U.S. At War: Seizure!

Serene and calm, Sewell Lee Avery sat down in the green leather chair in his paneled office, and waited. Day before, he had sent a telegram challenging the authority of the President of the U.S. to seize the Chicago plant of Montgomery Ward & Co., the $295,000,000 mail-order house of which Mr. Avery is the absolute, unchallenged boss. Mr. Avery had not long to wait.

The U.S. Government arrived, in the person of an old-family Chicagoan, Under Secretary of Commerce Wayne Chatfield Taylor — a rich man's son, product of St. Mark's and Yale,...

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