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Portrait of a Robber Baron: Charles T. Yerkes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Sidney I. Roberts
Sidney I. Roberts
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History atYoungstown University
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Abstract

Chicago's traction king was a master of corruption and financial legerdemain, but his contempt for public opinion proved at last to be his undoing. Out of such flamboyant transgressions great reform movements grew, and the character of all big business operators was made suspect.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1961 , pp. 344 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1961

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References

1 Hendrick, Burton J., The Age of Big Business: A Chronicle of the Captains of Industry, vol. XXXIX, Chronicles of America Series, Allan Johnson, ed. (New Haven, 1919), p. 126Google Scholar.

2 Lerner, Max and Holter, Mary F., “Charles Tyson Yerkes,” Dictionary of American Biography, vol. XX (New York, 1936), p. 609Google Scholar; Leach, Josiah G., Chronicle of the Yerkes Family with Notes on the Leach and Rutter Families (Philadelphia, 1904), p. 191Google Scholar; LeFevre, Edwin, “What Availeth It,” Everybody's Magazine, vol. XXIV (June, 1911), p. 837Google Scholar.

3 Andrews, Wayne, Battle for Chicago (New York, 1946), p. 177Google Scholar; LeFevre, “What Availeth It,” p. 837; Lerner and Holter, “Charles Tyson Yerkes,” p. 609.

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7 Chicago [Evening] Journal, Jan. 29, 1898; Lerner and Holter, “Charles Tyson Yerkes,” pp. 609-610; Leach, Chronicle of the Yerkes Family, p. 194.

8 Russell, “Where Did You Get It,” pp. 349-350.

9 Tribune, July 9, 1899, Dec. 30, 1905.

10 Ibid., March 21, 1890; Oct. 12, 1892; Feb. 19, Dec. 20, 1895; Dec. 27, 1896; Jan. 10, May 16, 1897; Dec. 30, 1905; State of Illinois, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ninth Biennial Report, 1896 (Springfield, 1896), pp. 60–61Google Scholar; Lewis, Lloyd and Smith, Henry, Chicago: The History of Its Reputation (New York, 1929), p. 243Google Scholar; LeFevre, “What Availeth It,” p. 840.

11 Tribune, Dec. 29, 1895; May 4, 28, Oct. 4, 1896; LeFevre, “What Availeth It,” p. 838; “The Death of Charles T. Yerkes,” Street Railway Journal, vol. XXVII (Jan. 6, 1906), p. 62Google Scholar; The Economist, “Street Railway Supplement, 1896” (Chicago, 1896), pp. 7–8Google Scholar; Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1896, p. 48.

12 Elizabeth T. Kent, William Kent: Independent (n.p., 1950), pp. 131-132.

13 Chicago City Council, Report of the Special Committee of the City Council of Chicago on the Street Railway Franchises and Operations (Chicago, 1898), p. 62Google Scholar; Hendrick, Burton J., “Great American Fortunes and Their Making: Street Railway Financiers,” McClure's Magazine, vol. XXX (Nov., 1907), pp. 33–48Google Scholar; Tribune, May 12, 1895; May 21, 1899.

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15 William Kent, “Outline Chicago Traction,” undated MS in the Papers of William Kent in the Library of Yale University; hereinafter cited as Kent Papers; Vanderlip, “Evils of Over-Capitalization,” p. 40.

16 Chicago City Council, Report (1898), pp. 44-47; Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1896, pp. 57-58; Fairlie, John A., “Street Railway Question in Chicago,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. XXI (May, 1907), pp. 377–379Google Scholar.

17 Webster, “From Yerkes to Dunne,” pp. 687-688; Vanderlip, “Evils of Over-Capitalization,” p. 40. Similar cash and stock transfers occurred when Yerkes continued the modernization by converting from cable to electricity.

18 Hendrick, Age of Big Business, pp. 142-143. In view of the total value of the negotiation, it is difficult to believe that $5,000,000 was paid in commission, though it is quite probable that some commission was paid.

19 Chicago City Council, Report (1898), pp. 46-50; The Economist, “Street Railway, 1896,” p. 10; Hendrick, “Great American Fortunes,” McClure's (Nov., 1907), p. 249.

20 Among the many other companies owned or controlled by Yerkes were the Lake Street Elevated, the Union Elevated, the Chicago North Shore Street Railway, and the Evanston Electric.

21 Chicago City Council, Report (1898), pp. 9, 63, 65; Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1896, pp. 37, 59; Maltbie, Milo R., “Street Railways of Chicago: Report of the Civic Federation Committee,” Municipal Affairs, vol. V (June, 1901), p. 454Google Scholar; Lloyd, Henry D., The Chicago Traction Question (Chicago, n.d., but c. 1903), p. 4Google Scholar. By way of illustration, the Union Traction Company was capitalized at $120,000,000 and as a going concern was worth only $16,000,000.

