Middle West Utilities Company & Samuel Insull

Middle West Utilities Company and Samuel Insull The fraud case of Middle West Utilities Company can almost entirely be contributed to one man: Samuel Insull. At the age of 22, Insull moved to America to work as a secretary to Thomas A. Edison through a recommendation from his employer, E.H. Johnson (Columbia University Press, 2010). The young secretary worked for the inventor for a decade during which time he played a large role in the creation of several of Edison’s early companies including Edison General Electric Company, known today as General Electric Company (Childs I, 1932). In the formation of this company, Insull was appointed vice-president in charge of manufacturing as a reward by Edison for all of the hard work he had put in over the years (Boman, 2001). After a short time in this position, and with Edison’s help, he was made the head of the Commonwealth Electric Company in Chicago (Childs I, 1932). Five years later, Insull formed the Middle West Utilities Company through a series of mergers and buy-outs (Columbia University Press, 2010). Before the formation of Middle West Utilities Company, electricity was a “high-cost luxury” which only the very wealthy could afford (PBS.org, 2011). Through the acquisition of all of the competition in the area, Insull’s company monopolized the electricity market in Illinois as well as neighboring states (Britannica Biographies, 2010). Holding this power gave him and his company the ability to set the prices at what ever they wished (PBS.org, 2011). Samuel Insull broadened the market by selling to anyone and everyone he could (Hutchinson 's Biography Database, 2003). Prices were set low enough to enable small businesses and households to obtain electricity, and what was once only seen as a luxury soon became commonplace (PBS.org, 2011).
Insull battled it out with the city in order to buy the gas company in Chicago. After many bitter words and attempted black mailings, he was successful and his company now

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