Insull: The Rise and Fall of a Billionaire Utility TycoonThis is a reprint of a previosly published work. It dewals with Samuel Insull, who was Thomas Edison's private secretary and founded the business of centralized electric supply. He organized the Edison General Electric Company. |
From inside the book
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Page 10
... employees and to groups of young people . One of the clearest and simplest statements of it is in a letter he wrote to his son ( Insull to Samuel Insull , Jr. , April 25 , 1916 , in the Insull Papers ) . 14 Insull , " A Quarter ...
... employees and to groups of young people . One of the clearest and simplest statements of it is in a letter he wrote to his son ( Insull to Samuel Insull , Jr. , April 25 , 1916 , in the Insull Papers ) . 14 Insull , " A Quarter ...
Page 38
... employees with him ; when he resigned six years later he was employing 6,000 men.26 At the same time he was becoming a manufacturer Insull was forced to become a financier — and at times almost a magician . De- spite its rapid growth ...
... employees with him ; when he resigned six years later he was employing 6,000 men.26 At the same time he was becoming a manufacturer Insull was forced to become a financier — and at times almost a magician . De- spite its rapid growth ...
Page 53
... , Chicago ) , pp . 193-94 . Insull narrated most of these events in various reminiscing speeches to his employees ; copies are preserved in the Insull Papers . The second was that the company immediately begin construction of.
... , Chicago ) , pp . 193-94 . Insull narrated most of these events in various reminiscing speeches to his employees ; copies are preserved in the Insull Papers . The second was that the company immediately begin construction of.
Page 105
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Page 112
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Contents
1 | |
25 | |
55 | |
Intimates | 74 |
The Big Shot | 102 |
Or The Short Happy Life of Samuel Insull | 133 |
The War | 162 |
191723 | 188 |
The Empire and Its Marshals | 214 |
The Enemies | 237 |
The Fall of the House of Insull | 274 |
The Trial | 305 |
Aftermath | 334 |
Index | 341 |
Common terms and phrases
alternating current annual reports April bank bankers became began bonds Budd cent central station Chicago Daily Chicago Edison Chicago Herald Chicago newspapers Chicago Tribune coal committee Commonwealth Edison Company Commonwealth Electric cost customers Eaton Edison directors Edison G.E. Edison Illuminating Companies Edison Laboratory National Electric Company Electric Light employees franchise friends Gas Company Gladys Herald and Examiner History of Commonwealth holding company Illinois Council industry Insull companies Insull Papers Insull's interview investment J. P. Morgan John Josephson July June June 11 June 25 Junior labor Laboratory National Monument Libertyville Light Company Martin meetings Memoirs Middle West Utilities minute books Munroe operating organization pany passim plant political politicians Power Company previously cited Public Service Public Utilities rates Samuel Insull Scheel securities sell Sept Stilwell stockholders Stuart tion traction Utility Corporations Villard West Corporation Wisconsin Yerkes York
Popular passages
Page v - I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill ; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Page 120 - Public utilities, whether in public or private hands, are best conducted under a system of legalized and regulated monopoly. "Public utilities in which the sanitary motive largely enters should be operated by the public.
Page 120 - The Committee takes no position on the question of the general expediency of either private or public ownership. The question must be solved by each municipality in the light of local conditions. What may be possible in one locality may not be in another.
Page 120 - The success of municipal operation of public utilities depends upon the existence in the city of a high capacity for municipal government.
Page 120 - Private companies operating public utilities should be subject to public regulation and examination under a system of uniform records and accounts and of full publicity.
Page 2 - I have erred, but my greatest error was in underestimating the effect of the financial panic on American securities and particularly on the companies I was working so hard to build. I worked with all my energy to save those companies. I made mistakes, but they were honest mistakes. They were errors in judgment, but not dishonest...
Page 183 - I believe it is our duty to the properties we manage, to the stockholders who own them, and to the communities they serve, that we should enlighten those communities on the situation. I believe in doing it not in any gumshoe way, but openly and boldly.
Page 21 - I was naturally prepared to accept him as a hero. With my strict English ideas as to the class of clothes to be worn by a prominent man, there was nothing in Edison's dress to impress me. He wore a rather seedy black diagonal Prince Albert coat and waistcoat, with trousers of a dark material, and a white silk handkerchief around his neck, tied in a careless knot falling over the stiff bosom of a white shirt somewhat the worse for wear. He had a large wide-awake...
Page 114 - Unless you can so conduct your business as to get the good will of the community in which you are working," he warned his colleagues, "you might just as well shut up shop and move away."15 Insull contributed heavily to local causes and nonprofit institutions. He encouraged employees to join civic organizations in order to make political contacts and advance the causes of electricity and Commonwealth Edison.
Page 23 - If he were exhausted he might more likely be asleep in the middle of the day than in the middle of the night, as most of his work in the way of inventions was done at night. I used to run his office...