The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-06-17
A New Figure in Finance.


which the control Of the Equitable
stock changed hands, and stories of
the rise of a new: monetary power be-
gan to come out Of New York, men in
financial circles in the west and north
west began to ask one another, about
Ryan. It is fact that to majority
of those supposedly familiar with the
money-market leaders Of the east, the
name was unfamiliar. Yet Thomas f.
Ryan has been an important figure in
financial New York for number Of
years.
1t is interesting to note the person
atty Of this man, who bears the Hiber-
MAN name and had Virginia for his
birthplace; who has never sought pub
LEFTY of any kind, yet has been NOV
ing spirit in many a large affair. While
such names as Morgan, Gould, Harri
man, schiff, Speyer and, more recently,
Hyde and Alexander and their asso-
ciates, have become familiar words to
newspaper readers everywhere, Ryan
has never occupied a position where he
would command attention outside of
L
actly as he wished it-that he purposely
refrained from accepting any position
that would bring the limelight of pub
licity upon him. Evidently his is the
temperament occasionally to be found
in men Of large affairs, by instinct
averse to posing. There are men Of
that stamp in Minneapolis. .,.s
A glance at the Directory of Direc-
tors in T b e j ournal library shows
Mr.. Ryan identified with no less than
twenty-seven companies Of great size.
In these he appears only as director,
and is said to have at some time or
other declined the presidency Of nearly
all Of them. But apparently he does
not belong to the new school of "pro-
fessors Of directoring' who give little
attention to details and use their posi-
tions only for personal advantage, for
it appears that Mr.. Ryan has for years
worked harder than the average Wall
street clerk or subordinate, and is ac-
lively concerned with the management
Of the different companies. Only in
the Morton Trust company, the Con.
solidated Tobacco company, or "to.
bacco trust'' and the mammoth Bank
Of Commerce with it's $25,O00.000 CAPT
tai does he appear as an officer, and
then only as vice president, but in those
companies he has long been a main in
fuence and little has been done with
out his counsel. This illustrates thai
man IS real Importance in the worlc
is not always measurable by the number
of titles he carries, or the space his
doings fill in the columns of the press.
Mr.. Ryan is said to rank among the
richest men Of America, and now that
he has moved into a place Of first mag
nitude in night, and his name is
linked with big financial undertaking
it will hereafter suggest wealth to the
ordinary reader; but, had he never
emerged from his shell he would have
been as rich. When the average Ameri
can thinks Of wealth the names Rookie
Teller, Astor and Vanderbilt are most
likely to occur to him, but while these
represent colossal fortunes, there are
many other aggregations of wealth Of
which little is heard. For instance
there is E. H. Green, whose identity il
almost entirely lost in that Of Hett5
Green. but who may one day move
quickly to the front, and there j.
Silent Smith, who owns the big enc
of the Milwaukee road and other things
but who is seldom heard of because h.
just Saws wood and. in the Ian