22 Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1896, pp. 59-60; Chicago City Council, Report (1898), p. 47; Maltbie, “Street Railways,” p. 448; Tribune, Jan. 15, 1895; Jan. 14, 1897.

23 Peterson, Virgil W., Barbarians in Our Midst: A History of Chicago Crime and Politics (Boston, 1952), p. 69Google Scholar. Note also, Municipal Voters' League of Chicago, Minute Book of Executive Committee Meetings, August 17, 1896, in the Municipal Voters' League Papers in the Citizens' Association offices, Chicago; Tribune, Jan. 29, Sept. 3, Dec. 10, 11, 1895; April 29, Nov. 23, Dec. 27, 30, 1896; Merriam, Charles E., Chicago: A More Intimate View of Urban Politics (New York, 1929), p. 20Google Scholar.

24 Journal, Jan. 29, 1898.

25 Engineering News and American Railway Journal, vol. XL (Oct. 20, 1898), pp. 246–247Google Scholar; Lloyd, The Chicago Traction Question, pp. 30-34; Chicago Daily News, Feb. 16, 1895; Tribune, Nov. 19, 1898.

26 Andrews, Battle for Chicago, pp. 179-180.

27 Tribune, Feb. 21, 1896; Jan. 15, 1895; March 6, 1896; Dedmon, Fabulous Chicago, p. 260.

28 Engineering News (Oct. 20, 1898), p. 246; Tribune, Sept. 7, 1895.

29 Tribune, Nov. 28, 1895.

30 Journal, Jan. 29, 1898.

31 LeFevre, “What Availeth It,” p. 839.

32 Tribune, Jan. 3, Sept. 13, Nov. 27, 1895; Feb. 26, 1901.

33 Cleveland, Harold I., “Fifty-Five Years in Business,” System: The Magazine of Business, vol. XI (Jan.-May, 1907), p. 54Google Scholar.

34 Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1896, pp. 40-41.

35 Ibid., p. 61; The Economist, “Street Railway, 1896,” p. 38; Cleveland, “Fifty-Five Years in Business,” pp. 52-53.

36 Tribune, Dec. 18, 1893; Jan. 15, April 22, Dec. 4, 5, 1895; April 30, May 5, June 28, 1896.

37 Ibid., Jan. 13, 1897; Victor F. Lawson to Charles Dennis, Nov. 18, 1897, in the Charles H. Dennis Collection in the Newberry Library, Chicago; Charles M. Fay to Victor Lawson, Jan. 10, 1898, Feb. 22, 1898, and Victor F. Lawson to Charles T. Yerkes, Nov. 8, 1899, in the Victor F. Lawson Papers in the Newberry Library, Chicago; hereinafter cited as Lawson Papers.

38 For an account of earlier civic crusades in Chicago see Roberts, Sidney I., “Businessmen in Revolt: Chicago 1874-1900” (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1960Google Scholar).

39 Chicago, An Act to Provide for the Incorporation of Cities and Villages, Adopted by the City of Chicago, April 23, 1875 (Chicago, 1875), p. 17Google Scholar; Chicago, Proceedings of the City Council, 1883 (Chicago, 1884), pp. 109-111, 113–117Google Scholar.

40 Tribune, Feb. 19, March 11, 1897.

41 Illinois, Journal of the Senate of the Fortieth General Assembly (Springfield, 1897), p. 272Google Scholar. In counties with less than 100,000 inhabitants the fee was to be $500 per mile of track.

42 Tribune, March 9, 10, 1897.

43 Norton, Samuel W., Chicago Traction: A History Legislative and Political (Chicago, 1907), p. 81Google Scholar.

44 Tribune, March 11, 12, 1897.

45 Illinois, Senate Journal, p. 334; Tribune, March 12, 13, 17, 1897.

46 Illinois, Senate Journal, pp. 334, 355; Norton, Chicago Traction, pp. 82-84.

47 Sidney C. Eastman, “Corruption in Illinois,” undated MS in the Sidney C. Eastman Collection in the Chicago Historical Society; hereinafter cited as Eastman Collection; Chicago Daily News, Feb. 20, 1897; Tribune, Feb. 19, 20, March 14, 1897.

