The Labor enquirer., 1883-11-03
BILLION llREIsM.
The Giant Money King Whose
Sombre Shadow is Cast
Before.

5 Fruit OF Speculation, Dividend
High Rates and Stock
: Watering.
! Growth Of Vast Fortunes Hand-in
Hand With Pressure Upon
the People,
As soon as he got to be millionaire
he was seized with q mad ambition i
become billionaire.n
Once upon time, old John Jacol
Astor was tottering along Broadway
near Union Square, when friend in mi
company pointed him out and said
"That ancient is millionaire he owns
q million dollars" ] had never before
up to that time Of my boyhod, heard o.
such a being, and 50 he was Of course i
curiosity. "a millionaire million
1 dollars all his ownw He was wonder,
| full spectacle, aAre there any more Of
them 2" was asked. to which my friend
replied. "I'ye heard of but half dozen
in the countryside Stephen Girard of
Philadelphia, dead John McDonough of
New Orleans and two or three others in
this town."
It seems but few years since thisdia-
logue took places yet it was before Com
modore Vanderbilt and A T. Stewart
had piled up their first million. What
monstrous crop of millionaires we have
grown since then. Is seen by the fact
that the World, a few weeks ago, pub
lisl,ed the names of two hundred of
them living in this city, and it appears
from letters sentt the Worlds editor
that many Of them were left out of the
list. The city of Boston, according to
the Globe, can show up over one hundred
of these millionaires and you have no
difficulty about hunting up many more
of them, beside decuple millionaires and
quinquagintuple millionaires, in San
Francisco, st. Louis, Chicago, Philadel
tphia, Cincinnati, and other places.
Besides our long string of millionaires
we have now here the centuple million
aire and the bi-centuple millionaire land
perhaps there is truth in the remark
made about the king of them all, thar,
aas soon as he got to be millionaire, he
was seized with a mad ambition to be-
come Millionaire.
It was shown in the last number of
this paper that, in the way things are
going, snch an ambition may easily be
entertained outside of the madhouse;
for, if the eighty millions left by the old
Commodore to his heir seven years ago,
have since then swelled to two hundred
millions in w. H. VS. hands, it is easy
to compute how many years it will take,
at the past and present rate of increase,
to raise his spoils to Thousand millions,
or, in other words, to make him a bill.
lionaire. To raise this pile, he does not
need to live as long as his father lived.
1t is a startling thing, at which those
who know the least will laugh the
loudest. .....s ..-a.
The growth of the past years is the
fruit of speculation, dividends, interest,
stock-watering, high rates and luck
all of which are still in full play at his
will, though he has resigned the presi-
dency of his roads.
In a recent letter Gath says: l
/ Williams fortune is at least $500, O,OOO,-
600. He told some of his about four
years ago that his income was SIC, ,0O0, 900
year. He has never been beaten by
any stock operator, and has made every
one of them who tackled him squeaP
"Can you tell me-" asked, "where
Vanderbilts money, mean the old
mans money, is now invested"
"He has $45,0O0,000 in government
bonds left. He has $2O,OOO0OO in Lake
Shore and New York Central, probably
more of it in Lake Shore. He has $10,-
100000 in Northwestern stocks and
bonds. He has stock in the Red Line
and other freight companies and the
Wagner Company. He has something
in Michigan Central"
From what hear, William and his
grown-up sons do not always look
through the same glasses. Williams
father left the boys large sums of money,
in general 10000 shares apiece. This
has brought them for several years past
an annual income of $160,0O0. But to
Cornelius Vanderbilt, the old Commo-
dore's eldest grandson, he left 10000
shares, giving him an income of almost
$4,000 a year. These incomes, being
independent of their father, the boys
have used as they pleased. II
So much for "Gath," who is perhaps
not far wrong. William H. Vanderbilt,
says the World, enjoys an income esti-
mated at $l5, 100000 year. In#.April
last, when he held SAC, zoe, 900 in govern
ment fous, his quarterly check for inter
est upon them was $4O0, 900, 30 that his
annual interest upon that amount of
government bonds for the present year
is 81 100000.
Everybody knows how several heavy
layers Of his fortune we're reared, and
the way in which the New York Cen
tral, Hudson River and Harlem rail
roads were consolidated and their capi-
tai watered. Everybody knows Of the
way in which he has regulated his
rates for fares and freights.