Kane and Abel/Sons of Fortune Read online

  The details of the merger took nearly a year to negotiate and lawyers were kept at work into the small hours to complete the necessary paperwork. In the exchange of shares, William ended up as the largest stockholder with 8 percent of the new company and was appointed the new bank’s president and chairman. Tony Simmons remained in Boston as one vice chairman and Ted Leach in New York as the other. The new merchant bank was renamed Lester, Kane and Company but continued to be referred to as Lester’s.

  William decided to hold a press conference in New York to announce the successful merger of the two banks, and he chose Monday, the eighth of December, 1941, to inform the financial world at large. The press conference had to be canceled because the morning before, the Japanese had launched an attack on Pearl Harbor.

  The prepared press release had already been mailed to the newspapers some days before, but the Tuesday-morning financial pages understandably allocated the announcement of the merger only a small amount of space. This lack of coverage was, however, far from foremost in William’s mind.

  He couldn’t quite work out how or when he was going to tell his wife that he intended to enlist. When Kate heard the news she was horrified by its implications and immediately tried to talk him out of the decision.

  “What do you imagine you can do that a million others can’t?” she demanded.

  “I’m not sure,” William replied, “but all I can be certain of is that I must do what my father or grandfather would have done given the same circumstances.”

  “They undoubtedly would have done what was in the best interest of the bank.”

  “No,” William said firmly. “They would have done what was in the best interest of America.”

  PART FIVE

  1941-1952

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Abel studied the news item on Lester, Kane and Company in the financial section of the Chicago Tribune. With all the space devoted to the probable consequences of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he would have missed the brief article had it not been accompanied by a small out-of-date photograph of William Kane, so out of date that Kane looked much as he had when Abel had visited him in Boston more than ten years before. Certainly Kane appeared too young in this photograph to fit the journal’s description of him as the brilliant chairman of the newly formed Lester, Kane and Company. The article went on to predict: “The new bank, a joining together of Lester and Company of New York and Kane and Cabot of Boston, two old established family banks, could well become one of the most important financial institutions in America. As far as the Trib could ascertain, the stock would be in the hands of about twenty people related to, or closely associated with, the two families.”

  Abel was delighted by this particular piece of information, realizing that Kane must have sacrificed overall control. He read the news item again. Even so, William Kane had obviously risen even higher in the world since they had crossed swords, but then so had Abel, and he still had an old score to settle with the newly designated chairman of Lester, Kane.

  So handsomely had the Baron Group’s fortunes prospered over the decade that Abel had repaid all the loans to his backer and honored every original letter of the agreement, thus securing 100 percent ownership of the company within the stipulated ten-year period.

  By the last quarter of 1939, not only had Abel paid off the loan, but the profits for 1940 had passed the half-million mark. This milestone coincided with the opening of two new Barons, one in Washington, the other in San Francisco.

  Though Abel had become a less devoted husband during this period, caused as much by Zaphia’s unwillingness to keep pace with his ambitions as by anything else, he could not have been a more doting father. Zaphia, longing for a second child to occupy her more fully, finally goaded him into seeing his doctor. When Abel learned that, because of a low sperm count, probably caused by sickness and malnutrition in his days under the Germans and Russians, Florentyna would almost certainly be his only child, he gave up all hope for a son and proceeded to lavish everything on her.

  Abel’s fame was now spreading across America, and the press had taken to referring to him as “The Chicago Baron.” He no longer cared about jokes behind his back. Wladek Koskiewicz had arrived and, more important, he was here to stay. The profits from his thirteen hotels for the last fiscal year were just short of $1 million and, with his new surplus of capital, he decided the time had come for even further expansion.

  Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

  Since the dreadful day of September 1, 1939, on which the Nazis had marched into Poland, later to meet the Russians at Brest Litovsk and once again divide his homeland between them, Abel had been sending considerable sums of money to the British Red Cross for the relief of his homeland. He had waged a fierce battle, both within the Democratic party and in the press, to push an unwilling America into the war even if now it had to be on the side of the Russians. His efforts so far had been fruitless, but on that December Sunday, with every radio station across the country blaring out the details of the Japanese attack to an incredulous nation, Abel knew that America must now be committed to the war. On December 11 he listened to President Roosevelt tell the nation that Germany and Italy had declared war on the United States. Abel had every intention of joining up, but first he had a private declaration of war he wished to make, and to that end he placed a call to Curtis Fenton at the Continental Trust Bank. Over the years Abel had grown to trust Fenton’s judgment and had kept him on the board of the Baron Group after he gained overall control in order to keep a close link between the Baron group and Continental Trust.

  Curtis Fenton came on the line, his usual formal and always polite self.

  “How much spare cash am I holding in the group’s reserve account?” asked Abel.

  Curtis Fenton picked out the file marked “Number 6 Account,” remembering the days when he could put all Mr. Rosnovski’s affairs into one file. He scanned some figures.

  “A little under two million dollars,” he said.

  “Good,” said Abel. “I want you to look into a newly formed bank called Lester, Kane and Company. Find out the name of every shareholder, what percentage they control and if there are any conditions under which they would be willing to sell. All this must be done without the knowledge of the bank’s chairman, Mr. William Kane, and without any mention of my name.”

  Curtis Fenton held his breath and said nothing. He was glad that Abel Rosnovski could hot see his surprised face. Why did Abel Rosnovski want to put money into anything to do with William Kane? Fenton had also read in The Wall Street Journal about the merging of the two famous family banks. What with Pearl Harbor and his wife’s headache, he too had nearly missed the item. Rosnovski’s request jogged his memory—he must send a congratulatory wire to William Kane. He penciled a note on the bottom of the Baron Group file while listening to Abel’s instructions.

  “When you have a full rundown, I want to be briefed in person, nothing on paper.”

  “Yes, Mr. Rosnovski.”

  I suppose someone knows what’s going on between those two, Curtis Fenton thought to himself, but I’m damned if I do.

  Abel continued. “I’d also like you to add to your quarterly reports the details of every official statement issued by Lester’s and which companies they are involved with.”

  “Certainly, Mr. Rosnovski.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Fenton. By the way, my market research team is advising me to open a new Baron in Montreal.”

  “The war doesn’t worry you, Mr. Rosnovski?”

  “Good God, no. If the Germans reach Montreal we can all close down, Continental Trust included. In any case, we beat the bastards last time and we’ll beat them again. The only difference is that this time I’ll be able to join the action. Good day, Mr. Fenton.”

  Will I ever understand what goes on in the mind of Abel Rosnovski? Curtis Fenton wondered as he hung up the phone. His thoughts switched back to Abel’s other request, for the details on Lester’s stock. This