The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1904-01-22
DECLINE and FALL
OF The TRUST KING
Collapse Of j. P. Morgan Is the
Most Notable Event Of
the Year 1908.
FORTUNE is UNlMPAiRED
He Didn't Use His Own Cash in His
Big Deals, and Made Money Out
of the Cash He Handled
Belonging to Others.

SlSN1ti ~ NSl VI LII
year 1903 equals in genuine importance
the downfall of John Fierpont Morgan
from he most powerful position ever
attained by a private citizen of this or
any other country-a position he occu-
pied one year ago, when he was at the
zenith of his career as a builder of
trusts, Worldwide in their operation.
The downfall of Charles M. Schwab,
of much lesser import, is still so great
that in itself it marks an epoch IN the
history of American industrialism.
And the part which John D. Rookie
Teller has played in the tragedy of
Morgan and Schwab, when all of it's
details become fully known, promises
to mark the GROWING achievement of a
career that has lever been locked in
n Of it's w~ide-reaching ramihcations
by the genius or power of any man or
set of men.
Rockefeller Did 1t.
Enough is known of what Mr.. Rookie
Teller has done to make it plain that
the collapse Of Mr.. Morgan's colossal
w and prestige was necessary to a
realization of Mr.. Rockefeller's ambi-
ton. Whether the downfall of MI.
Morgan was planned and brought about
by careful manipulations, such as Mr..
Rockefeller employed thirty years ago
to destroy rival oil refiners in Cleve-
land, or whether a train Of circum-
tance unfortunate to Mr.. Morgan
but inevitable under the laws Of
finance, after all-were simply seized
upon as a means to gain an important
end, is not quite clear yet. There are
many who believe that the train Of "un-
fortunate circumstances" We're origin
ated within the high walls of No. rs
Broadway for the specific and definite
purpose of laying bare the spot in the
Morgan makeup and then attacking it
to prove it's v~ulnerability.
The Fount of Wisdom.
A year ago Mr.. Morgan was regarded
not only in this country, but in Great
Britain, France, Germany, Austria,
Russia, and in every corner of the
world where men Of m gath
cred, as the real fount OF business wis
dom. He was a genius, the like of
which the world a never before pro-
duced or seen. He had the magic fac
ulty Of extracting millions in profits
from things that had escaped the at
tention OF the wise financierS of all the
previous generations and centuries.
All that he had to say to the great cap
italists and investors of the world was:
This thing is good; you can come
into it," and without question or in
vestigatiOn, so complete was their reli-
nee upon the wisdom of the American
hAlio VI AiiSi>> NAA"N AN oolplu III
another for a chance to pour their mil
lions into the enterprise.
A Year Aso-and Now.
/ 4 year ago the of this
country and Europe referred to Mr..
Morgan in this wise:
He is a greater power in Europe
than many Of its kings"
H has completely eclipsed the
Rothschilds."
His name is a talisman with which
to c%onjure not millions, but billions
"He Yields more owe over more
people than the car of Russia"
He is sought by emperors and
kings"
The greatest fnancier in all his
tory"
He has more influence thar the
president of the United States"
THE most important one man in the
world today"
H controls more capital than any
other man in the universe"
I'm a single business day he could
fill a subscription for $500, 900, 900 for
any enterprise he would indorse and
would not be asked even to explain it,
Less than a year ago w. II. Stead
wrote:
ITO us in England Pierpont Morgan
achieve in the world Of and
finance what cannot yet be attempted
in the political sphere. He is knitting
nations together; he is weaving into q
web the many colored strands Of di-
verse national lives; in the roaring loon
Of life he uses Atlantic liners as shut
ties and railways as threads. He Is one
century,"
A King Among Kings.
Even the king of England and the
r,roro~ Of (Sar,,,o nv, ~ t,lrr
with Mr.. Morgan in private for hal,
an hour and both showed toward him a
personal consideration usually v,uch-
Safed only to great SOvereigns. Mr.
Morgan was at that time the world
greatest sovereign of money.
Contrast these opinions of a yea~ age
Of Mr.. Morgan with those expressed to-
day and some comprehension Of his
mighty fall from an unheard Of f1nan-
cial elninence can be had. Not long age
q cablegram from London stated tina
MOrgan'S name was anathema amone
the English financiers and investors
who twelve months ago had regarded
him as the greatest genius of the age
A man of high standing in Wal
street, when asked as to Mr.. Morgan's
present status downtown, said:
He couldn't sell So gold pieces al
s4."
That OF course, was an ~eXtravagant
way of putting it. but it exhibits the
general temper Of the downtown dis
trict.
Why such a mighty revolution in thu
public standing Of a man?
Thousands Lost Their Ali.
Sifted down, the naked reason is the!
within the past yea countless men and
women have lost their fortunes in Nor
gan enterprises. Not only private. in
v%estors, the outside public, but great
institutions, trust companies. banks
insurance companies, their presidents
directors and other officers have seen
great sums of their money shrink and
fade away into shadows.
These losses would doubtless have
been taken with more equanimity bu,
for the exposures in the investigation
Of the United States Shipbuildine
company scandal, which have created
something more than a suspicion
throughout the financial district thai
Mr.. Morgan's firm may have employed
the same methods in the United States
Steel corporation and the International
Mercantile Marine (the Atlantic
Steamship trust) that were
by the Shipyards investigation. And
in this condition 1t should be said thai
some hold the belief that the Ship.
yards Investigation is only part of a
huge subterranean engine devised and
constructed In the inner office of John
D. Rockefeller to pull down Mr.. Nor