Thomas William Lawson

Frenzied Finance: The Crime of Amalgamated Thomas William Lawson

A 1906 expose of the stock rigging of Amalgamated Copper by the owners (Standard Oil, Banks, Rockefellers, etc.) which resulted in huge profits for a few, and large losses for many small share-holders. The book was a great success at the time and lead to changes in insurance legislation. Thomas W. Lawson was one of this nation's most brilliant and eccentric stockbrokers. At the age of twelve, he left school to work as an office boy with a brokerage firm in Boston, and early in his career he began speculating in stocks. Lawson's abilities were early recognized by the magnates of Standard Oil, and he became their ally for several years. By 1900 he was worth at least fifty millions. In 1897 he became connected with the promotion of Amalgamated Copper, Standard Oil's name for the Anaconda mine and allied properties. "On this stock they [Standard Oil capitalists] now made a handsome profit, with Lawson acting as their chief broker. The stock thereafter rapidly declined in price and many holders of it suffered heavy losses."