The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1909-10-21

HalJ RSIlA Y ~ C,TO B NIB y
kline. For this purpose he absorbed i
string Of New York city banks extend
Ing from the Battery to Harlem. At
this stage he was one Of the big fig
ures in the financial world. Worth
perhaps $4,000, 900, president or di-
rector Of banks and corporations to the
number Of nearly a score, a manipula-
tor Of acknowledged ability, he was
crowding close to the Wall street lead
ers. He had with him such men as F.
Augustus Heinze, the copper king;
President Barney Of the Knickerbock-
er Trust company, p. R. Thomas. the
financier and patron Of the races; also
Thomas brother and many more. The
red headed Maine boy who had begun
making money while he was still in
college and had become an ice king
before he went to New York had ar
rived. Charles Wyman Morse, small,
blue eyed and soft spoken, but with
plenty Of nerve and gray matter, had
reached his life goal and was one of
the powers of that world of money
that we usually dub Wall street.
Then the end came Overnight his
castles crumbled. The panic caught
New York-the panic he himself had
helped to bring-and he was one of its
first and most conspicuous victims.
Those associated with him shared in
his ruin. Along with some Of his big
gest banks went the Knickerbocker
Trust, the Heinze brokerage firm and
other allied houses. Barney commit
ted suicide; Heinze, was faced with
| several indictments, some of which are
forced out of the banking business,
and Morse himself went to England
! and returned to face arrest.
Paying the Price.
That is part of the story-a mere
outline of some Of the dramatic chap
ters. Most people in reading it will
| say that he got only what was coming
to him, or will have got it when he
serves out his fifteen years in Atlanta.
He sowed and is reaping. Morse
thinks he is a victim of circumstances
and of the big stick" Others believe
he is the victim only Of himself. He
coined money out of the necessities of
| the poor. lived for his own gratifca-
ton, broke the laws Of his country and
involved others in the inevitable ruin
that followed. He is now about to
pay the price. Naturally he does not
enjoy paying it. Each of us has some
sort of price to pay, and few of us
enjoy it, yet in some way and at some
time we must settle the bill. Why
should Charles W. Morse be an excep-
ton? Because he has money? Too
many rich criminals have escaped al
ready. Because others are doing the
same thing? Wrong does not excuse
wrong. Get this one and perhaps we
may then get some Of the rest.
| Yet there is another side to the pic
ture. Mr.. Morse has not only paid
most of his debts. but put the biggest
Of his failed banks on it's feet and set
tied with the depositors dollar for dol
lar. 1t is on facts such as this that
he will rely in his final appeal to the
president.
Morse was born in Maine in 1856.
His father was tugboat man on the
! Kennebec river The boy wanted to
go to college, but had not the money
and became ''candy butcher" on boat
to raise it. He succeeded, as he al
ways has succeeded when dollars were
the objective. At the age of twenty
one he graduated from Bowdoin.
| While in college he had invested in
little ice business and doubled his
money.
He then began to study ice, cot his
father to go into business with him
and in eleven years had control of the
Ice business of New York city. At one
time he controlled twenty-one ice com
| panies and at later period eighty-one
steamships and thirteen banks and
trust companies. AS it was his banks
that finally foored him. superstitious
pesple are entitled to draw any idiotic
conclusion they see fit from the thir-
| teen thing
His Filler In Politics.
It was in 1895 that Morse broke into
Tamrlany Hall. The phrase broke
in" is used advisedly. as Morse used an
| ice pick. 1t was at this time he showed
| Van Wyck and Carroll a bunch of per-
fectly good stock. They said, Get
thee behind us, Satan," holding their
hands behind them, palms upward.
| Mr.. Morse is short man-physically
short, also financially-with a direct
way of looking at one, a bright eye, a
white mustache and an optimistic
philosophy. 1t is not every man who
can be an optimist in JAIL This ought
to appeal to President Taft. With so
many grouches at large it seems a
shame to keep cheerful loser locked
up.
When the dark days came Mrs.
Morse sold her jewels. her best furni-
ture and even mortgaged the home.
| She looked after her husbands bust
ness. She got SignerS tn his hail bond