ABSTRACT
One of the several supernatural powers of a genuine Midas is the ability to detect a false Midas. So, early in 1930 Andrew Mellon "prudently," says his biographer with the modest understatement characteristic of his subject, "prudently disposed of his holdings in Insull's Middle West Utilities." Midas Sam Insull was still believed by almost everybody to be the genuine article, the man who had built and lived at the top of a pyramid of solid gold, or at least a reasonably good facsimile. The divination of the prudent Mr. Mellon may have come through the new science of electronics, or it may have emanated from some mysterious element inherent in the office of Secretary of the United States Treasury. The legislation is the federal Securities Exchange Act. It came higher than anything Jay Gould ever bought from lawmakers. The Columbian Exposition of 1893 was to be the greatest demonstration to date of the wonders of illumination by electricity.
