DR was struggling to compete with emerging motor bus and electric tram companies and the CLR which were eroding its passenger traffic. To become more competitive, the DR was contemplating a programme of electrification, although it was not financially strong enough to raise the capital to carry out the work on its own. It also had parliamentary approval for a congestion-relieving deep-level line that was to run beneath its existing route between Gloucester Road and Mansion House. By 1898, American financier Charles Tyson Yerkes had made a large fortune developing the electric tramway and elevated railway systems in Chicago, but his questionable business methods, which included bribery and blackmail, had finally drawn the disapproving attention of the public. Yerkes had unsuccessfully attempted to bribe the city council and Illinois state legislature into granting him a 100-year franchise for the tramway system. Following a public backlash, he sold his Chicago investments and turned his attention to opportunities in London. Acquisitions Yerkes' first acquisition in London was the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR). The company had parliamentary permission to build a deep-level tube railway from Charing Cross to Hampstead and Highgate, but had been unable to raise the finance, selling only a tiny fraction of the shares available. Robert Perks, a solicitor for a number of railway companies and Member of Parliament for Louth, had suggested the CCE&HR to Yerkes and the American's consortium bought the company for £100,000 (approximately £ today) on 28 September 1900. Perks was also a large shareholder in Yerkes' next target, the Metropolitan District Railway, usually known as the District Railway or DR. By March 1901, the syndicate had acquired a controlling interest in the DR and made a proposal for its electrification. Yerkes established the Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company (MDETC) on 15 July 1901 with himself as managing director. The company raised £1 million (£ today) to carry out the electrification works including the construction of the generating station and supplying the new electric rolling stock. In September 1901, Perks became the DR's chairman. The Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR) was a tube railway company which had been purchased by the DR in 1898, but had remained a separate financial entity. It had permission to construct a line from South Kensington to Piccadilly Circus, but had not raised the capital to do so. At South Kensington it was to connect to the