Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-05-10
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IArURpAY EVENING. MAY 10. 1894
Poor Business Management.

The statement Of young Ulysses Grant
about the affairs of the firm of which he
was member exhibits a degree Of con.
udine reliance by the Grant family upon
It's managing associate, Ward, which is
amazing even to countryman. Green
ness Is supposed to prevail in the coun-
try, and people who do business In New
York city are reported to be reasonably
sound but 1t seems that 1t only takes
one smart partner to New York firm,
and that the average shrewdness In the
concern Is not up to the average deemed
requisite for the respectable conduct OF a
small business In the country. The
SQUARE truth seems to be that New York
is the place where the lambs and wolves
congregate and lie down together in close
partnerships. The bleating Of the lamb
Ulysses, IT,, is pitiful in the true story
that he tells, so that we cannot smile at
&c, astounding as it seems to be that a
man who has been general of our armies
and president Of our country, should
have been so devoid Of all business
sense, or the sound advice Of friends
with business sense, as to com
nit himself and his family and all
their fortunes to tho unrestrained care
of man who solicited them into associ.
alton with them. II is not so strange
that young men like Ulysses, who is
now but thirty-one, and his brothers
should have been taken in by the fair
promising scamp, but that Gen. Grant,
with all his friends about him, should
have led them into the shambles, Is
surprising beyond expression.
Ward wanted the Grant partnership
because Of the Grant name and influ-
ence, and this much the Grants certainly
knew. That was the chief capital the
general put in the business, and with 1t
Ward roped in the millions of railroad
and other magnates who seem to have
been his customers, The general cannot
avoid the heavy responsibility that
attaches to him for lending his reputa
ton to be thus trodden on without see
ing that only fair trading was done
The articles of the agreement Of th'
partnership were that Ward should dC
all the business. The Grants were o4,'
used ornamentally, save when they wei
sent out TO get in the cash OF thei
cousiug and aunts, their wives an
wiys's fathers.their friends and acQuait
tances. They did big business anon
these people and put III every dollar the
had themselves or could rake up {
their individual amount. They thoug
they were making piles Of none
Ward told them SO. Young Ulyss
thought he was worth 81, 700, 900. Wo
der will never cease, that men in bu
ness could be 50 rashly conidlng, simF
aud ignorant. They had never heard,
seems, even OF the familiar precel
which fordids the putting of all The
eggs into one basket and that a bask
that hung On another's arm. Well, I
family has our sympathy. Perhaps t
government had better put them In t
army. Evidently they will not ell:
where be sure of their bread and butte
except, perhaps, Jesse, who is not ma
ried yet and has that chance Of specul
tion open to him. The old Ulysses it
proposed to put on the retired list as
general with an income of ego, 900 or SC
but as he gets some $4,000 per annu
from the $3.50, 900 salted down for hir
we incline to think that the gener
himself has enough.