The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-15
TO-DAY HE IS RoUNDLY ABUSED
SURFACE INDICATIONS POINT TO-
WARD STANDARD OIL CROWD
As the Power and influence Which,
Within the Past Two Months,
Turned the Tide Against Him.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal.

Wllillu Tie e4pcIlSnCc VI SCAlci dtAof
than the violent change of attitude toward
John Pierpont Morgan and his works that
has taken place in a period of eighteen
months. Very few newspaper readers. by
the way, are apt to know that Mr.. Morgan's
first name is John. His signature is j.
Pierpont Morgan. and there has doubtless
been a good deal of speculation as to what
the "J' stood for. While John is a good
name. there Is nothing mighty in IL, and
one might easily suppose that the -
stood for more pretentious name, say Ju-
| piter. Less than two years ago Mr. Nor
| gan was acclaimed the "Morganizer OF
| prosperity" Magazines and periodicals
| were full of him and his gigantic achieve
| ments. At the height of his fame he was
| a man bigger than his country in popular
| estimation, having gained for himself In
| ternational prominence. Europe stood in
| terror of his annual visits and speculated
| on the occasion of each succeeding one as
| to what next Mr.. Morgan would buy. The
! last thing that he did buy abroad was
controlling interest in Great Britains mer-
| chant marine, which he afterwards put into
| the International Mercantile Marine Com
| pany. Within the past few weeks Mr.. Nor
| gan has been caricat ured in a most brutal
manner, one New York paper representing
him as the corsair of finance attired in the
garb of pirate. The entire press of the
country, which was recently extravagant
in it's praises of everything he did, is now
almost unanimous in condemning him for
the imitation, for which he was more or less
responsible, especially in the case of the
United States Steel Corporation. The name
of his firm has been dragged into the United
States Shipbuilding scandal, and even here
In Wall street, where a certain amount Of
loyalty might be expected. the feeling
Thousands of outside stockholders in
the United States Steel Corporation
have protested to their brokers against the
operations OF the Morgan conversion syn
dicete, which has been buying Steel pre-
ferred in the market and converting 1t into
new Steel bonds at an average arbitrage
sion Of 4 per cent. for their trouble. A
paragraph appeared last week in foreign
papers and was reprinted here to the effect
that Mr.. Morgan contemplated taking up
permanent residence in England with the
idea of paying periodical visits to this
country. More recently the report has been
circulated in Wall street that he intends to
retire from active business on the first of
the year. Mr.. Morgan is quoted privately
as earnestly denying this latter report. Mr..
Morgan's friends say that recently he has
become extremely sensitive to criticism.
This could hardly be expected in the case
of man who has figured so prominently in
evitably to more or less hostile criticism.
The cartoons referred to are said to have
offended him greatly: With a certain
ferred to that Mr.. Morgan first achieved
prominence in the financial world by squeez-
Ing the water out of other peoples compan-
les. He was for a number of years the
most successful reorganizer of corporations
that Wall street has had. He
falls under the criticism of having over
capitalized corporations of his own, the
most widely advertised example being the
case of the United States Steel Corpora
tons. 1t has been understood for some
tire from the firm of j. p. Morgan & Co.
on the first of the year. Mr.. Perkins has
been unfortunate in being identified with
some OF Mr.. Morgan's insists.
Speaking of constituencies of men high in
Wall street affairs 20 unfavorable criticism.
Mr.. John d. Rockefeller of all the big finan-
ciers Is, perhaps the least sensitive to any
thing that may be written about him. He
also has been brutality caricatured during
the past few months. but 1t has not dis
turbed his peace of mind in the least. There
has been but one exception to Mr.. Rock
efeller's rule of silence and indifference.
He resented the association of his name
with the Amalgamated Copper Company
and once issued statement disclaiming any
interest whatever in that corporation. He
felt. as friend subsequently observed, that
this Amalgamated Copper business envel-
oped him in his old age in undesirable and
| useless opprobrium.
x x
1t must have been apparent to ordinarily
shrewd observers of financial events that
the collapse Of United States Steel securi-
ties during the past fortnight was due to
something more than mere trade develop
ments. That the conditions governing the
steel trade are less prosperous than they
have been was known to everybody and
price reductions were seen several months
ago to be inevitable. The weakness of the
common stock and the cutting of the divi-
dend rate to 2 per cent were sufficiently ex-
planned by recessions in business, but the
abrupt decline OF more than ten points in
Steel preferred, per cent. stock. within
the short space Of one week was a thing
altogether too violent to reflect existing
trade conditions. 1t is beginning to be par
TALLY realized that fierce struggle has been
going on beneath the surface md IL was
admitted for the first time this week by
well informed Wall street interests that a
change of control OF the United States Steel
Corporation may not be altogether improb-
able, although not likely. There is only
one combination OF interests In the financial
world strong enough to take control in OPP
position 10 the present management of this
gigantic organization and that is the Stand
ard Oil crowd. The question at once pre-
sents itself. What does the. Standard Oil
want with United States Steel?' In answer
to this 1t might be asked, what did they
want with the Colorado Fuel and Iron
Company?" The Rockefeller interests have
gone in for railroads on large scale and il
is one of the theories OF successful rail-
reading that transportation companies
should control their tonnage.
The United States Steel Corporation is
the greatest producer of tonnage in the
world. Its business from the iron regions
TO the Eastern seaboard would support a
railroad. From the fact that the Could
Rockefeller interests formed an alliance
and that the Gould interests are extending
their greater Missouri Pacific system to
the Atlantic scaboard. you find your reason
why the Standard Oil crowd might want
control OF the United States Steel Corpora
ton. IL is believed that the Morgan in
terest in Steel Is now smaller than at any
previous time since the formation of the
company. 1t has been announced officially
that a number OF high salaried officials of
the United States Steel Corporation will be
dropped and that drastic economies will be
introduced In every department. This is
typical Standard OIL procedure. There are
no high priced hgureheads in the compan-
Is pretty we'll understood by this time that
the cutting OF the common stock dividend
to per cent rate for this period was due
/ - ia