Elizabeth then spoke her first words of love to GiovannL
“Get we a chair, Mr. ScarlattL rn help you… ICU be quicker that way.”
And, indeed, it was.
no next several weeks were spent educating Giovanni in the legal and
corporate structure of the American industrial organization. Just the facts
devoid of theory, for Giovanni supplied his own philosophy. This land of
ol>portunity was for those just a little bit quicker than the other
opportunists. The period was one of enormous economic growth, and Giovanni
understood that unless his machines enabled him to own a part of that
growth, his position would remain that of a servant to masters rather than
a master of servants. And he was ambitious.
Giovanni set to work with Elizabeth’s help. He designed what old Albert
Wyckhain and his executives thought was a revolutionary impact-extrusion
press that could turn out corrugated carton sides at a phenomenal rate of
speed and at a cost approximating a 30 percent saving over the old pr9cess.
Wyckham. was delighted and gave Giovanni a ten-dollar raise.
While waiting for the new machinery to be tooled and put into assembly,
Elizabeth convinced her father to ask Giovanni to dinner. At first, Albert
Wyckham. thou$ht his daughter was playing a joke. A joke in poor taste for
all concerned. Wyckham. may have made fun of the Italian but he respected
him. He did not wish to see his clever wop embarrassed at a dinner party.
However, when Elizabeth told her father that embarrassment was the last
thing she had in mind, that she had met Giovanni on several occasions since
the company picnio-finding him quite amusing-her father consented to a
small family dinner with suddenly new misgivings.
Three days after the dinner Wyckham , s new- machinery for corrugated
carton sides was in operation and on that morning Giovanni Scarlatti did
not show up for work.
31
None of the executives understood. It should have been the most important
morning of his life.
It was.
For instead of Giovanni, a letter arrived at Albert Wyckham’s office, typed
by his own daughter. “Ibe letter outlined a second machine for corrugated
carton sides that made Wyckharn’s new assembly totally obsolete.
Giovanni’s conditions were frankly put. Either Wyckham assigned him a large
block of company stock plus options for purchase of additional shares based
upon current values, or he would take his second design for corrugated
carton sides to Wyckharn’s competitor. Whoever possessed the second design
would bury the other. It didn’t matter to Giovanni Scarlatti, but he did
feel it would be better kept in the family as he was formally requesting
Albert’s daughter in marriage. Again, Wyckham’s answer did not really
concern him, because Elizabeth and he would be united as man and wife
within the month regardless of his position.
From this juncture on, the rise of Scarlatti was as rapid as it was
clouded. The public facts indicate that for several years he continued to
design newer and better machinery for a number of paper-producing companies
throughout the Midwest. He did so always with the same conditions-minor
royalties and shares of stock, with options to buy additional shares at the
prices of stock prior to the installation of his new designs. All designs
were subject to renegotiation of royalties after five-year periods. A
reasonable item to be dealt with in reasonable good faith – A very
acceptable legal expression, especially in light of the low royalty rates.
By this time, Elizabetlfs father, exhausted by the tensions of business
events and his daughters marriage o ,that wop,” was content to retire.
Giovanni and his wife were awarded the old man’s entire voting stock in the
Wyckharn Company.
This was all Giovanni Scarlatti needed. Mathematics is a pure science, and
never was this more apparent. Already possessing representation in eleven
paper firms in Illinois, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, and owning pat-
tents on thirty-seven different operating assemblies, Giovanni Scarlatti
called a conference of the firms accountable to him. In what amounted to a
slaughter of the uninformed, Giovanni suggested that a desirable course of
32
action was the formation of one parent organization with himself and his
wife as the principal stockholders.
Everyone would, of course, be well taken care of, and the single company
would expand beyond their wildest dreams under his inventive genius.
If they didn’t agree, they could take his machines out of their factories.
