The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-09-07

According to the New York Evening
Post, the defeat of John w. Gates and
his associates by James c. Osgood,
a comparatively unknown man, outside
of Wall street in the contest for con-
troll of the Colorado Fuel and Iron
Company, has called attention to the
fact that several other aggressive cap
italists have recently been forging to
the front, unnoticed by the public. Be
sides Osgood. there have lately appear
cd with comprehensive schemes F..
Augustus Heinze, who has for some
time been a serious stumbling block
to the Amalgamated Copper Company;
David Fl. Moffat of Denver. who pro-
jected and raised the capital to build
new road between Denver and Salt
Lake, in order to break the monopoly
of the Hartman and Gould interests
between those points; H. Clay Pierce
of st. Louis. who is the controlling
factor in the growing ST. Louis and
San Francisco and Mexican Central
railroads; and r. C. Kerens of the
same city, who is allied both with Mr..
building a railroad from Ogden to Los
Angeles. OF those mentioned, Osgood
and Heinze came from New York,
Pierce got his start in the Pennsylva-
MIA oil regions, and KerenS was a St.
Louis coal man. Moffat has spent
most of his business career in Colo
RADIO. Heinze is the youngest of the
hot, e..
and Osgood are of middle age; while
Nloffat and Kerens are somewhat older.
They have had long business expert
ence. and are both we'll known in their
particular lines.
James c. Osgood has been about
Wall street over a dozen years. Per-
sonally he is short and stocky, about
forty-fVe years of age, with black hair
and heavy moustache. slightly tinged
with gray. His face generally carries
smile, even when perusing a diatribe
of the Gates faction. According to one
well acquainted with his career, Os-
good went West about 1880 from
Brooklyn for the purpose of accepting
position as bookkeeper with a small
coal-mining company in Iowa. When
within fifty miles or so of his destina-
ton, it is said, the young bookkeeper
was told to step off and take the place
VI a DOOhheeper at Drancn once OF
the company. The former bookkeeper,
it Was averred, was subject to spells
OF delirium tremens, and was at that
time incapacitated for his usual labors
being chained up on ain island in the
river. Osgood made rapid advance
ment, and not long afterwards he and
an associate bought out the business
with small outlay of cash and with
the balance in notes. A few years later
found him engaged in coal mining OPP
erations in Colorado, and his wealth
rapidly accumulated.
He and his friends got control of the
Colorado Fuel Company, and when a
scheme was proposed in 1892 for the
merger of this with the Colorado Coal
and Iron Company and several other
Colorado concerns. Osgood was reput-
ed to be worth several million dollars.
Osgood, meanwhile, had established an
Office in New York. In the first direc-
tory of the consolidated company, uE-
der the present name, there were such
men as e. ]. Berwind, Ernst Thai
mann, Paul Morton and Henry r. VOL
colt A member of the Stock Exchange
in referring to the first trading in the
new stock on the Exchange, said to-
day that one of the men mentioned
told Osgood that as the head of the
company he should try to make the
stock look attractive" and let the pub
lie see the merits of the company.
This was DONE" said the broker.
"A pool was formed and up went the
stock. l was told that the director