48 Tribune, March 18, 1897; News, March 20, 1897; Norton, Chicago Traction, p. 85.

49 Tribune, March 21, 1897.

50 Ibid., March 21, 24, 28, 1897; News, March 22, 1897; Hutchinson, William T., Lowden of Illinois: The Life of Frank O. Lowden, vol. I (Chicago, 1957), p. 87Google Scholar. While the committee consisted mainly of businessmen, the clergy and labor were also represented.

51 Tribune, March 21, 1897; News, March 21, 1897; Chicago Inter Ocean, March 21, 1897.

52 Tribune, March 28, 30, 1897.

53 The Chicago Committee of One Hundred, The Street Railway Bills (Chicago, 1897Google Scholar); Municipal Voters' League, Minute Book, March 10, 13, 30, 1897; Victor F. Lawson to A. D. Phil pot, April 23, 1897, Lawson Papers; Union League Club of Chicago, Club Minute Book, Jan. 26, April 13, 1897, in the Union League Club Archives; Tribune, April 13, 14, 15, 1897; Chicago Times-Herald, April 14, 1897; Inter Ocean, April 14, 15, 1897; Illinois, Senate Journal, pp. 355-356, 422, 457, 550-559.

54 Tribune, April 16, 1897; Illinois, Senate Journal, pp. 565-573.

55 Illinois, Senate Journal, pp. 580-581; Tribune, April 16, 17, 20, 1897; Times-Herald, April 19, 1897; Norton, Chicago Traction, p. 87; Eastman, “Corruption in Illinois,” Eastman Collection.

56 Inter Ocean, April 18, 19, 1897; Tribune, April 16, 18, 1897; Times-Herald, April 19, 1897; Eastman, “Corruption in Illinois,” Eastman Collection.

57 Tribune, April 20, 1897; Chicago, Proceedings of the City Council, 1897-1898 (Chicago, 1898), pp. 49–50Google Scholar; Harrison, Carter H., Stormy Years: The Autobiography of Carter H. Harrison (New York, 1935), pp. 114, 126Google Scholar.

58 Tribune, April 20, 22, 1897.

59 Ibid., April 21, 22, 23, May 6, 10, 11, 1897; Inter Ocean, April 21, 1897; Eastman, “Corruption in Illinois,” Eastman Collection; an unsigned and undated leaflet, “At a Mass Meeting of the Citizens, Property Owners, and Business Men,” in the Graham Taylor Papers in the Newberry Library, Chicago.

60 Tribune, April 29, 30, 1897; News, April 29, 1897; Norton, Chicago Traction, p. 90.

61 Illinois, Journal of the House of Representatives of the Fortieth General Assembly (Springfield, 1897), p. 770Google Scholar; Tribune, May 4, 8, 9, 1897; Inter Ocean, May 8, 1897.

62 Tribune, May 13, 1897; Inter Ocean, May 13, 1897.

63 Inter Ocean, May 13, 1897; Illinois, House Journal, pp. 806-807.

64 Tribune, May 13, 1897.

65 Ibid., May 19, 1897.

66 Illinois, House Journal, pp. 951-952; Norton, Chicago Traction, p. 92.

67 Steffens, Lincoln, The Struggle for Self-Government (New York, 1906), p. 61Google Scholar; Eastman, “Corruption in Illinois,” Eastman Collection; Inter Ocean, May 21, 1897.

68 Tribune, May 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31, 1897; 20 telegrams from Victor F. Lawson to members of the state legislature, May 27, 1897, Lawson Papers; Sidney C. Eastman to Adolph Nathan, Frank J. Loesch to Eastman, May 26, 1897, and Herman H. Kohlsaat to Eastman, May 27, 1897, Eastman Collection; Lewis and Smith, Chicago, p. 249.

69 E. Kent, William Kent: Independent, p. 155.

70 Ibid., pp. 155-156.

71 Tribune, May 20, 24, 26, 1897.

72 Ibid., May 26, 1897; telegram from Sidney C. Eastman to H. H. Kohlsaat, May 27, 1897, Eastman Collection.

73 Illinois, House Journal, pp. 951-952; Tribune, May 27, 1897; Inter Ocean, May 27, 28, 1897.

74 Illinois, House Journal, pp. 963-966, 970, 978.

75 Ibid., pp. 1145-1148; Illinois, Senate Journal, pp. 899, 902, 925, 938, 943-952, 1043, 1096-1097; Tribune, June 3, 4, 5, 1897; Inter Ocean, June 5, 1897.

76 The initial press reaction was to charge bribery, but, in time, the logrolling explanation was accepted. Representative Frank L. Hall, for example, in 1898 explained his vote by saying: “By voting for the Allen bill which does not affect a single individual in Pike County, I secured a vote for the butterine bill, which is estimated to be worth to the farmers of my district who make butter $75,000 a year.” Tribune, March 28, 1898.

