1912: War for the White House by Jeff Thomas

Author:Jeff Thomas [Thomas, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-10T04:00:00+00:00

Samuel Axelrod watched the line growing in front of his little savings and loan business. Fortunately, when he’d started the company a year earlier, he’d had good working capital from his wife’s family. He was sure he could ride out a bank run.

When the war ended, and the Navy discharged him, his father-in-law offered to help him get a start in the family industry. Axelrod planned to stay in Seattle, safely away from Ruth’s father in Detroit. The Father-in-law was an honorable man, but overbearing. Axelrod accepted the offer, using the money to start a savings and loan company. With the small business showing a profit, it proved a good deal for both men.

Both families had escaped Russia just ahead of rampaging Cossacks, a little bitterness was perhaps understandable. Until now, their adopted home treated them well. Recent events worried them. Axelrod endured some prejudice in the Navy but overcame it by working hard.

Now he charged reasonable interest rates, most customers were veterans. After the war, many soldiers and sailors settled in the Pacific Northwest. They liked it, work was available to those that wanted it. Naturally, when they needed a bank, they’d gone to a fellow Navy man.

He knew the best way to stop a run on a bank was to restore the confidence of its customers by giving them their money. He’d directed the two tellers to give everybody whatever they asked for. Most of them withdrew all their money. That didn’t surprise him. Every few minutes, he’d toured the tellers’ cages, noting who had removed their money and compiling a little list of his own. Later in the afternoon, his prudence paid off.

“Sir,” his secretary (a year earlier he’d been USS North Dakota’s paymaster) poked his head into Axelrod’s office, “Mr. Garnett is on the phone.”

“Humpfff,” Axelrod’s disgust was obvious, “I’ll take it.”

“Sam, old friend,” his chief rival started in, “rumor has it you still have some cash. I’m thinking we…uh… perhaps could do some business here.”

Axelrod knew immediately that Garnett Savings and Loan had run out of money, or was close to it.

“Maybe. What do you have in mind?”

“Well I was thinking, I’ve got some loans I might sell you at a slight discount, I could use a little cash over here.”

“What’s the security on the loans?”

Axelrod could hear the desperation in Garnett’s voice.

“Real Estate, mostly I…”

“Real Estate might interest me. I don’t want anything else. I’ll buy it at a thirty percent discount.”

“THIRTY PERCENT? I’m talking about a business transaction here!”

“So am I.”

“Fine.”

Axelrod listened as the line went dead.

Just before closing Garnett called again.

“Look, I really need some cash here, I guess under the circumstances I can live with thirty percent.”

Axelrod drew in a deep breath.

“That’s too bad because now it's fifty cents on the dollar.”

Neither man spoke for several seconds. They both knew Garnett had no choice.

“I’ll come over in the morning.”

“Sure.”

Axelrod immediately began making phone calls, they all started with the same statement:

“I know you took out all your money, but if you can see your way to bringing back half of it, I can bring you in on a good deal.

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