St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1903-08-05
The Discrediting OF Morgan.

The Discrediting of Morgan.
Enough has already happened in Wall
street to rob the name OF !. p. Morgan
of about two-thirds of its recent potency
in the financial world. Some one has
been at the trouble of figuring up the
shrinkage from highest prices in the
stocks with which he has been especially
identifed-United States steel, Erie,
Southern railway, Reading information
al mercantile marine and one or two
others; and it is found to amount to
some 5000, 100000. The shrinkage in
the stocks OF the steel and the shipping
trusts alone is nearly $400.00O,000.
These trust stocks are particularly Nor
gan creations, and they found market
on the strength of his name.
He has been the guiding and strirn-
ulating spirit of the whole imitation
movement. He commanded unexamped
confidence among investors. Anything
with his name upon it went" People
bought his stocks for investment on mere
faith in Mr.. Morgan as a conservative,
wise and reliable financier, whose inter-
ests as a commissioned underwater
were secondary to the general invest
ment interest of the country. His under
writing syndicates thus came to COM
mand a ready market for the great
quantity of new securities they had
undertaken to sell, and their profits were
accordingly enormous. He was every
where regarded as conservator rather
than destroyer Of values, fictitious or
other. In Europe he was looked upon
as power that was irresistible in the
world of finance and industry, and he
could bring out no scheme related to the
commercial ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the United
States which would not cause grave ap-
prehension among foreign nations. But
this prestige of his has suffered greatly
from the recent liquidation which has
left many OF his stocks kicking about the
street at quotations of few cents on
the dollar. The name of Morgan no
longer suffices to float security. 1t has
become rather reason why the investor
should look into the enterprise little
more closely than in ordinary cases.
His fall is from higher perch and nearly
as far down as that of Jay Cooke, the
first 6nancier of the boom period of the
early'70s.
Some plain talk is beginning to be
heard on this matter. Thus Henry
Clews, the well-known broker, is quoted
in signed statement to the New York
American:
The present sensational decline in val
ues and the failures and wholesale embar-
easements it has occasioned can only
proceed from one thing-the enormous
and deplorable DISQUALIFICATION OF
industrials. More than SIS, 900, 900
is represented in the largely fictitious
capitalization OF industrial combinations
| within the past five or six years. Never
in the history of trade and finance have
such enormous sums been represented
as in capitalizing concerns such as the
United States steel company, the North
ern securities company, the International
mercantile marine company, Amalgam-
ated copper and hundreds of smaller cor
porations. The day of overcapitalized
corporations, in the opinion of all con-
servative and well-intormed judges, is
over once and for all. / am afraid the
Morgan school and financial schools oil
similar type have closed for long
| vacation.
1t will be seen that this unprecedented
manufacture and sale OF bogus capitali-
cations are spoken of as of the Morgan
school of finance. That is right. The
name of Morgan has become woven mex
tricably into as reckless and disastrous a
process of initiation as ever afflicted the
country.
Mr.. Morgan no doubt still remains a
great fnancier, particularly in point o.
ability to build up vast private for
tune for himself. But he is evidently not
now fnancier for investors to tie to
and certainly not one entitled to any
claim of gratitude or regard from the
American people. There has probably
never been any intention on his part tc
mislead the investing public, but in sc
far as that is true Just so far is it true
that he intended to bleed the people al
large for profits on the watered capita
of his monopolistic schemes in industry
II it proves in the long run that buyers
of his stock, rather than the people a
large, have been bitten, it will be becaus
of no fault of his Springfield Republi
, can.