77 Tribune, June 6, 1897.

78 Ibid., Nov. 19, 24, 1897; Times-Herald, Nov. 18, 1897; News, Nov. 18, 1897.

79 Inter Ocean, Nov. 24, 1897. See also Ibid., Sept. 14, Nov. 8, 13, 16, Dec. 4, 16, 17, 20, 1898; Feb. 4, 1899.

80 Ibid., Dec. 18, 1898; Dennis, Charles H., Victor Lawson: His Time and His Work (Chicago, 1935), p. 285Google Scholar.

81 Inter Ocean, Nov. 17, 1898; Feb. 26, May 20, 24, 1899. Hinman and Lawson were already enemies as a result of an earlier feud over the Associated Press of which Lawson was a founder.

82 Victor F. Lawson to Charles H. Dennis, Nov. 18, 1897, in the Charles H. Dennis Collection in the Newberry Library, Chicago; hereinafter cited as Dennis Collection.

83 Victor F. Lawson to Charles H. Dennis, Jan. 12, 1898, Dennis Collection.

84 Charles M. Faye to Victor F. Lawson, Feb. 10, March 29, 1898, Lawson Papers; cablegram from Victor F. Lawson to Charles H. Dennis, Feb. 24, 26, 1898, Dennis Collection.

85 Inter Ocean, Sept. 20, Oct. 13, 24, Nov. 5, 6, 7, 29, Dec. 1, 1898; Jan. 27, May 26, 29, 1899.

86 Ibid., Nov. 4, 16, 19, 26, 1898.

87 Ibid., Nov. 16, 1898.

88 Ibid., Nov. 25, 1898. The editorial was repeated with slight variation in the wording throughout November and every day in December until Dec. 19, 1898.

89 Ibid., Dec. 6, 1898; News, Dec. 3, 5, 1898; Tribune, Dec. 6, 8, 9, 1898; Chicago Record, Dec. 5, 6, 7, 1898.

90 Inter Ocean, Dec. 6, 1898; Chicago, Council Proceedings, 1898-1899, pp. 1057-1058.

91 Chicago, Council Proceedings, 1898-1899, pp. 1059-1061; Record, Dec. 6, 1898; Inter Ocean, Dec. 6, 1898.

92 News, Dec. 6, 1898.

93 Ibid., Dec. 9, 1898; Tribune, Dec. 7, 8, 9, 1898; Record, Dec. 7, 9, 1898; Inter Ocean, Dec. 8, 1898.

94 Inter Ocean, Dec. 8, 9, 12, 13, 1898.

95 News, Dec. 7, 1898; Tribune, Dec. 9, 1898.

96 Inter Ocean, Dec. 8, 1898.

97 Ibid., Dec. 9, 1898.

98 Ibid., Dec. 10, 1898.

99 News, Dec. 9, 12, 1898; Tribune, Dec. 11, 12, 1898; E. Kent, William Kent: Independent, pp. 160-161; C. Harrison, Stormy Years: Autobiography, pp. 170, 173.

100 Tribune, Dec. 8, 1898.

101 Record, Dec. 8, 1898; Inter Ocean, Dec. 8, 1898.

102 Tribune, Dec. 7, 8, 10, 1898; Wendt and Kogan, Lords of the Levee, p. 192; C. Harrison, Stormy Years: Autobiography, pp. 156-159.

103 Inter Ocean, Dec. 13, 1898; Tribune, Dec. 12, 13, 1898; Record, Dec. 13, 1898; Wendt and Kogan, Lords of the Levee, pp. 193-194.

104 Chicago, Council Proceedings, 1898-1899, pp. 1171-1172; News, Dec. 13, 1898.

105 News, Dec. 17, 1898; Inter Ocean, Dec. 18, 1898.

106 Chicago, Council Proceedings, 1898-1899, pp. 49-51; Tribune, April 19, 1898.

107 Chicago, Council Proceeding, 1898-1899, pp. 1197-1198; Wendt and Kogan, Lords of the Levee, pp. 198-199; Inter Ocean, Dec. 20, 1898; News, Dec. 20, 1898.

108 Illinois, Journal of the House of Representatives of the Forty-First General Assembly (Springfield, 1899), pp. 187, 209-211, 220Google Scholar; Illinois, Journal of the Senate of the Forty-First General Assembly (Springfield, 1899), pp. 205-206, 221, 235Google Scholar; Inter Ocean, March 8, 1899. Eleven different repeal bills were introduced in the legislature.

109 Tribune, May 11, 17, June 3, July 2, 1899.

110 Hendrick, Age of Big Business, p. 126.