CHAPTER XXVII
THE CRISIS
What is of more value to civilization, or what commands a greater premiumin the world than successful leadership? Successful leaders are few, andthe masses follow. Honor, fame, power, and wealth are some of the rewardsof great leadership. The confidences bestowed and the responsibilitiesassumed are often very great. A betrayal of important trusts, or afailure to discharge responsibilities, usually brings swift and terriblepunishment, poverty, prison, disgrace, and dishonor to descendants.
George Ingram had proved himself a successful leader, and those who knewhim best, by study of his methods and his works, saw his capacity forleadership. Hence the popular demand for him to stand as candidate formayor of Harrisville. His practical intelligence, and his acuteness inobservation of character, had served him well in organizing, developing,and controlling the greatest model steel-plant of his generation, whichfor quality, quantity, and minimum cost of products had attracted theattention of manufacturers and scientists. Politicians soon discovered inGeorge Ingram natural prudence and tact in behavior. The strong religiouselement of the city conceded that he possessed, as a certain doctor ofdivinity said, "a nice sense of what is right, just and true, with acourse of life corresponding thereto."
The alert women of the city were in hearty approval of conferring thehonor of Mayor upon George Ingram. They knew that the completeness of hischaracter resulted in no small degree from the influence of his giftedwife. The practical business men of the city saw that the proposedcandidate for mayor had good common sense. So all party spirit was laidaside, as it should be in local politics, and George Ingram was nominatedand elected unanimously as the mayor of Harrisville. His cabinet,composed of the heads of several departments, was filled with able men,who with zest took up their portfolios not with the thought of personalgain but with the lofty purpose of securing the utmost good to everycitizen.
Fortunately the city had adopted the just principle of paying itsservants liberally for all services rendered. By the so-called "FederalPlan" the number of members of the Cabinet, of the Board of Control, ofthe Council, and of the School Board, has been so reduced that at theirmeetings speeches and angry discussions were tabooed; each associatemember was respected, if not on his own account, then on behalf of hisconstituency, and all business was discussed and consummated withthe same courtesy and efficiency, as at a well regulated board of bankdirectors.
Never before were streets so well paved, cleaned and sprinkled; neverwere city improvements so promptly made without increase of debt, andnever did public schools prosper better. Men of experience on all lineswere drafted on special committees and commissions, and vigorous worktoward practical ends went forward on river, harbor, and otherimprovements.
Electricity, supplied by the city, furnished power, heat, and light. Highpressure water relegated the steam fire-engine to the Historical Society,and low pressure water, at minimum cost, was supplied to the people insuch abundance that during the summer season, before sunrise, all pavedstreets were cleansed by running water and brush brooms. All sewerage andgarbage were promptly removed, and used to enrich the suburbanmarket-gardens.
Every country road leading into the city had its electric railway withcombination passenger and freight cars, and farm products for the peoplewere delivered in better condition, earlier at the markets, and at muchreduced prices. The advantages enjoyed by rich and poor in Harrisvillewere soon noised abroad, and the influx of new comers constantlyincreased the growth of the city. Mayor Ingram had been given are-election. Prosperity in his own business had brought great returns,and the mayor's chief concern was, what to do with his accumulations.
One day the County Commissioners, the City Government, the Chamber ofCommerce, and the Board of Education were equally surprised to receivefrom George Ingram the announcement that he would build for the people athis own expense a court house, a city hall, a public library, and publicbaths. He had often wondered how it was possible that other millionairescould overlook and miss such opportunities to distribute surplus fundsamong the people. Gertrude early observed the city's needs, and hadpointed out the opportunity to George, urging that part of her father'smoney should be united with their own increasing wealth to supply fundsfor the execution of their plans.
The four committees appointed by city and county acted speedily in theconsideration of details. It was decided to construct a group ofbuildings on the park. The architecture adopted for all four structureswas Romanesque in style; granite was used for wall work, and darker stonefor ornamentation. The plans accepted exhibited less massiveness than theoriginal Romanesque, and showed a tendency towards the lightness anddelicacy of finish which modern culture demands.
The new court house located on the park enabled the architect to connectit by an historical "Bridge of Sighs" with the prison and old court houseacross the street. The city hall was properly made the most prominent ofthe group of buildings. Its first floor and basement were combined in agreat assembly hall, capable of seating 10,000 people with an abundanceof light, fresh air, and eight broad entrances for exit. As the belfry ortower was a leading feature of most mediaeval town-halls, so the artisticfeature of the Harrisville city hall was its lofty tower, containingchimes, above which was to be placed an appropriate bronze statue. Thelibrary and the baths were built on the park.
