The Detroit times., 1910-01-24
MORGAN S AID IS
PECULIAR GENIUS
George Fisher Baker, Who Il Said
To Be Worth s2OO,ooo,Ooo,
AbhOrS Publicity.
BY w. q. sHEpHERp.

BY w. q. SHEPHERD.
NEW YORK. Jan. 24.--Who Is this
George Fisher Baker. who sits at the
right hand OF Morgan. king OF Ameri-
ca?
hes the grimmest, most silent mon
ey king OF them all. No encyclopedias
tells his life story; Who's Who
barely touches on him. The photo
grapher who gave out the only Pic
lure Baker Is known to have ever had
taken got into Decks OF trouble.
Leave me alone" has been the
motto OF this solitary man.
AS boy he clerked In a Troy, N.
u store. Baker got Job In the
state banking department OF New
YORK. VIM. III. Seward was then high
In New York politics and Bakers
rather was legal adviser To him.
When Seward went to Washington
to be Lincoln's secretary OF state. the
elder Baker accompanied him. Nusf
about then "Old" John Thompson put.
firth the natinal bank idea. and when
the natinal bank law was passed
Thmpsn established the First NatinaI
bank; it truly was the first national
bank in America, and young Baker
was proud to get a job there az q
clerk. When the war bonds were TO-
sued Bakers job was to sell them:
probably his fathers connection with
the administration had something to
do with this honor and responsibility
being placed on young Bakers
shoulders.
With Henry Fahnestock, one OF his
friends in the bank. Baker went out
into the Wall-st. district and disposed
OF the bonds.
One day. the Wall-st. legend goes.
they sold bonds to Jay Cooke & Co.
and within a short time the Jay Cooke
company failed and could not pay.
This error on the part OF the two
young men threatened their ruin. but
Baker turned defeat into victory.
With Fahnestock he went to John
Thompson.
Give us six months option on the
bank and we'll buy 1t, IL you'll stay
in as president until the purchase, "
they suggested.
Thompson wished to retire. ana
though astounded by the offer OF the
Iyoung men. IL served to renew hts
confidence in them. Perhaps, too, he
knew that Baker5s father was high
in the counsels of the administration
and might give aid to his son.
For six months Fahnestock and
Baker scurried about, and at the end
lof the time. having settled for the Jay
Cooke error themselves, bought tho
controlling interest In the bank.
And that is how George Fisher
Baker got into Wall-st. How much
aid he got from the invisible wires
that always seem to reach from Wash
ington to Wallst In all administers
lions, will never be known.
But Baker was always grim and
silent. These won for him. He IL
living NO" That's the only word,
they say, that he knows. He never
says Yes" TO anything; that would
be a waste of time, for all his 'yeses"
he acts.
There Is no glad hand about him.
He has a son. named after himself,
who is a vice-president OF the First
National bank. Baker himself re-
signed the presidency OF that institu-
ton jan IL OF this year.
| The remainder OF the family is the
wife and a married daughter. A
home at Tuxedo and small house
| in Madison-ave., half block from
Morgan's home, are Bakers visible
possessions. But he Is director In
string OF companies whose titles
would fill a newspaper column.
Wall-st. says he is worth at least
$500, 900, 900. His only close acquaint-
ance, besides Morgan, is Henry Fab
nestock. His pastimes-well, no one
ever sees him at the dozens OF clubs
he belongs to. And even J. Pierpont
Morgan himself goes to thrice as
many banquets. Guinness, aloofness
and cold determination are Bakers
characteristics.
Baker is today bigger in Wailrst-
finance than any Vanderbilt. Gould or
Astcr. He is Morgan's right hand.
You don't hear much about him be-
cause he prefers the closed door ana
the NO"