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Insull Utility Investments,
in which he put his family holdings and sold stock to the
public. Later he founded another such company, called it Corporation
Securities. Thus Samuel Insull entered on the great game of 1929,
building towering corporate pyramids, buying and selling stock. He had
been right so long the public thought he could never be wrong and so
followed him blindly down the road to ruin. He built his tower of stock
certificates so high that it cracked and crumbled. Bidding against
Eaton. Insull's holding companies paid not only regular 1929 prices,
but battle prices for the shares of his operating companies—$384 a
share for Commonwealth Edison, $296 a share for Peoples' Gas. Then
came the crash. Eaton backed off without control but Samuel Insull
had not won. A good part of his fortune had disappeared in the fight.
The rest disappeared in trying to keep his fantastic holding companies
from tumbling. He had wrecked his own empire. April 10, 1932 was his
Waterloo. He and Sam Jr. conferred with the bankers at the exclusive
Chicago Club. They did not dare meet elsewhere for fear the dreadful
news would leak out. At that meeting a receivership was agreed upon.
Samuel Insull, Charles A. McCulloch and Edward N. Hurley (now
deceased) were to become the three receivers of the downfallen domain.
Less than a month later Mr. McCulloch went to Samuel Insull and told
him that his brother Martin would have to give up his job as president
of Middle West Utilities; there was evidence that Martin had used the
company's money to bolster up a private brokerage account. Sam Insull
pleaded with him not to oust Brother Martin, saying, "He has not a
dollar left." But Receiver McCulloch was adamant. He was equally
adamant when, on June 3, he went to Samuel Insull and demanded his
resignation because he sanctioned two of Martin's alleged pilferings.
Empire Building. That was the end of Samuel Insull's power. Almost
forgotten in the ensuing uproar was the fact that the same hands that
rocked the boat of public trust had also rocked the cradle of
electrical development in the Midwest. In 1879 Samuel Insull. a young
clerk in London, read an advertisement in the Times for a part-time
stenographer. He got a job with the London agent of Thomas Edison.
Later Edison's chief engineer, E. H. Johnson, visited London. Like
most Americans he was distressed at the British habit of working only
in business hours. He suggested that Stenographer Insull work for him
evenings. Insull agreed. Impressed with him Johnson finally said,
"Young man, you ought to come to America." Insull answered:
"I'd only go to America if I could be private secretary to Mr.
Edison." Johnson promptly wrote a letter of recommendation to
Edison. The same letter came back to London with a scrawl across it
in Edison's writing: "Send him over." In February 1881,
Insull sailed; 14 days later he arrived after dark at Menlo Park.
Edison began dictating at once, finally stopped at midnight and said
"You'd better get some sleep. I'll need you again at six in the
morning." Thus began Insull's U. S. career. For a time he bought
Edison's clothes, wrote his checks. Ultimately he managed Edison's
business affairs. He helped organize Edison Machine Works and later
laid out its plant at Schenectady where it became Edison General
Electric (now General
