1908 - Tour of Inspection

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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