Chapter 228: Founders Rising
At the end of the letter, Ricky returned to the idea guiding the association’s expansion: it should make members stronger without making them dependent on its leadership for every decision.
Marek read the letter twice before replying.
He agreed with the three strategies but warned that some members would resist changes that increased their immediate costs. Ricky’s response was brief. They did not need every member to change at once. They needed to demonstrate that sensible improvements could strengthen a business rather than weaken it.
During the following weeks, the association implemented the recommendations gradually.
Representatives met bankers to discuss commercial credit and the difficulties faced by smaller manufacturers. Members shared their financing needs, while Tom compared lenders and identified potential partners. The association also began collecting documented examples of unfair competition and commercial intimidation.
On the labor side, several factories agreed to review their conditions and experiment with improvements. Participation remained voluntary, and results varied. Some businesses could afford more generous arrangements than others, but even cautious members began discussing safety and worker retention as business concerns rather than matters to ignore.
It was not a revolution.
It was a series of small changes, each designed to make the next one easier.
For Ricky, that was precisely the point.
While Marek concentrated on expanding the association, Tom Murphy received a different set of instructions from the Central Directorate.
Tom held two important positions within the Syndicate. He served as head secretary for Membership and Enterprise Relations, managing the association’s records and commercial relationships, while also directing Treasury and Financial Analysis.
The combination made him particularly useful. He understood the businesses joining the network, the money they needed, and the financial institutions that might help them grow.
Ricky wanted him to look beyond the organization’s immediate needs.
His orders covered petroleum, steel, automobiles, chemicals, and investment banking. Tom was to study their financial condition, ownership, production capacity, commercial relationships, and prospects for expansion. He was also to identify investment opportunities and establish relationships with firms whose long-term growth might benefit the Syndicate.
Ricky knew petroleum would become central to transportation and industry, automobiles would transform commercial life, and steel and chemicals would remain essential to manufacturing and infrastructure.
But knowing which industries would grow did not reveal which individual investment would succeed, how much capital he could safely commit, or how a particular company would respond to competition.
He therefore instructed Tom to distinguish between established businesses, promising firms, and speculative ventures.
Among the petroleum companies on his list were Standard Oil of New Jersey and Standard Oil of California, along with the Royal Dutch Shell group. Ricky recognized the first two by the names their future corporate descendants would eventually make famous, but Tom was to investigate the actual companies operating rather than confuse their present identities with later names.
The steel sector required similar attention. United States Steel already occupied a formidable position, while Bethlehem Steel was important to the industrial and infrastructure ambitions Ricky intended to pursue.
In automobiles, Ford Motor Company was an obvious candidate for closer examination. General Motors was also on the list, though Tom was instructed to study its corporate structure and financial position rather than assume its future success was guaranteed.
DuPont represented another area of interest, particularly as industrial chemicals became increasingly important to manufacturing.
Finally, Ricky directed Tom to investigate Goldman, Sachs & Co.
The investment banking partnership had operated for decades, but Ricky saw value in establishing a relationship before the firm reached the scale he remembered from the future. He wanted Tom to explore a possible investment, determine whether an acceptable arrangement was available, and assess whether the firm might become a useful financial partner.
Tom understood that these were not ordinary instructions for a young organization’s treasury department. The Syndicate could not simply purchase influence over major corporations, and many opportunities would remain inaccessible without substantial capital, suitable introductions, and convincing commercial credentials.
Nevertheless, he began his research.
He reviewed financial statements, followed business reporting, gathered information from commercial contacts, and examined relationships between banks and industrial firms. Where possible, he sought introductions through legitimate business channels. Ricky’s instructions were to invest selectively, preserve liquidity, and avoid allowing the promise of future wealth to compromise immediate financial stability.
By late summer, Tom had developed a clearer picture of the industries Ricky wanted to monitor. Some opportunities appeared attractive, others required more investigation, and several were beyond the organization’s present means.
Ricky accepted the report without complaint.
They were not trying to purchase the future in a single transaction.
They were positioning themselves to participate in it.
By midsummer, the association’s growth had begun affecting the Syndicate’s other departments.
The Department of Logistics and Supply benefited from the increasing volume of legitimate business passing through the network. Association members required deliveries, warehouse space, freight arrangements, equipment, and reliable transport. The department coordinated with Callahan Logistics, Callahan Express and other partner companies, matching commercial needs with available services.