The Romanesque style of all the buildings gave fine opportunity tointroduce elaborate carvings about the entrance arches, and across thefacades to chisel quaint faces above the windows, and grotesque heads outof corbels at the eaves.
The group of public buildings was finally completed and dedicated withmuch formality. The city government unanimously adopted resolutions asfollows:--
"Resolved,--That the City of Harrisville accepts, with profoundgratitude, from Mayor George Ingram, the munificent gift of buildings fora City Hall and Public Library as stated in his letters of ----; Thatthe City accepts the three noble gifts upon the conditions in saidletter, which it will faithfully and gladly observe, as a sacred trust inaccordance with his desire.
"Resolved,--That in gratefully accepting these gifts, the Citytenders to Mayor George Ingram its heartfelt thanks, and desires toexpress its deep sense of obligation for the elegant buildings, for yearsof wise counsel and unselfish service, and for the free use of valuablepatents. The City recognizes the Christian faith, generosity, and publicspirit that have prompted him to supply the long felt wants by thesegifts of great and permanent usefulness."
Similar resolutions were adopted by the county commissioners.
Nearly three millions were thus disposed of by the mayor and his wife.Close attention to business, and the severe labors in behalf of the city,undermined the health of George Ingram, and his physical and mentalstrength failed him at the wrong time, for his ship was now approachinga cyclone on the financial sea.
Tariff matters had been drifting from bad to worse, politicians wereseeking to secure advantages for their constituents by changes in thetariff schedule, speculation was running wild in the stock exchanges ofthe country, cautious business men and bankers in the larger citiesdiscovered an ominous black cloud rising out of the horizon. Bank ratesof interest increased, more frequent renewals were made, depositsdwindled, country bankers weakened, and financiers in the metropoliswere calling loans made to the interior. With the financial cyclone atits height, the demands were so great upon The Harris-Ingram Steel Co.that creditors threatened to close the steel plant.
The cry for help went up from the Harris-Ingram mills, but their trustedleader was powerless. George Ingram lay insensible at death's door, thevictim of pneumonia. For a week, the directors of the steel companystruggled night and day with their difficulties. Gertrude could neitherleave the bedside of her dying husband, nor would she give her consent tohave the Harris-Ingram Experiment wrecked. She had already pledged ascollateral for the creditors of the steel company all their stock andpersonal property, and had telephoned the directors to keep the companyafloat another day, if in t
heir power.
The ablest physicians of the city were standing at George Ingram'sbedside in despair, as all hope of his recovery had vanished. Gertrudestepped aside into her library, and was in the very agony of prayer forhelp, when in rushed her brother Alfonso, whom the family believed dead.He had come from California with his wife, and stopping at the company'soffice, had learned of the terrible trouble of his family.
Lifting up his broken-hearted sister, who for a moment thought thatshe had met her brother on the threshold of the other world, he kissedGertrude and said, "Be brave, go back to your husband, and trust yourbrother to look after the steel company's matters."
Alfonso learned that one million dollars were needed at once to tide overthe company's affairs; he drew two checks, for five hundred thousanddollars each, upon his banks in San Francisco and requested the creditorsto wire to the coast. Before two o'clock replies came that AlfonsoHarris's cheeks were good, and the only son of Reuben Harris had savedthe "Harris-Ingram Experiment." Mariposa's band of beaten gold had workedits magic.
* * * * *
A public funeral was given George Ingram. He was a man the city could illafford to lose, and every citizen felt he had lost a personal friend. Allbusiness was suspended, and the mills were shut down. For two days thebody of the dead mayor lay in state in the city hall he had built andgiven to the people. The long line of citizens that filed past the coffincontinued through the night till dawn, and even then, great throngs stoodin the rain with flowers for his casket.
As a token of their high regard the people voted to change the name ofthe city of Harrisville to Harris-Ingram, the suburb which was annexed,and to place a bronze statue of George Ingram on the tower above the cityhall, which now became his fitting monument. Labor and capital united inelecting for the head of the great Harris-Ingram Steel Company, Alfonso,the millionaire and artist-son of Reuben Harris.
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