Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-02-05
whitaker WRIGHT
AND HIS METHODS
British Financial Promoter De-
MED TT ~ Were Unlawful.
q, ,ssEp HIMSELF WITH MORGAN

Famou. swindIer Was Proud of Ne
ing In the same Rank with Noted
..-t..n FtnancIers what He
Thought of Our Great ind"s'ri"'
combInations-uis American coun-
sell, yi.. of His Conviction.
"What happened TO me might happen
any day TO the men who stand at the
head of any Of the great American IN
dustrlal combinations, said the late
Whitaker Wright. the British promoter
and financier. TO James Creelman last
March. at the time Of his arrest IN New
York. saws the New York World.
"Take the United States Steel corpora
tion. with It's hundreds OF millions OF
stock. Suppose that the greatest en-
ternrise I'm the world should fail and Its
stock shrink $5OO,OOO,0OO in value
Would the people who lost their money
then have J. Pierpont Morgan arrest
ed? Would he be TO blame because
they bought watered stock at more than
II was WORTH
at is fortunate for directors of Amer
lean trusts that they are not under the
companies laws of England. You could
not float your industrials in London. II
would be impossible TO organize COM
panies there on the lines followed III
America. The laws would prevent it.
There is no difference between what l
did in England and what your indus
trial COMPANIES are doing in America, v
OF all get rich quick" swindlers that
have brought disaster TO thousands
Whitaker Wright was easily the great
est of his kind He always denied that
his methods were unlawful and prided
himself on being in the same class as j.
| Pierpont Morgan and Charles NJ
Schwab az financial promoter.
| He was born in Cheshire, England, in
1916. His parents, who were in com
| Portable circumstances, gave him O
good education, and he qualified as al
expert mining engineer and showed spe
+ cial aptitude as a chemist. In 1861
/ after his fathers death, he came tc
America and was employed in mines in
the west as an asSayeT. He removed
to New York in 1850 with fortune Oh
tanned as a mining prospector.
He returned to England in 1889 anC
conducted financial operations on suct
vast scale as to earn for him the
reputati ton of q Monte-Christo. His
lavish expenditures daZZled the British
public, and he was regarded for /
time as the greatest financial geniu,
of the age. He organized company
after company. He formed the LondoI
and Globe Finance corporation, lin
tied, to take over the various securities
of mining corporations in which Ii
was interested. In December 1900
this corporation failed and carried ruiz
to many homes in Great Britain anC
crippled several prominent business
houses. Many members of the Londoi
stock exchange We're ruined by the fail
ure. Thirteen banking and brokerag
firms failed as a result of the collaps
of his company.
Wright came to America again II
March, 1908. and on March II was ar
rested as he was leaving the boat, II
had booked as NJ. Andreoni. The al
rest was made on a criminal charg
in connection with the conduct of tn
London and Globe Finance corpora
ton. limited. Extradition proceeding
resulted in his starting back to Eng
land in the custody of two English de
tectives.
Il am very deeply shocked by til
tragic death following so closely hi
conviction" said Samuel Untermyel
who was his counsel during his fgh
against extradition, land cannot he'll
thinking him entirely victim of mis-
fortune. His conviction under the Gil
cumstances is good illustration of tn
difference in the criminal law of Grea
Britain and the United States Eng
land and Germany hold those respons
BILE for the conduct of corporations t
much stricter accountability than W
do.
, MIR. Wright would not have bee
, convicted in America Many men VIII
, now hold their heads high in the t1nar
cial district of this city (New York
would be panic stricken if the sam
laws that govern finance in Grea
Britain were suddenly to apply her,
If such laws did obtain, investors her
would be much safer"