The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-10-19

III ALL street is a narrow thorough
w fare with church at one end
and a river at the other. Half
way between stands the office Of J.
Pierpont Morgan & Co. one Of the
greatest individual financial forces in
this country.
1t is not an imposing Office. Screens
shade the windows. Clerks stand in
rows behind desks and copy figures
representing sums that commonly are
staggering in size but that pass there
as the records Of ordinary transactions.
The small investor looks with awe at
the marble front when he passes by.
The public knows dimly that there the
financial puise beats strongest. but nei-
Their the small investor nor the public
and by the public is meant the whole
people of the United States and not the
people of New York alone-knOws how
the blood is supplied to keep the pulse
at work
From time to time there have been
stories of the inside workings of some
Of the great Morgan plans. At long in
tervals the firm Of Morgan has given
an mixing of its methods. Most of the
operations are held secret Only the
results are revealed. The combined
glamour Of mystery and money is
around it.
Last week some light was turned on.
Daniel lie Roy Dresser, former presi-
dent Of the Trust Company Of the Re
public and brother-in-law of George
W. Vanderbilt. told under oath the sto-
~ of the promotion of the ship building
trust of which such great things were
predicted in the prospectus, and which
came to such a disastrous end. He was
testifying in the proceeding to have the
temporary receiver Of the company
made permanent. For the first time the
real methods Of the men who have man
Ufactured securities as other men man
utacture wall paper were made known
in detail. Doubtless there are many
bankers, brokers and others who have
to do with finance who know of these
methods. Certainly the flock of pro-
motors who centered on the financial
district when the great bull market
began after President ATcKinley's first
election, know Of them. But the people
did not know Of them. The men who
buy and sell shares in the market, the
men who have money to invest, who
have gone into enterprises similar TO
the ship building fiasco, who have spec
ulated, who have put in money legiti-
mately, did not know.
Why should they? They make up
the public; they are the raw me-
terial to be squeezed into profits. In
tht great name Of O. p. Mother peO-
pies mOney-the other people are not
TO know They are to provide.
The revelations Of Dresser shocked
the country and shocked the world
They pointed out a procedure, so crafti-
ly and skilfully engaged in with the
snip building trust, that the conclusion
is necessary that practice made it per-
feet. The integrity Of the whole scheme
Of Industrial fOtatiOn was impugned
What was done once so smoothly, GER
tainly must have been done before. The
honest investor, the man who wants to
buy, stands today in doubt. If Dress
er's story is true, he has no chance.
And the country, despite denials, took
the story as true.
There was some laughter over it in
the financial district-the laughter that
Is flung after the man who is worsted
in bargain, the laughter that comes
TO the credulOus person who is fIeeced
There was some comment that Dresser
should have exposed the game. There
was some wonder whether it would
have any effect on the market. There
was no regret and no conversation on
the honesty Of the proceeding. Wall
street is case-hardened. The operation
of getting money without working for
it tends to dull the sensibilities.
Herewith is the story as sworn to
by Dresser and substantiated by vari-
GUS others, simply told. so that every
man and woman. every boy and girl
who longs to get rich overnight by spec
ulatiQn, who has invested and won, NAV
know how one promotion scheme was
carried Out-one promotion scheme
which, old observers say, is but a type
Of many.
The era OF prosperity that began in
the fall Of 1896 and rose to high tide
three years later was fOstered by u
gigantic bull market in the securities
listed on the stock exchange and sold
elsewhere. The country went money
mad Millions were poured into Wall
street, and millions we're made. Nearly
every stock went up. It was as easy
to make money as it was to breathe.
All that was necessary was to buy and
take profit. Walters, cabmen. Office
boys. laborers, clerks, merchants
everybody dipped into the golden
stream flowing from the church to the
river on Wall street and bought out
handfuls Of profit.
1t was also the era Of combination.
Industries were consolidated. Trusts
were made Of all sorts Of factories and
all sorts Of commodities. Clerks In
the state offices in New Jersey, where
most Of the combinations were incOr-
pOrated, grew weary Of inscribing
giant rows Of figures on the records.
The prevailing idea was to capitalize
everything at any eXOrbitant number
Of millions that might dictate and sell
the stock to the people.
During these days Of frantic exploita-
ton the shipbuilding trust was
planned. The idea was to combine the
leading ship yards of the country and
control the shipbufIding business.
Lewis Nixon, who had a ship yard at
EliZabethpOrt, y. j., and Daniel lie
Roy Dresser, then president Of the
Trust Company Of the Republic, were
the moving spirits.
The details of the plans Of promoters
for financing this trust, their excursion
after foreign capital their struggles
here, while Interesting in themselves,
have but a secondary connection with
the story of the real promotion and
need not be elaborated here. The true
eNemplidcatiOn OF the high finance be-
gan when Charles NJ Schweb bought
the Bethlehem Steel company of Beth
lehem, Pa. a concern that made much
Of the governments armOr plate. This
steel company was under option a year
and a half ago to Kuhn. Loeb e Co.
and the Morton Trust company Of New
York. The plan was to sell it to the
Vickers' Sons & Maxim company OF
England. There was an option which
carried sn agreement to sell the stock
to the Americans for $3.50 q share,
they to unload a profit on the Eng
hshmen, of course.
It was thought on both sides that
the deal would go through. Still. the
owners OF the bethlehem company are
business. men. and thew cast about for