The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-15

nothing more striking in the financial
world within the experience of this
generation 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.. Morgans
first name is John. His signature is J.
Pierpont Morgan and there has doubt
less been a good deal OF speculation
as to what the u" stood for While
John is a good name there is nothing
mighty in it, and one might easily sup
pose that the 'J' stood for a more
pretentious name. say Jupiter. Less
than two years ago Mr. Morgan was
acclaimed the 'Morganizer of pros
perity." Magazines and periodicals
were full of him and his gigantic
achievements. AT the hight of his
fame he was a man bigger than his
country in popular estimation, having
gained for himself international prom
inence. 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 a controlling interest in Great
Britain's merchant marine. which he
afterwards put into the international
Mercantile Marine Company. Within
the past few weeks Mr.. Morgan has
been Caricatured in most brutal man
ner, one New York paper representing
him as the cOrsair of finance attired
in the garb of a pirate. The entire
ly eXtraVa giant in its praises of every
thing he did, is now almost unanimous
in Condemnng him for the imitation for
which he was more or less resDonsi-
BILE, especially in the case of 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
certain amount of loyalty might be eX-
pected, the feeling against Mr.. Morgan
is intensely bitter. Thousands of out
side stockholders in the United States
Steel Corporation have protested to
their brokers against the operations of
the Morgan conversion syndicate which
has been buying steel preferred in the
market and converting it into new steel
bonds at an average arbitrage profit
of 10 to IA points, besides a commission
of 4 per cent. for their trouble.
paragraph appeared last week in for
eign papers and was reprinted here, to
the effect that Mr.. Morgan contem-
plated taking up permanent residence
in England with the idea of paying per-
riodical visits to this country. More
recently the report has been circulated
in Wall street that he intends to re-
tire from active business on the first
of the year. Mr.. Morgan is quoted
privately as earnestly denying this lat
ter report. Mr.. Morgan's friends say
that recently he has become extremely
sensitive to criticism. This could hard
ly be expected in the case OF man
who has figured so prominently in the
public gaze, thereby being exposed in
evitably to more or less hostile criti-
cism The cartoons referred to are said
to have offended him greatly With a
certain amount of cynicism the fact
may be referred to that Mr.. Morgan
first achieved prominence in the f1nan-
cial world by squeezing the water out
of other peoples companies. He was
for a number of years the most sue
cessful reorganizer of corporations that
Wall street has ever had. He now
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 Corporation. 1t has been under
stood for some time that Mr.. George
w. Perkins will retire from the firm of
J. p. Morgan g. Co., on the first OF
the year. Mr.. Perkins has been un-
fortunate in being identified with some
of Mr.. Morgan's misfit1.
Speaking of sensitiveness of men high
in Wall street affairs to unfavorable
criticism, Mr.. John D. Rockefeller or
all the big fnanciers Is perhaps the
least sensitive to anything that may
oh 10
been brutally caricatured during the
past few months, but it has not dis
turbed his peace of mind in the least.
There has been but one exception to
Mr. Rockefeller's rule of silence and
Indifference. He resented the associa-
ton of his name with the Amalgamat-
ed Copper Company and once issued
statement disclaiming any interest
whatever in that corporation. He felt,
as a friend subsequently observed, that
this Amalgamated Copper business en-
veloped him in his old age in unde-
sirable and useless approbrium.
It must have been apparent to or
dinariIy shrewd observers of financial
events that the collapse of the United
States Steel securities during the past
fortnight was due to something more
than mere trade developments. 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 dividend rate to
2 per cent. were sufficiently explained
by recessions in business, but the
abrupt decline of more than 10 points
in Steel preferred, a 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 partially realized
that a fierce struggle has been going
on beneath the surface. and ii was
admitted for the first time this week
by well informed Wall street inter-
ests that a change of control Of the
United States Steel Corporation may
not be altogether improbable. although
not likely. There is only one combi-
nation of interests in the financial
world strong enough TO take control
in opposition to the present manage
ment of this gigantic organization and
that is the Standard Oil crowd The
question at once presents itself, What
does the Standard Oil want with United
States STEELE" In answer to this it
might be asked, What did they want
with the Colorado Fuel and Iron Com
pany?" The Rockefeller interests have
gone in for railroads on a large scale
and ii is one of the theories of sue
cessful railroading that transportation
companies should control their tonnage.
The United States Steel Corpora ton
IS the greatest producer of tonnage in
the world. It's business from the iron