The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-03
MR.. MORSE'S EXPLOITS
BIG FINANCIAL DEALS IN WHICH
THIS GENTLEMAN FIGURES.
He Is a Rich Man, but There Is n sus-
picion that He Is Not Playing
Lone Hand.

/ New York Letter in Philadelphia Press.
Our own domestic industrial and business
I situation seems TO be in excellent condition,
money is plentiful. we are receiving enor-
nous additions TO our stock of gold both
| for Alaska and from mines in the United
I States, and there are in this city many evil
/ dences Of the enthusiasm and courage OF
/ capital to engage in large undertakings.
! This tendency is especially illustrated by
\ the activities Of Charles w. Morse who Is
/ constantly doing some new thing that fixes
| public attention upon him. In this CORE
/ spOndence within the past two months re-
\ ports have been made of various sensa-
tionaI exploits Of Mr.. Morse involving the
employment of great capital and limiting at
purposes of magnitude. No sooner has Mr..
Morse achieved something of public inter-
est than we discover that he has had at
the same time other matters under way so
that day after day there is record Of some
new exploits of his. For instance, a week
or ten days ago, announcement was MADE
of his single-handed purchase of one of the
oldest banks in New York, next-doOr
neighbor almost of the veteran Chemical
those which Mr.. Morse has bought within
the last year or eighteen months. To-day
the understanding is that he has captured
another one. small bank uptown upon
the West Side, and that he has been sue
| cessful in securing a block, no one knows
how large of stock of what has been IN
some respects the most phenomenally sue
cessful bank in New York.
On Wednesday President Hadley, OF Yale,
conferred the degree of LII. ID. upon the
president of Hampton Institute, OF N1r-
ginia, and explained that dignity last night
to friends who met him in this city, by
saying that President Frissen was chief
among those who had achieved great things
in the way of instructing the negro and
leading him forth from the conditions and
environment occasioned by two hundred
years Of slavery.
But it is safe to say that many of the
men in New York who measure success by
material standards would if they spoke
frankly, declare that President Frissell's
brother, who may by right also be called
president, had accomplished almost a. diff
cult q thing in another vocation, and one
which We're tinanciers and capitalists TO
confer honorary degrees giving formal dig
nifty to achievement would have justified
the offering TO him of the highest.
BANK FOR WOMEN.
He became president of a little bank with
100000 capital and a modest home on upper
Fifth avenue, near the cathedral, and de-
signed at first chiefly for the accOmmoda-
ton of women. 1t was for the accounts of
the wives of the wealthy men who live in
that vicinity. accounts representing allow
ances for household expenses and pin
money that this bank was established. The
founders builded wiser than they knew. al
though there were many men OF experience
who, when this bank opened its doors, pre-
dicted for 1t disappointment. 1t now pays
enormous dividends. Upon a capital Of
100000 il supports nearly 100000 of de-
pOsits, although these deposits have Incl
dental support in a heavy surplus. The divi-
dends are reported to be the largest earned
by any bank in New York or in the United
States. If man wants a share OF its stock
and can find any one who Will sell 1t, he
must pay about 800 for 1T, a quotation
that is more than matched by only one 9TH
er bank in New York. 1t Is into this bank
that Mr.. Morse is reported to have crept,
and if he has he must have paid fancy
price for the stock, although that would
not deter him. His principle is this, 'If you
see what you want buy it.
Some time ago, a few months after the
Morton Trust Corporation was established
upon the basis of the banking house of
Vice President Morton and the late George
Bliss. its stock in one day jumped from 500
to 81 100 Everybody argued that somebody
wanted that stock so greatly that he
willing TO pay 800 more than the quotation
at which it had stood the day before. Ev-
erybody suspected Mr.. Morse the man
and a later revelation discovered that this
suspicion accurate. Among the other
sensational things they are saying of Mr..
Morse is this. that he put up the stock of
But the probabilities are that if it be true
that he has bought into the Fifth-avenue
Bank ne has overmatched the record he
made when he bought into the Morton
Trust Company We are prepared now to
hear of Mr.. Morse's purchase into any bank
in New York
WHO BACKS MORSE?
Rich as Mr.. Morse is, through inheritance
and his own brilliant achievement. no one
believes that he possesses individually the
many millions that have been necessary for
him to buy banks right and left, to buy and
finance telephone companies, to underwrite
tobacco trusts and to scoop in the entire
transportation business between the State
of Maine and the rest of the United States
The impression has been growing that Mr.
Morse represents a pool possibly a blind
pool made up of some very rich politicians
just as Mr.. Whitney at one time was pre-
sumed to represent in New York city. and
in certain lines a combination made up of
Philadelphia and New York capital.
If that suspicion be correct, then Mr.
Morse is bearing the same relation to very
rich politicians that Mr.. Morgan bears TO
influential groups of bankers
To-day the report is in circulation that it
is not one but several groups that have
chosen and blindly trust Mr.. Morse their |
leader. and that he has brought into as
ISOLATION that powerful group of politicians
and capitalists interested in electricity
whose headquarters are at Cleveland, and |
that they are to be associated with him in
his telephone enterprises.
1t is interesting to hear who sit |
apart and attempt TO anayZe Mr.. Morses |
action and fathOm his purposes discuss the |
telephone proposition which he has in mind |
and which, in fact, ne has frankly con- |
fessed TO be nothing less than defiant COM |
petition, OutspOken challenge against /
the original telephone monopoly. The i'm |
preston is that il is a more difficult propo- |
sition than the one which the Hartman |
Schim group on the one hand and the Hill |
Morgan on the other are now facing which /
must be determined before there can be |
peace in the railroad system in the North |
west. Were any other man than Morse or |
one of his ability and vast resources to un- |
dertake this proposition. he would be |
deemed worth of commission de lunatico
and yet this is only one OF several purposes |
he and those associated with him have in
mind involving vast investment of capital |
and supreme faith in the continued indus |
trial and commercial supremacy of the |
United States. Mr.. Morse. on the one hand
and the two or three great communities of |
interest established among bankers here on
the other have not the slightest apprehen-
sion about continued prosperity, COM
mercial and industrial activity, and they
are justified in their faith by the enormous
investments they are making not only in
New but all the limited