Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/286

 chances on losing their jobs. They would hardly dare take the initiative and keep prices down. So he reasoned, and he was right. The Trust followed Rudolph Spreckels’s lead, and three times that day he advanced the price. And he sold out all his stock and all that he had in sight. The cutting of prices was resumed, but once again the boy beat the Trust by this same trick. And so, before he was twenty, Rudolph Spreckels measured himself with great captains of industry and — became sure of himself.

At any rate, he was bold enough to fight his father, and he knew what that meant. This quarrel, alluded to above, broke out during their struggle with the Trust. On one side were Gus and Rudolph; on the other, the father and his other sons. It was a general business row at first, but as it grew the Spreckels sugar plantations on the Hawaiian Islands became the bone of contention. A losing business, Rudolph visited them; he saw neglect, mismanagement, extravagance and stealing, and he declared that the plantations could be made to pay. He and Gus bought them; Rudolph took charge and, cutting out the graft and introducing method and discipline, was getting things on a paying basis, when a crisis occurred. They needed more time and money. The rest of the family wouldn’t give