Ponzi's Scheme_ The True Story of a Financial Legend - Mitchell Zuckoff [57]
Grozier was outraged. The claim was a bald-faced lie from a politician with only a casual regard for the truth, but the publisher feared that his years of support for the Irish would be undermined without an equally fierce response. He sat down in his cubbyhole office on Washington Street and wrote an extraordinary challenge that he published on the front page of his newspaper, headlined in bold type:
A CORDIAL INVITATION TO EX-MAYOR CURLEY
Here Is an Opportunity for Him to Prove His Interesting Charges Against the Boston Post and Edwin A. Grozier, Its Editor
Below that, Grozier recounted Curley’s scurrilous charges, then made his offer: “If Mr. Curley has a scintilla of evidence to back up his charges of improper conduct, I hereby ask him to produce it for free and conspicuous publication in these columns. If he or anyone else can produce proof to show that Edwin A. Grozier or The Boston Post, as conducted by Edwin A. Grozier, ever received at any time, anywhere, anyhow, from Lord Northcliffe or his representative $250,000 or $1, or any sum or other consideration, directly or indirectly, to influence its attitude . . . Edwin A. Grozier will take pleasure in presenting to James M. Curley his entire interest in The Boston Post.” Grozier was betting his fortune, his legacy, everything he had spent three decades building. All to defend the honor of his name and his beloved paper.
Curley had no evidence; but that was never the point. The wily politician had borrowed a strategy from his friend the pugilist John L. Sullivan: Lead with wild punches to keep a dangerous opponent from delivering an early knockout. Knowing he could not provide proof of his charge, Curley tried to turn Grozier’s invitation to his advantage. He offered to debate the Post publisher at any time or place of Grozier’s choosing on the question of whether Grozier was a paid agent of the British government. Grozier ignored the proposal. It was as if Curley had proposed a debate on whether Grozier beat his wife. No matter what he said, Grozier could not win. Even if he was tempted to try, he was no public speaker, certainly not in Curley’s league.
Grozier could take satisfaction in knowing that all but the most rabid Curley fans would recognize that the Post had carried the day. Curley would surely have produced evidence, humiliated Grozier, and seized the newspaper if he could have. His diversionary tactic of a debate challenge could only be seen as a concession.
Though Grozier won the round on points, the timing of the episode suggests it was a costly victory. Never blessed with robust health, the sixty-year-old Post publisher had spent his entire adult life trying to emulate the dawn-to-midnight work ethic of his newspaper mentor Joseph Pulitzer. In late spring 1920, in the weeks that followed his face-off with Curley, Edwin Grozier suffered a complete physical collapse. He was hospitalized in intensive care, fighting for his life, unable to play any role at the Post. At the same time, the Post’s managing editor was away for the summer. Their roles needed to be filled, and the job fell to the man who held the titles of assistant publisher and assistant editor.
For the first time in his life, at thirty-two, Richard Grozier had a chance to escape his father’s shadow. He was in charge.
As spring gained confidence, so did Ponzi’s investors. By May, the twenty-dollar guppies were still welcome, but more often they were dwarfed by thousand-dollar whales who saw 27 School Street as prime feeding grounds.
Louis and Charlotte Blass had met Ponzi a year earlier, when he was a poor clerk, and had watched from a safe distance as he parlayed his big idea