decided that the franchise belonged to the city, the Mayor meant to take it. To some of the Mayor’s advisers this looked like a dreadful step to take; they thought of the “widows and orphans” and other innocent holders of the stock. It didn’t look so bad to Colonel Dickinson; he thought only of his rival boss, E. F. C. Young, whom he had seen grabbing up the street railways under his nose. And it didn’t look bad to Mayor Fagan; he thought of the “widows and orphans” who held no stock except in Jersey City, which—so it seemed to Mark—had as much right as an individual or a private corporation to whatever belonged to it.
Unbeknown to the cabinet, however, while they were deliberating on their discovery, the great Public Service Corporation was being formed. The big men in the Prudential Life and its Fidelity Trust Company had gone in with the U. G. I. (United Gas Improvement Co.) of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Railroad crowd to buy up practically all the trolleys, electric light, and other available public utility companies of New Jersey. Among these purchases were the Jersey City lines and, also, an electric light company in which Colonel Dickinson was an employee. This was embarrassing to Dickinson; E. F. C. Young was out and Dickinson and his friends were