He was a poor immigrant who had been deviously misled in his initial
negotiations. The royalties paid for his designs were ridiculous in light
of the profits. Also in several cases Individual stocks had risen
astronomically and by the terms of his contracts those particular firms had
to make his options available at the previous stock prices. When one came
right down to it, Giovanni Scarlatti was a major stockholder in a number of
established’paper companies.
Howls were heard in boardrooms throughout the three states. Impetuous
challenges were Bung at the arrogant Italian only to be muted by wiser
legal counsel. Better a merging survival than isolated destruction.
Scarlatti might be defeated in the courts, but it was quite possible that
he might not be. In that latter event his demands could be excessive, and
if rejected, the cost of retooling and loss of supply would plunge many of
the firms into disastrous financial territory. Besides Scarlatti was a
genius, and they all might do rather well.
So the mammoth Scarlatti Industries was formed, and the empire of Giovanni
Merighl Scarlatti was born..
It was as its master-sprawling, energetic, insatiable. As his curiosity
diversified, so did his companies. From paper it was an easy leap into
packaging; from packaging into hauling and freight; from transportation
into produce. And always a better idea came along with the purchas&
By the year 1904, after twelve years of marriage, Elizabeth Wyckham
Scarlatti decided that it was prudent for her and her husband to go east.
Although her husband’s fortimes were secure and growing daily, his
popularity was scarcely enviable. Among the financial powers of Chicago,
Giovanni was the living proof of the Monroe Doctrine. The Irish were
disagreeable, but this was intolerable.
Elizabeth’s father and mother died; what few social loyalties that remained
for her went with them. The consensus of the households of her lifelong
friends was
33
described by Franklyn Fowler, recently of Fowler Paper Products:
‘That black wop may own the mortgage on the club’s building, but we’ll be
damned if we’ll let him become a memberl”
This general attitude had no effect on Giovanni, for be had neither the
time nor the inclination for such indulgences. Neither did Elizabeth, for
she had become Giovanni’s partner in far more than the marriage bed. She
was his censor, his sounding board, his constant interpreter of shaded
meanings. But she differed from her husband regarding their banishment from
the more normal social pursuits. Not for herself, but for the children.
Elizabeth and Giovanni had been blessed with three sons. They were Roland
Wyckham, age nine; Chancellor Drew, eight; and Ulster Stewart, seven. And
although they were only boys, Elizabeth saw the effects the family’s
ostracism was having on them. They attended the exclusive Evanston School
for Boys, but except for their daily school associations, they saw no boys
but each other. They were never asked to birthday parties but always told
about them on the following days; invitations proferred to their classmates
were invariably coolly received by calls from governesses; and, perhaps
most cutting of all, was the repetitive ditty that greeted the boys each
morning as they arrived:
“Scarlatti, spaghettil Scarlatti, spagbettil”
Elizabeth made up her mind that they should all have a fresh start. Even
Giovanni and herself. She knew they could afford it even if it meant going
back to his native Italy and buying Rome.
Instead of Rome, however, Elizabeth took a trip to New York City and
discovered something quite unexpected.
New York was a very provincial town. Its interests were insular, and among
those in the business world the reputation of Giovanni Merighi Scarlatti
had taken a rather unusual twist; they weren’t sure who he was other than
the fact that he was an Italian inventor who had purchased a number of
American companies in the Nfidwest.
Italian inventor. American companies.
Elizabeth found also that some of the more astute men on Wall Street
believed Scarlattis money had come
34
from one of the Italian ship lines. After all, he’d married the daughter of
one of Chicago’s best families.
New York it would be.
Elizabeth arranged for a temporary family residence at the Delmonico, and
once settled, Elizabeth knew she had made the right decision. The children
were bursting with excitement, anticipating new schools and new friends;
and withiri a month Giovanni had purchased controlling interest in two
failing, antiquated paper mills on the Hudson and was eagerly planning
their joint resurrection.
The Scarlattis stayed at Delmonico’s for nearly two years. it wasn’t really
necessary, for the uptown house might have been completed much sooner had