A Trip to Louisville The most serious difficulty confronting Cowperwood from now on was really not so much political as financial.

In building up and financing his Chicago street-railway enterprises he had, in those days when Addison was president of the Lake City National, used that bank as his chief source of supply.

Afterward, when Addison had been forced to retire from the Lake City to assume charge of the Chicago Trust Company, Cowperwood had succeeded in having the latter designated as a central reserve and in inducing a number of rural banks to keep their special deposits in its vaults.

However, since the war on him and his interests had begun to strengthen through the efforts of Hand and Arneel--men most influential in the control of the other central-reserve banks of Chicago, and in close touch with the money barons of New York--there were signs not wanting that some of the country banks depositing with the Chicago Trust Company had been induced to withdraw because of pressure from outside inimical forces, and that more were to follow.

It was some time before Cowperwood fully realized to what an extent this financial opposition might be directed against himself.