The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-03

friendlfness with which the President not only stood by him as to actualities. but with which he said good word to the country in hts behalf at this critical tunctuxe. He feels that the only way in which he can adequately repay the President for this confidence publicly expressed Is to show that he is deserving of 1t, by making good as head of the Equitable.
 Mfr. Morton Is already at work try ing to make good" talked with a number of minor oficials of the Equi- table, snd everyone said he is sur prised at the manner in which the new chairman Is taking hold. He Is going to the bottom of things. He is digging 6 deep. He is demanding to know about all the salaries, all the expenses, all the employees and what they are doing. He Is rapidly becoming familiar with every detail of the big machine. It has already been publicly announced that the new chairman has employed two firms of professional accounts nts to 20 over the whole concern and rec port upon it's condition. Moreover. he has taken steps to have tie real estate holdings and the realty mortgage hold ings of the society valued by experts in real e.tate. These are only the nrst steps. Other steps will be taken as rapidly as possible.
 know it is MT. Morton's purpose to clean out the shop. Already Hyde and Alexander have been fired. Tarbell will probably stay. Tarbell is an hon. est man. He is a wonderful manager of agencies. He had the courage to speak out when others were silent about the nasty business that was go- ing on around him. There are plenty more who will have to walk the plank ,fore Morton gets through with them Every man that has had his finger in the petty grating. every stipendiary and parasite, every man that has been drawing salary for little or no work, will hsve to go.
 Chairman Morton has taken leaf out of the bo ok of President Roosevelt ard adopted for his motto in the Equitable the square deal.' 1 believe the poll icy-hclders will get it. At any rate. give Paul Morton a chance. Give him time. Then judge him by results. Don't prejudge him because the Santa Fe once allowed rebates when everyone in the railroad business was doing the same thing. Don't prejudge him be- cause Ryan is said to be his boss
 How about Ryan? I have already given you a good deal of informtion about him, have dealt frankly with his
 
 an angel. He has been known to his enemies as "a wolf" He certainly Is a plunger. He has turned some pretty sharp corners in his time. He has bowled over many a man that, got in his way. and sometimes without being overscrupulous as to the means. But there have been worse men, just as there are better men. The worse men are in jail; the better ones are not leaders of finance in New York. Which is to say, Ryan has played the game up to the limit. He has played 1t lit- tie more cleverly than some others, and hence has achieved more success. That is all. He is simply conspicuous be- cause he has got on faster, but he is a type, after all. In Rome, he became one of the most strenuous of Romans. No one has ever accused him of being actually dishonest. He is not thief or robber. AS such things go in New York, he Is a man of honor. He keeps his word. He plays the game within the rules.
 If he has ever found 1t necessary in the past to crowd the rules a little. that necessity no longer exists. He has made his fight and won It. He is at or near the top. It would be too blunt and unkind and not strictly ac- curate to say he is now so rich that he can afford to be honest. better way to put it would be that he has now | reached point where all his interests and therefore all his instincts and en- ergies, trend toward achievement of success of the highest type. He now has so much at stake, and his ambi- tions as to the future are so large, that nothing but the highest standard of performance can serve his purpose He has. nominally at least, become a finan- cial leader of the first rank That is, he has the plant, the machinery-what we call the material and mechanism ot high finance.