The distinction between the organizations remained important. Callahan Logistics and Callahan Express retained their own accounts, responsibilities, and commercial identities. The department coordinated the Syndicate’s broader supply requirements, while the association connected independent businesses that could benefit from one another.
Neither arrangement required every participant to join the Syndicate.
That separation protected the companies’ credibility and made it easier to recruit businesses seeking better commercial opportunities without joining a secret organization.
Williams Industrial & Railway Works was also beginning to benefit.
Michael Williams had resisted expanding too quickly. Instead, he concentrated on repairs, metal fittings, warehouse equipment, machinery components, and railway maintenance. The company’s first contracts were modest, but successful deliveries brought repeat customers and recommendations.
As the association expanded, new opportunities appeared. A workshop needed replacement equipment. A distributor wanted stronger warehouse fittings. A transport operator required repairs to freight-handling machinery. None of these jobs was extraordinary alone, but together they provided a dependable stream of work.
Michael continued investing in tools and personnel as demand justified it. The company still lacked the capacity to manufacture locomotives or undertake major railway construction, but it was becoming a credible industrial concern.
The planned Port Chester–New Haven corridor remained a long-term objective rather than an accomplished railway. Patrick and Sean Williams continued studying freight movements, industrial access, and improvements to existing railway connections. The association’s growing membership gave them better information about where businesses needed transport and where delays or unnecessary transfers increased costs.
The project was becoming more practical because the commercial network could identify real demand.
Meanwhile, the Department of Communications and Signals expanded its infrastructure.
Telegraph connections were established or improved between important offices in Lower Manhattan, Midtown, the Bronx, White Plains, and Pound Ridge. The system accelerated routine reporting and departmental coordination, reducing delays caused by carrying every ordinary message by hand.
Gary Schuffman and his staff developed procedures for handling messages, confirming their origin, and routing information to the appropriate office. Sensitive information received additional protection, while pigeon messages remained useful as backups or for particular field requirements. Critical communications could still be entrusted to couriers who knew how to deliver them securely.
The new infrastructure did not make the Syndicate invulnerable. Telegraph lines could be interrupted, messages mishandled, and an expanding communications network created more points requiring protection. But it allowed the organization to coordinate operations more effectively than before.
The central estate remained the communications hub, and the Central Directorate retained authority over major intelligence matters involving several departments. Routine business, however, could increasingly be handled by the departments themselves.
Evelyn encouraged that division of responsibility. Directors were expected to learn their duties, maintain proper records, and make decisions within their authority instead of forwarding every minor question to Ricky.
The organization was becoming larger, but it was also learning to operate without requiring its founder’s personal attention at every step.
Not every department had reached the same stage. Legal Affairs and Government Relations remained without a permanent director, while Science and Technology still depended heavily on Ricky’s oversight. Marek’s connections to John Purroy Mitchell and the Fusion reformers provided an opening into political circles, but they were not a substitute for a dedicated legal and government-relations department.
Ricky was aware of the gaps.
He simply refused to fill them with unsuitable appointments for the sake of appearances.
The Syndicate’s commercial expansion was visible to an increasing number of business owners. Its intelligence operations were designed to remain invisible.
John Caldwell had received confidential instructions from the Central Directorate to expand his department’s understanding of Larry Mulligan’s underworld organization. The objective was to discover its internal relationships, sources of income, loyalties, and connections to Tammany Hall.
The operation required patience.
Caldwell selected field agents who could plausibly pass as ordinary gangsters and arranged for them to approach different parts of Mulligan’s network. They were not to provoke fights, announce an unfamiliar organization, or attempt to seize territory. Their immediate task was to establish credible identities, observe, and report.
Some agents learned how local crews obtained money and supplies. Others studied relationships between gang leaders, saloon keepers, political intermediaries, and men who provided favors or protection. The information was fragmented, and Caldwell refused to treat every rumor as fact.
Larry’s organization had its own discipline and safeguards. New faces attracted attention, and an agent who appeared too curious could destroy months of preparation in a single conversation.
The agents moved slowly, sometimes spending weeks establishing ordinary routines before attempting to learn anything sensitive. Their reports passed through established communications channels and were assessed by Caldwell’s department before reaching Ricky when the findings warranted his attention.