The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-19
Small Number of Wall Street Men Control Capital of
 the County
TWO POWERFUL GROUPS
 REMAIN INDEPENDENT
Kuhn, Loeb & Go. and the Moore-Reid Group of Railroad Financiers Are Not In the Big
 Combination.

New York. December lS.-lSpeeial.) )-So close has become the alhance and amaigd- nations of leading financial interests in Wall street during the past three months | that almost absolute control of the coun- 1 try's financial affairs is now centralized in the hands of very few men. who are 1 acting in concert.
 A money trust has come into existence. | With J. p. Morgan at it's head, the most gigantic combination Of capital in the world.
 There is no concrete, definite organiza- tion to the latest trust, legal incor- poration, no elected directors, no list of stockholders. To use the descriptive phrase of the financial world Il is simply community of interests.
 The members of the community of in- terests the men who would be direc- tors of an incorporated company, are:
 J. P. Morgan, private banker. it's un- questioned leader
 George F. Baker, chairman Of the board of directors of tine First National bank.
 James Stillman, chairman of the board of directors of the National City bank.
 William Rockefeller. vice president of
 the Standard oil company.
 Henry c. Prick, capitalist.
 William K. Vanderbilt. as representative of his family interests. Others Interested. A number of other names might be added to the list but they in turn would be but contributors to one or tic other of the distinct groups of capital centering in ! the men named.
 1 MT. Morgan, for example has two ac- tive partners. George w. Perkins and l Henry P. Dividson. representing him in many board Of directors.
 MT. Baker has q prominent associate in 1 J. Rogers Maxwell, James T, Woodward. president of the Hanover National bank.
 is a close personal aud fnaaneiul ally or 1 both MT. Morgan and Mr. Stillman.
 The Guggenheim family. vastly rich and | powerful in the mining and smelting bus
 mess. are allied to both Standard Oil and 1 Morgan interests. The railroad group. headed by James J. Hill, nave close rels-
 tions with the houses of Morgan and Ba-
 ker. Mir. Hill is a director of Mir Ba-
 kwer's bank, the First National, and 1 MT. Baker is director In MT. Hill's bank, l the Chase National.
 Thomas F. Ryan has practically retired from active participation fin financial af- l fairs, turning over control of his inter- ests to partners in this money trust. 1 His sale of the Equitable Life Assurance 1 society to MT. Morgan was concrete evi- 1 dence of his assent to the order of l things.
 1 The Hartman estate. too, is in friendly ] alliance with the trust | Moruan's Recent Deals MT. Morgan recently purchased the liar l riman and Mutual Life holdings in the
 Guaranty Trust company showing ths harmonious cooperation of the late tinan- ] cier's advisers.
 l Two powerful interests remain inde- | pendent but not hostile Kuhn, Loeb & | Co.,, private bankers of great resources continue along their own lines of business,
 but occasions join hands with the ! Morgan group. The Moore-Reid group of
 railroad fnanciers play their own game but frequently meet with leading mem i bers of the Morgan combine in the di- rectors room of great corporations It would be impossible to figure the to- l tai of the direct and indirect capital now i centralized in this money trust. To be- | gin with. the banking firm of J P. Nor 1 gan & Co. being private co-partner-
 ship, makes no public reports. Yet cur
 rent report places its deposits at sl60,- | 100000, which its directors can utilize I to advantage in financial operations. Tho
 assets of the three insurance companies, 1 invested largely in bonds of railroad and 1 industrial companies. aggregate consider | ably more than a billion dollars.
 Banks Controlled. The directly controlled banks have de- posits and surplus accounts running into
 
 the operations of great number of l small institutions. The vast accumula-
 tions of wealth in the Standard oil cof- fers are chiefly directed by William Rock
 efeller in great games of finance.
 The vast sum of money thus ascum- 1 ulated is not actually in possession or | the money trust but the tremendous l power of the few lies in the fact that l they are able to sway, to influence, to | direct the use of it at opportune or | critical times. The hint they give, the
 lines of policy they form, the lead they l indicate is followed by an ever-increas- 1 ing number of smaller hnanciers. With command over an enormous amount of ready money and with di- | rectinS influence over large number | of allies, this money trust Ifs able to
 wield financial power sufficient to make
 or break national prosperity. national
 credit and even vitally to affect national | government.
 What Is Possible. l It could call s2oo.ooooOo of loans over night and ruin any adversary.
 It could reduce credits tu such a de- | gree as to cause extreme money string | ency and great commercial distress. It could tie up the cash holdings of | New York banks by demanding certhca- ] ton checks for enorrp"Is ars"'snts.
 It coild deplete is-
 V.ls- ~>~