Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-02
I-HoMAs FAuLKNER RYAN, who [
IN day persuaded James Hasen

and good oounselors had been unable
for months to convince Mr.. Hyde
should be done. has sometimes been
called the greatest "opportunist" that
ever came to Wall street. His persua-
sion of Mr.. Hyde to sell majority Of
the stock of the Equitable Life Assu-
rance corporation will surely be accept
ed as a good explanation of what Is
meant by the complimentary term
"the great opportunist." Mr.. Ryan is
regarded by financiers as having acted
not only opportunely, but at exactly
what is sometimes called the psycho-
logical moment. He and those who are
with him have already received a ma
1ority Of the capital stock of this in
stitution-one Of the largest in the
world, in assets, business and surplus
--and have given to Mr.. Hyde their
check for this stock.
Probably the details of the negotia-
ton with Mr. Hyde will never be made
public 1t is only by accident or the
casual narration of some of Mr.. Ryan's
friends, that the details Of others Of his
swift and successful coups have been
made known. Mr.. Ryan is of the tenn
permanent that finds chief satisfaction
for high achievement in the personal
sense of having worked out and accom-
plished results that involve millions
and that save great and imperiled
properties.
Mr.. Ryan's career, his methods, his
personality and his victories are SINH
lar to those of that remarkable group
of men of Irish and Scotch-Irish par
entage who are among the giants of
American Industrial and financial de-
velopment. All of them were of humble
parentage, but of sturdy stock. The
Rockefellers are of Scotch-Irish de-
scent. and their birthplace was among
the foothills of the Catslxills. Anthony
Brady is of pure Irish parentage and
his early home was among the foothills
or the Adirondacks. Mr.. Ryan is of
that race of North of ireland pioneers
who settled along and upon the slopes
of the Blue Ridge mountains. From
that stock came the men who have
been foremost in the politics and
craftsmanship and in the opening up
of the great West, and especially in
and near Pittsburg in working out the
superb resources of the Alleghanies and
the Blue Ridge. and through that in
dustry the perfecting of the American
"a faIo 10
A Humble Beginning
Ryan as a lad had no other encour-
agement than that which he saw in
the picturesque, superb hills which
were the boundaries of his home nor
did 1t seem possible that out Of that
remote and sparsely settled country
there could come one of Americas |
great organizers, triumphant reorgan-
izers and mastery financiers. He must
have received his first inspiration for
that business career which so finely
typifies the success of this generation
wholly from his native talent.
There are no anecdotes of boyhood |
shrewdness, such as are told of the
just beginning his career when Ryan |
was learning all the lessons of poverty |
an Nelson county, Virginia, which bor-
derland includes the mountain district |
Sometimes when among friends, Mr. |
Ryan has told of his faint understand
iron and timber which were in those
hills. He was just old enough to re-
member some of the frontier or noun
tain skirmishes and episodes of the
civil war He could have had but lit
tie schooling, not much more than
President Lincoln. While Mr.. Morgan,
with whom Mr.. Ryan now ranks as a
reorganizer was mastering the most
difficult detail of modern finance-for-
eign exchange-and was showing to
the professors at a German university
his great talent for mathematics, and
especially abstract mathematics, young
Ryan was poring over his little arith-
metic, not venturing much beyond the
rudiments. He had neither time nor
opportunity; but he must have dlscoV-
cred while he was still a lad that he
had great gift for figures. for sys-
tematizing and arranging them, and for
working out problems so as to procure
the right answer.
Unlike many of the youth of those
mountain districts. who, when they
were old enough to venture away from
the boyhood home. turned their faces
To the West, young Ryan made his way
to the East. Baltimore, just after the
close of the civil war, seemed to the
young men of the South to offer the
best chance. In some way, possibly
partly by trudging over the highways
or by brief trips upon the Chesapeake
canal, or in such other manner as
would save the little pocket money he
had, young Ryan at last reached Bal
timore. He was then lad in his late
teens, and he did what so many who
afterward won fame and fortune did,
what William r. Grace did when he
first came to New York, or Joseph Pu-
litzer-he sought employment from
door TO door. Probably he did not
search very long. That same persua-