The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-20

in the put" and "call' situation there. Neither he or his close friends had bought or sold Northern Pacific calls Ills natural prejudice, however was against lhu men who had committed
 themselves blindly against his property and he was for putting the screws on. There was talk of marking up the quo tation to 750 and begging it there. That would have meant the financial annl- hilation of scores of rich London specu- lators and might have involved number of banking houses. Consultations were held, first among the trapped privilege dealers. They met in their offices with blanched faces and trembling lips and confessed to each other thet they were in desperate traits. The advice and help of leading bankers was solicited by those who had right to ask. A meeting of re- presentatiyes of six or seven of the very strongest banking houses of the old world followed and a rescue scheme was agreed upon
 MT Morgan was notified that he must call off the dogs of war and allow set
 tlement price to be made which would save from ruin the privilege dealers of London. It was also casually suggested
 to him that 1t might not be wise to try to extract the last drop of blood from the
 veins of short sellers in New York, whose
 lamentatio would be heard across the
 Atlantic. The great financier received
 the suggestions with belligerant hauteur. He was in no mood to be dictated to and said so in plain terms. The discussion be-
 come heated and before 1t was over MT.
 Morgan was bluntly advised that If he persisted in a course which might throw
 London into a panic a campaign of re-
 prisal would be organized which might
 Involve him also in the universal wreck. He was at first disposed to laugh at the
 threat but presently hint was convey ed to him that the enmeshed privilege dealers had decided to sit tight and let
 the men responsible sor the corner do their worst. spokesman for the privi- lege dealers told MT. Morgan they had , resolved to take their medicine but that
 In the event of being crowded against the wall and ruined MT. Morgan would never again bo able to sell bill Of ex- change In London and that all his obli- gations in Great Britain would be called forthwith.
 Inasmuch as the New York money king was at that very, time spread out to an inordinate extent at home and abroad this note of defiance caused him to sit up and take notice. He was not long in dicovering that the privilege trader spoke
 by authority and that behind him stood combination of the most powerful inter- national bankers on earth. A great light came to him. His tone lost It's trumpet
 quality and his manner became concila-
 tory. It took him a very short time to
 dlsmount from his high horse and get
 in cable communication with his New York house. Almost immediately there
 after his representative reached an
 agreement with MT, Schif to fix set
 tlement price on Northern Pacific at
 150 share. At this quotation the London
 "calls'' were lieuida ted and the privilege
 traders escaped with their lives. few
 failures occurred but they were nnim-
 portant MT. Morgan lost something of
 his standing with the greatest of the London banking houses by reason of his
 preliminary attitude on this historic oc-
 casion and not so very remotely there
 after he was obliged to curtail the vol
 ume of his outstanding bills abroad.
 Around about that time capital was made of the hawking about of S1000O.cW of his
 paper by a prominent art dealer, the covert insnuation being made that he was using the dealer as a broker. This had a temporary unfavorable effect on
 his credit and taken In connection with
 his remarkable operations incident to the
 organization and Notation of interna- tional mercantile marine. he made him self target for attack from every Brit i ish quarter. The origin of the London | raid on MT. Morgan and his enterprises | Is said to have been his initial refusal to treat with the London privilege dealers l and let them have terms that would save {, in his life. Morgan on that historic North | ern Pacific occasion found himself up ! against 1t good and hard