The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-27
Marshall Fields Wealth.

Marshall Field. of Chicago, is now prominent in the public eye by reason of his uncomplaining payment or taxes on s40OO0,000 Chicago property Is a close competitor with three others for rank as 3rd richest men In the United states By common consent John D. Rockefeller heads the list, with Andrew Carnegie second. The three next are H. Il. Rogers. William Rockefeller and Mar shall Field, with J. P. Morgan, Jaeob Il. schiff and J. H. Hill trailing not very far behind MT Fields fortune when probably approximates $2250O0,ooo, IS the cleanest of all the great American ac- cumulations. It's possessor has been uni- formly fortunate since Potter Palmer the veteran dry goods king of Chicago sold his establishment at cost and upon their own terms to his lieutenants, Mar shall Field and l.. z. Letter. That was just after the civil war and Chicago was seething The young merchants made money hand over fist and invested IL as fast as prudence would permit. Among other things they put a few hundred thousand dollars into Colorado gold mine and within three years took out sS SOO0,oOO By and by the partners dis agreen and In a buy or sell proposition Mir Fields took over the dry goods es- tablishment Letter had poor regard for his partners ability and predicted his speedy failure. When Letter died two years ago he was worth sSo,ooo.ooo after having put up $10,50O,00o only three wears before that In settlement of the debts of his son. Joe, In trying to corner the wheat market
 Field pursued the even tenor of his way and made s5 and $S for every one amas- sed by the partner who quit him in anger It was to Marshall Field that the late George M. Pullman went with his l scheme for the creation of the Pullman Palace Car Company and 1t was Fields | money that made the enterprise pos sible. Field and his crones made great sums out of Pullman Car and are still | among the heavy shareholders in the big corporation, which has been mine all most from the beginning. His money
 aided largely iu the development or
 many of the railroads entering ~-acago, l and his stock and bond holdings In them
 are still immense Throughout this en-
 tire period he continued the active mana
 cement of his dry goods business. AAls
 retail store is beyond compare the big | gest and best in the United State and his wholesale house is the largest in the l west and one of the largest in the united i States. There was some talk of his in- | vading New York, his investment of $3.- 0O0,0O0 In Fifth avenue property just dDONe MdulSun SuudIt EiNii6 dPpoAthS
 basin for this gossip. MT. Field Is an
 old man. however, and is not likely to
 branch out In the east, although he may do so In the forty years of very active business life and his participation
 In enterprises of every sort not whisp- CT has ever been heard against him. Not dollar of his stupendous fortune Is tainted" He was never engaged in a dirty deal or any transaction that had a
 sting or "come back to It. In his own community he Is recognized as its lead ing citizen and in New York he Is rated as one of the foremost powers of the financial world although never obstru- sive and personally modest almost to fault AS illustrative of his kindly spirit and broad views it Is said of him that
 during the hard time of 1S94-5 he kept on his payroll 2,0O0 names more than
 there was any need of his doing. a
 philanthrophy that represented an out lay of nearly s2,O00O00
 In partnership arrangements air. Field
 and MT j. P, Morgan pursue identically
 the same policy. Neither of them has
 general partners. Each has ten or nf-
 teen so-called partners who are in reality
 nothing more than departmental heads
 who m addition to a guaranteed salary participate in profits. Either can dis
 solve partnership" with any associate