Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-02

i. tNA AaAR VI Htll-NVHSClUuenGSAs he
must have inspired the confidence OF
his employer, John d. Barry, and prob
ably was brought into close touch with
many men of southern birth engaged
in business in the south who had set
to work vigorously to repair the for
tunes that were impaired by the civil
war; The understanding has always
been that when Mr.. Ryan came to New
York he brought with him assurances
of business, of financial trusts, given
him by some Of the southern merch-
ants and fnanclers, and It has always
been presumed that much Of his earlier
successes and some of his later
triumphs were made possible by the
association with him OF southern fnan-
ciers and the intrusting to him Of
southern capital He was a Wall street
broker when only twenty-one years Of
age, having opened an office here in
the spring of 1872. That very act is
typical of Mr. Ryan's business career.
Almost every young man who comes
to New York hoping to be financier
or banker goes here and there be-
seeching friends to secure him en-
ployment as clerk in some bank or
brokers' office or in some place where
finance is the business. But Mr..
Ryan, not overconfident, nor in any
way showing that he had dared to
venture because he was ignorant, new
ertheless was confident of himself suf-
ficietly to open his own office. Proba-
bly, he had assurance from his southern
friends of sufficient business to make
1t certain that he could pay his way.
He did pay his way, so well that two
years later he was able to buy a seat
upon the stock exchange and then he
became an active broker.
A man of average talent, one with
no ambition other than the making of
money, would have been satisfied to
have continued as a broker, finding
sufficient profit in his commissions:
but Mr.. Ryan had always been inspired
by something greater than the mere
love of money. He recognized its
power, and that if man is to achieve
greatly he must either have money
himself or must be able to command
it; but mere money, of and in itself
had no attractions for Mr.. Ryan, be-
cause he. was not mastered by the
passion of avarice. He was one of
those who in the early eighties fore
saw what was to be the development
of the United States. He has been
sometimes called taciturn man, al
though that description of him is not
really accurate. Sometimes when he
was at leisure and was in the mood he
spoke of the coming development of
the resources of the United States, |
amazing his friends sometimes with
what seemed to be prophetic vision. |
as he described the opening of the coal
and iron wealth, the unification of the
railway systems and especially the per-
fecting of the railway systems of the
south and the immense development |
of the west, the reaching out of rail-
ways across praries and the coming of
the sturdy peasantry of Europe to sub
due the prairies and the forests
to cultivation.
Anticipating Opportunities
Mr.. Ryan was also one of the first
to understand the possibilities that
were in the transportation of passen-
gers in such cities as New York and
and it was doubtless through
his early comprehension of the mag
nificent opportunities that New York
city offered that he was brought into
association with the late William C.
and what afterward came To
be known as the Philadelphia syndi-
cate That was in the closing days
Of Mr.. Cleveland's first administration
as president, in which Mr.. Whitney
served as secretary of the navy. Just
as Mr.. Whitney and Mr.. Ryan were
perfecting their plans for the consoli-
dation of the street railways of New
York. Mr.. Frank L. Sprague was DEM
onstrating the capacity of the electric
current, operating through newly in
vented apparatus, to propel street
cars.
~AAs ieSdh saw lHe enormous DOSSi-
bility that was in that use of electric
lty. and with steady, always silent and
secretive, but certain progress, he, act
Ing with Mr.. Whitney and others at
last consolidated the various street
railway systems of New York. He was
found at the council table. in the COM
mittee room, in the directors offices.
to be, first of all, man of extraordin-
ary inventive capacity in the sense
that he was able to plan to perfect a
way for securing the desired end.
1t was also seen that he, like all the
greater executives and financiers, had
a power Of intense concentration. He
did not show that power, as Mr.. Gould
did, by tearing into infnitesimal bits
sheets Of paper until the floor around
him was whitened as though with
snow. or as Mr.. Morgan does, by pac-
Ing rapidly back and forth smoking in
finite tobacco, or as Mr.. Rockefeller.
behind the mystery of a closed door,
for Mr.. Ryans equipoise is perfect and