Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/281



he took the offensive; he built an independent refinery at Philadelphia and, carrying the war thus into the enemy's own field, Claus Spreckels compelled a division of the territory; the Pacific Coast for his. Because of a personal affront by the president of the Gas Company in San Francisco, he started a rival concern and he marked down the price of gas so low that it never did get all the way back. And because he was dependent in business on the Southern Pacific Railroad monopoly, he did not “lie down”; he helped build that competing line which became a part of the Santa Fe system.

He sold out, they say. Yes, he sold out, but at his price, and he never “stood in”; he never was “satisfied,” “safe,” “reasonable.” And that’s why “they” are down on Claus Spreckels. If he had been satisfied with his grocery store, he might have become a patient grocer. If money was all he was after, he might have been a rich brewer. If he had been “reasonable” with the Sugai Trust, fair to the gas company and had stood in with the railroad, he might have become an “organized capitalist” and a dummy director in these and in many other businesses. But he must dominate whatever he took^ part in. Impatient, implacable, ruthless, his “Dutch obstinacy” made him fight, and the