The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-01-22
GREAT TRAGEDY OF 1903.
Collapse Of ]. Pierpont Morgan's
Prestige as Trust Builder.
]. D. ROCKEFELLER HIS NEMESIS,

- ~ VOOA04 04A41 AA0 NAM40x0s
One Year Ago, at the Zenith of His
Power, Morgan Was Regarded as
the Marvel of the Age, Heart, Soul
and Body OF the New Finance
Which Was to Control the Worlds
Observation-Disclosures Financially
Ruined by His Enterprises.
No event Of the year equals In genu-
inc Importance the downfall of John
Pierpont Morgan from the most power
full position ever attained by a private
citizen Of the United States or any
other country-a position he occupied
a year ago, when he was at the zenith
of his career as a builder Of trusts
world wide in their operation, says the
New York World. The downfall Of
Charles NJ. Schwab, of much lesser i'm
port, is still so great that in itself it
marks an epoch in the history Of Amer
lean industrialism.
And the part which John D. Rookie
Teller has played in the tragedy Of
Morgan and Schwab, when all Of its
details become fully known. promises
to mark the GROWING achievement of
a career that has never been blocked in
any Of its wide reaching qualifications
by the genius or power of any man or
set Of men.
Enough is known Of what Mr.. Rookie
Teller his done to make it plain that
the collapse of Mr.. Morgan's colossal
power and prestige was necessary to a
realization of Mr.. Rockefeller's ambi-
ton. Whether the downfall of Mr..
Morgan was planned and brought
about by careful m~anipulations, such
as Mr.. Rockefeller employed thirty
years ago to destroy rival oil refners
in Cleveland, or whether a train Of cir
cumstances, 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. /,
A year ago MI. Morgan was regarded
not only in the United States, but in
Great Britain, France, Germany, Aus
tna, Russia and in every corner Of the
world where men of commerce gath
cred, as the real fount Of business wis
dom. He was a genius, the like of
which the world had never before pro-
duced Dr. seen. He had the magic fac
ulty of extracting millions in profits
from things that had escaped the at
tention of the wise fnanciers of all the
previous generations and centuries. All
that ne had to say to the great capital
lists and investors of the world was:
"This thing is good. You can come
into it." and without question or in
vestigation, 81 complete was their re-
lance upon the wisdom Of the Ameri-
can king of finance, they outbid one
another for a chance to pour their mill
lions into the enterprise.
A year ago the newspapers of the
United States and Europe referred to
Mr.. Morgan in this wise:
He is a greater power in Europe than
many of it's kings.
He has completely eclipsed the Roths-
| childs.
His name is a talisman with which to
conjure not millions, but billions.
He Yields more power over more people
than the car of Russia
He is sought by emperors and kings.
The greatest ~financier in all history.
He has more influence than the presi-
n Of the United States.
The most important n man in the
world today.
He controls more capital than any other
man In the universe.
In a single business day he could fill a
subscription for $500, 000, 900 for any enter
prise he would indorse Ind would not be
asked even to explain it.
Contrast these opinions of a year ago
of Mr.. Morgan with those expressed to-
day, and some comprehension of his
mighty fall from an unheard of finan-
cial eminence can be had. Not long ago
a cablegram from London stated that
Morgan's name was anathema among
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 Wall street
when asked as to Mr.. Morgan's present
status downtown said:
"He couldn't sell five dollar gold
pieces for 81"
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 the public standing of a man?
Sifted down, the naked reason is that
within the past year countless men and
women have lost their fortunes in Nor
gan enterprises. Not only private in
vestors, 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 but
for the exposures in the investigation
of the United States Shipbuilding COM