The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-10-24
Hates the Photographer.

The great financier has more than
one popularity. While he hates to be
photographed he has no objection to
being looked at Indeed, he works in
an office that is separated from the
main Morgan offices by only glass
partition. New Workers allude to Nor
gan's office as the glass cage" of
course, any one may enter the main
office, and so peep at the august per-
sonage is not difficult to obtain. How
ever, this is about as near to Morgan
as the average man can get. He is dis
t1nctly an autocrat OF course, it is not
impossible to secure an interview with
him-that Is, to sit for a few minutes
in his private office-for an interview
generally consists in the visitor doing
all the talking, while Mr.. Morgan list
ems until the end of his visitors re-
marks, when Mr.. Morgan says, NO"
Sometimes he says Yes" but those
two words seem the entire Morgan
vocabulary so far as interviews are
concerned. When he does not want to
answer question direct he closes his
mouth like steel trap and will not
answer at all. He is short and vigor-
GUS. and his manner can put a man out
of his office quicker than any prize
fighter on record could manage it,
about it, and no chance that it will not
be heard. He is aggressive to the point
of tierceness. He impresses you as a
man who must have forced his way by
unquenchable energy. 1t seems impos-
sible to believe that he controls as he
does, the destinies Of more enterprises
than any other living man, with the
willing consent of the people interested.
Won't Have a Secretary.
A glance through the office of the
magnate will impress his traits of char
acter on the mind: Every one hops
through the hoop when Mr.. Morgan
moves. The routine business of the of
flee is pursued like clockwork. The
quiet, gentle tones of the employees show
that they are not used to any exhibit
ton of self-optnion. 1t is evident they
are not paid so much to think as to
obey.
One popularity of Mr.. Morgan is he
Will not employ private secretary. He
has been questioned many times on
this peculiar notion, but never has Civ
en- any satisfactory answer to the in
quiries. He transacts an enormous
amount of business himself, and die
tates a large volume. of correspondence,
but the letters which the average man
of large enterprise usually confines to
his private secretary, Mr.. Morgan con-
fines to no one. He attends to them
himself. Though this involves a great
deal of work, Mr.. Morgan never COM
plains about it. 1t is a good thing for
him he does not have to attend to the
whole of the Morgan correspondence,
or even look after the detail of sorting
1t, for this is more than any one man
could attend to.
The Morgan mail is something stu
pendous. In fact, it involves the run
ming of small postoffice in the Nor +
gan offices. Seven men are employed
in this department alone. The mail
arrives all day long The first batch
fills two wagons. Three men
are kept busy all day sorting the let !
tiers and putting them into their re-
spective boxes to be carried in turn by /
boys to the different heads of depart |
ments. Each letter is stamped in the !
Morgan office, showing the exact time /
it was delivered there. Any delay can
be traced to its source without much
trouble
The filing of these letters after they
are read involves great deal of work,
which, with the copying of the an
sWers, fills out the most elaborate pri-
Vate postal system in the world TIE |
A~NtNiS etiC lllSl 'llNlutI IIIlO IOIblSll |
and domestic; then they are subdivid-
ed, there being compartments for each
country and each state in the Union.
Then there is classification of their
business relation-letters of inquiry, |
letters of instruction, letters pertain
ing to specific subjects, etc.
The whole system is perplexing at
first glance, but the men in charge, az
a moments notice, can procure from
the recesses of the enormous file room
any letter that ever has been written
to the Morgan firm on any subject
1t has been figured out that at the
price of real estate in the
Wall street district Mr.. Morgan's store
Oh letters costs him in the space they
occupy yearly rental of about $15,-
700. AS real estate values increase and
The mail grows larger, it is hard to
ell where this will stop. Several let
-er brokers from time TO time have ap
preached the firm of Morgan & Co.
With view to buying their letters, but
III offers have been declined. One mar
S currently reported to have made an
offer of 100000 for the stock of old
etters on hand-outside OF the active
business letters that must, of course,
De kept-but he could not strike a
bargain.
Handicapped by 100000.