President Theodore Roosevelt heard that a famous poet was working for the subway.
“A poet can do much more for this country than the proprietor of a nail factory,” said the president, and he had the poet transferred to an easier job at the customs house.
Word of this incident got out to Wallace P. Hammer, the legendary nail factory magnate.
“Damn you, Theodore Roosevelt!” he shouted. “I’ll teach you to insult my line of valuable fastening products!”
Hammer ordered the production lines halted, and his workers to write poetry all day.
Roosevelt quietly apologized, and then shot a moose.