The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-12-29
Keeping Family Fortunes
THE CORPORATION HAS DEVELOPED 4 WHOLLY NEW PHASE
OF USEFULNESS.
now rapidly increasing fortune beer
tied up in a family corporation. witt

now rapidly increasing fortune been
tied up IN q family corporation. with
tho controlling interest overwhelm-
tngly in his brother's hands. he could
not have sold out to strangers because
Of the charter limitation and Alfred
Gwynnc could have calmly refused to
buy Esau's mess of pottage for him-
self. So all the older brother would
have had would have been tho income
to WELD n even that would have
been at tho mercy of his younger
brothers business acumen.
On the other hand. the large Thaw
fortune. crippled as 1t has been by the
unhappy marriage Of an heiress to a
noble hlackguard and the desperate
struggle to save another member from
the electric chair. might have stood
IL stronger chance Of escaping de-
pletton. Harry Thaw. for his part,
would have been q rock of opposition
against the dowry that made his sis
ter's marriage q possibility. Whether
any other member of the family would
have had the heart to oppose Mrs.
Thaw's lavish outlay for the saving
OF her son is doubtful: but on y hard
cash. corporation basis. it would have
been the subject Of a most serious dis
cussion as to the extent to which the
Thaw stock ought to he deprecated
for the rescue Of that one member
from the consequences of his homictd-
al deed.
The Gould family. with its system
Of trustees planned by Jay Gould
whose wisdom was greater than the
serpent's. has come nearer to the famt-
ly corporation in practice than most
Of the other clans holding such m
mense possessions in the United States.
The limitations enforceable by the
trustee. when the we'll being Of an in
dividual was threatened. even with the
individuals eager desire expressed to
were emphatically shown during the
latter years of Anna Gould's married
life with Boni de Castellane. The
Countess was only too willing to go
broke for the sake of her picturesque
profigate. But her brothers and sis
ter held the check rein and were al
most as powerful for her welfare as
If they had been able to vote Boni's
extravaganza into the waste basket at
a directors meeting.
Yet the corporation principle. ap-
piled to George Gould's freedom of
action as to his holdings of Union Pa
cifc might have affected the plans of
one of the most important railroad
systems Of the world. quite apart from
the consequences that must have at
tached to his own life and his inalien-
" 4A6AI " kllc pN1Sult vi 4IUCIky anu
happiness.
Another powerful railroad family,
the Harrimans. might have been in
jected a a corporation into the trans
portation systems that stretch from.
coast to coast, while finance could
await with anxiety the extension of
Hetty Green's personal bank into a
close corporation such as her genius
for finance could enable her to m
struct. The only rival of the Green
family corporation. in shrewd invest
ment by reason Of the experience of Its
founder. would have been that which
Russell Sage might have founded; but
he died. with his generous wife alone
surviving. and the care of her pros
perity was taken in "a way that EN-
dered Incorporation needless.
The establishment of the family
corporation, IL it should ever become
popular on an extensive scale. might
prove a powerful factor in maintaining
a modest prosperity and a safeguard
against folly and extravaganza on the
part Of the proverbial black sheep.
hut ven at that, a rlot Of human ma
ture will have to be. changed TO- guar
antee that all the descendants in the
third generation will have enough to
get along on.