copper because of the stock-market end of it. He had gone
into Union Pacific and Atchison and other railroads because of the
stock-market end. He had disliked Roosevelt because Roosevelt had
interfered with stock market plans. He had played the game with
superhuman adroitness, and courage beyond compare, and the
ruthlessness of a machine, with a power that seemed almost
resistless; he was the possessor of marvelous vision, the incarnation
of financial might -- the Master of the Game, not its votary and not
its slave. And yet -- the Game got him!
Facing enormous losses in all his ventures, this man at last knew
fear, financial fear, knew what it was to ask for money and not be
able to get it. H. H. Rogers not able to borrow money! Do you see the
tragedy of that? Can you imagine this demigod of finance jostled off
his solid god pedestal? Can you realize his feelings as he had to let
go one thing after another in order to protect his Tidewater
railroad? He had started to build a railroad; he loved to speak of
"my road," to boast of its small capitalization, of its being without
bonds. It was the most expensive toy in the world; it was the most
costly venture ever undertaken by an individual capitalist; as a bit
of financial arrogance it was superb. Rogers could say of that road;
"I am its founder and its builder; its banker and its absolute czar,
I am the railroad." He owned it all. It was magnificent, but it was
not business.
I dare say he dreamed splendid dreams; perhaps, at times, when his
soul's gaze was fixed upon the future and he saw a finished railroad,
he did not hear the ticker. But because he had listened overlong and
over-fondly to the voice of the little tape machine, and had
prospered over-generously, he had lost his sense of proportion. When
the storm came, it found merely a man; it did not ask his name, nor
his rating. It flung him to the round and passed on. The Game got him
as it gets everybody who plays it as assiduously as Rogers played it.
It took from him many millions and his health. It always takes from
people either their money or their soul, for none can escape
retribution by an exit through the door over which is the black sign: Death.


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- Ron Davis, Roger Link






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