-Caveat Lector- an excerpt from: America’s Sixty Families Ferdinand Lundberg The Vanguard Press©1937 & 1938 The Citadel Press New York, NY 578 pages Out-of-print --[A]-- APPENDIX A The Public-Utilities Background of Wilson's Backers AN EXCEEDINGLY rich field in the most densely populated area of the country was controlled by this group of utilities lords before 1912. Included in this field were the Consolidated Gas Company of New York (Rockefeller),. the constituent parts of what are now the Brooklyn Edison Company (Brady), the New York Edison Company (Brady), the Third Avenue Railway Company (RockefellerRyan), the New York Railways Company (Ryan), the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (Brady), the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (Belmont-Morgan), the developing Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company (Brady-Rockefeller), and the Queens Electric Light and Power Company (Morgan-Baker). There were also scores of outlying, unconsolidated gas, electric, and traction companies controlled by the same group and later consolidated. The same bloc controlled, either as individuals or collectively, the local public utilities in practically every other large city of the United States where there was not municipal ownership. And it was this bloc that surreptitio usly fought public ownership through newspapers and political tools during the early years of the century. Individuals like Hearst, striving to gain a personal foothold in the same field, supported the public-ownership element and mobilized liberal and radical sentiment for it in order to bring the dominant interests to private terms. The Metropolitan Securities Company, through which Ryan, Brady, and the Rockefellers manipulated traction companies, functioned in collaboration with Tammany Hall. As it was brought out by a grand jury in December, 1907, Ryan, P. A. B. Widener, William L. Elkins, of Philadelphia, and William C. Whitney bought from Anthony N. Brady for $250,000 the unused franchise of the Wall and Cortland Street Ferries Railroad Company. This franchise was then sold to the Metropolitan Securities Company for $965,607.19, yielding Ryan and his associates a profit of $692,292.82 and Metropolitan Securities a loss equal to the purchase price. Another operation by Ryan and his associates was the purchase for $1,600,000 of the franchises of the People's Traction Company, a paper enterprise, and the New York, Westchester and Connecticut Traction Company. Shortly before this transaction the franchise of the latter company had been, sold in bankruptcy proceedings for $15,000. In 1907 the Public Service Commission learned that $16,oooooo in cash had disappeared from the treasury of the Third Avenue Railway Company, controlled by the Metropolitan Securities Company, and that the books had been destroyed. Through tactics such as these, resorted to in connection with scores of franchises, the investing public lost more than $90,000,00 in the Metropolitan Street Railway Company. Ryan and his cronies escaped prosecution for their misdeeds through the collaboration of the authorities. The foreman of the grand jury which heard the charges was, according to later revelations, a direc-tor in Ryan's Equitable Life Assurance Society. And according to the opinion rendered by Judge Otto Rosalsky in General Sessions on January 27, 19o8, District Attorney William Travers Jerome had so examined Ryan before the Grand Jury as to invalidate the state's case. Ryan's attorney was Paul D. Cravath. Jerome admitted before an investigating commission that he had improperly asked leading questions of Ryan and Brady. Yet removal proceedings instituted against Jerome were dismissed by Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Cravath's law partner. The escape of Jerome, as well as of Ryan and his friends, was all the stranger in view of the fact that William N. Amory, former official of the Third Avenue Railway Company, charged that while he was a state's witness a former law partner of Jerome offered him $200,000 to drop the accusations against Brady and Ryan. It was also brought out that Samuel Untermyer, counsel to Hyde in the insurance scandal, was a contributor to Jerome's political campaign fund. The Metropolitan Street Railway Company had extensive political connections. State Senator Patrick H. McCarren of Brooklyn, realestate operator and race-track entrepreneur, acted in Albany for Brady and Whitney, and was known to function as well for H. H. Rogers, J., P. Morgan, August Belmont, and William K. Vanderbilt. In 1910 it was brought out in an official inquiry that ten members of the New York State Legislature were on the confidential pay roll of Metropolitan Securities. In New York City today virtually all the gas and electric companies have been combined into the Consolidated Edison Corporation' (Morgan-Rockefeller). The traction companies, losing propositions because of the indoctrination of the public mind with the politically useful slogan of the five-cent fare, are now being offered to the city at stiff prices. Ever since the first franchises were issued to its own favorites by Tammany Hall immediately after the Civil War the operation of the New York public-utility companies has constituted an uninterrupted scandal. As to the gigantic Consolidated Gas Company and the New York Edison Company, now constituent parts of the Consolidated Edison Corporation, their history has been dispassionately summarized by Judge Samuel Seabury in these words: "Their record has been one of extortion. Their privileges were conceived in fraud and political corruption and throughout their existence they have been a constant source of temptation to corrupt officials. Both of these corporations exist in violation of the law and both enjoy absolute monopolies in the necessaries of life. Both have violated the law of the State, both have made false reports to avoid the payment of their just taxes, and both have entered into a close and friendly alliance with public officers whose duty required that they should protect the public from extortion." pps. 493-495 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om