Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1905-06-12
ATTEMPTED MURDER M0NIED 0LIGARCHY [
WALL Street journal ON "SEN.
ate OF AMERICAN FINANCE"
More Than Onc-fifth of the Total
Wealth of the Country Controlled
by Fifty Men. A Remarkable
Showing of the Power of Gen.
traliZatiOn.

trdIlZdflOn.
Ninety.two principal banking houses,
banks, life insurance companies, trust
companies. railroad and industrial, and
miscellaneous pcra,ions in the United
States, representing by their capitaliza.
ton more than one-tifth of the total
wealth of the country, are managed bv
| ,469 directors and partners. There are
SO many directors in one company who
are also directors in other companies
that as matter of fact these ninety.two
corporations are controlled by about
l 900 men.
More than quarter of the director
ships # these ninety.twO corporations
or, to be more definite, 4l0 directorships
director in less than two Of the com.
panles; some of them are directors in
ten or fifteen.
These remarkable facts go to show the
extent 10 which concentration OF finan.
cial power has been brought about
through the simple method OF exchange
OF directorships. Of the 1000 men con.
trolling these corporations and firms, 814
are directors or partners in only one con.
cern. There are 227 others who hold
757 places, and Of these 227, there are
as has been said, 72 which hold 41O
The majority OF those who serve as di
Iectors in only one company are men
who are hired servants of that company
others are simply representatives of the
larger financial interests which contro
it-in other words, dummies" There
are others whose interests in the com
pany is large, and who, having no out
side Investment, give their whole thought
to the single trust whicl they hold; but
it is safe to say that these ninety.twc
corporations are, speaking broadly, con.
trolled by the PSI individuals who hold
757 directorshiuS, or one-h half of the tota
number. A closer analysis would show
that the 227 individuals who hold nearly
majority of the directorships of these
institutions are in general subject to the
influence OF the y who hold 410 of the
directorships.
In selecting the companies and firms
on which to base this conclusion, the
idea was to take those which most con.
spicuously represent the financial power
of the country. The three banking
houses selected are j. p. Morgan & Co.
Kuhn, Loeb & Co.. and Speyer Il Co.
The six lie insurance companies are the
Mutual, the Equitable, the New York
the Metropolitan, the Prudential and the
P,Ovident Life Il Trust,
The banks selected are the CITY, the
First National, the Bank of Commerce
the Park, the American Exchange. the
Hanover, the Chase, the Corn Exchange
the Chemical, the Fourth National, the
Citizens Central, the Seaboard, the Man.
haitian and the Bank of New York, ol
this city; the First National, the Cont.
mental and the Commercial OF Chicago
the Shawmut, of Boston; the Phila-
delphia and the Fourth Street, Of Phila.
delphia; and the Third National, of St.
Louis.
The trust companies selected are the
United States, the Union, the Security,
the Morton, the Guaranty, the Farmers
Loan. the Central and the Mercantile, OF
New York; the Illinois Savings & Trust,
of Chicago; the Old Colony, Of Boston ;
the Union, of Pittsburg, and the Indus.
trial. of Providence.
The railroads in this list are the fol.
lowing: The Pennsylvania. the New
York Central, the Erie, the Lackawanna,
the Lehigh Valley, the Delaware & Hud-
son, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Reading,
he Chesape AXE 4 Ohio. the Louisville
& Nashville, the Atlantic Coast Line,
the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific,
the Missouri Pacific, the Great Northern
the Atchison. the Rock Island, the St.
Paul, the Illinois Central, the Wabash,
and the Southern Pacific.
The industrial and miscellaneous cor.
porations include four OF the six con.
Germs, making the so.called beef trust
namely, Swift & Co., Armour & Co.,
Morris & Co., and the National Packing
Co.; the U. S. Steel Corporation, the
Standard Oil, the American Sugar, the
American Tobacco, the Mercantile Ma.
rine, the Western Union, the Commercial
Gable, the American Telephone & Tele.
graph, the U. S. Leather, the Interna.
al Paper. the International Harvester
the General Chemical, the American
Locomotive, the Pullman, the National
Biscuit, the Associated Merchants, the
American Smelling, the Consolidated
Gas, the Interborough, and the Brooklyn
Rapid Transit.
This is an imposing list of American
corporations. Yet about 900 men con.
troll them; and of these ,O41 men there
are wiz stduu OIlt us JIlS uOI1l1nd(InS
force, the business oligarchy OF the United
State. (Their names are given here.)
About twenty OF these names could bt
eliminated from this list as being sub
ordinate powers, who, though perform
ing important functions. nevertheless
are in large measure, subject to NOR.
powerful financial interests. There are
perhaps as many as so financiers of thu
first rank among the 1000 men control
ling the greatest banks, and insurance
railroad and industrial corporations O
the country.
These so men may be termed "th'
senate Of American finance" 1t woult
not be too much to say that they ar
more powerful than the 80 men wht
constitute the senate OF the Unitet