New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-02-12
Anglo-American Memories
am prRpoNr MORGAN FROM AN ANeLo.AmERIcAN POINT OF
w."
Copyr,rht. 1911. by George w. sm.ll.y)

utdlH uc uhuciSicOO neither money hoi
business"
In the crisis I refer to ! believe
loan was wanted and gold was wanted
a loan, If / recollect right, Of 100000
600; and s4O,O000OO Of gold within a
short period Mr.. Morgan was sum-
moned to Washington. as so often hap
pened. A conference took place between
Mr.. Cleveland. with some OF his official
advisers to help. and Mr. Morgan. Mr.
Cleveland said:
Mr. Morgan, you all seem scared in
New York and think we are in great
difficulties here about money, but I
don't see that things are so bad as all
that The Secretary tells me we have
100000 in the Treasury this morn
ing"
Mr. Morgan answered:
Yes. Mr. President. that is true, but
have in my pocket draft on the
Treasury for s12,0Oo,oo0, and s7,ooo,ooo
won't pay It,"
This concrete illustration presented
things in a new light TO Mr.. Cleveland,
and he gave his assent to the arrange
ments his official advisers were urging
on him; which Mr.. Morgan was then to
carry out The s4O,O0o,oOo In gold was
found within the agreed time and paid
into the Treasury. and we did not go on
a silver basis, nor into bankruptcy. But
when It became known in New York that
Mr. Morgan had pledged himself to find
these forty millions in gold, the great
bankers, am told. shook their heads,
and said it could not be done.
Where is Morgan to get his 100000
coo in gold? IT is not to be had In
America, and II he brings It from abroad
will cause disaster"
And yet IT was found. and exchange
hardly moved. J asked some of these
great financial authorities how Mr. Nor
gan managed It. They all said much the
same thing.
You must ask Morgan. We do not
know"
Perhaps the highest tribute that could
be paid him. for II was equivalent 10
saying: He is in class by himself
In the end. from a banker of renown,
got a better answer:
Il do not know what Morgan did in
this case. but l know Morgan. and
think It probable he had long foreseen
this demand for gold, and that when he
was asked to supply the $4O,0O0,0O0 he
had already accumulated the greater
part Of It, or arranged for its transfer as
wanted from I know not what vaults"
The English thought that. One Of
them said a similar thing during the
crisis Of 1907:
Nobody looks so far ahead as Nor
gan. We are told here that for many
months before the crash came he had
been selling securities. When 1t came
his bank balances made him master Of
the situation. We have had serious mo-
ments here In London. Of which the
Barring trouble was the most dangerous.
but in that and other cases we have
acted together. But we have never
known anything like that day In New
York. when money was 100 per cent and
not TO be had at that, when Morgan
flung on the floor of the Stock Exchange
500, 100000 at 10 per cent, and the dan
ger was over
He continued:
What I say Of Morgan Is that he has
shown himself again and again a man
who can take command OF a situation.
and the greater the peril the more abb
solute Is his control"
There floated over TO London at later
date a different sort Of story. 1t was. l
think. during the last of the crises, when
Mr. Morgan summoned the leading panK
presidents and other magnates IN
finance and laid plan before them, to
which they all assented. But one con-
siderable parsonage had stayed away
from this meeting. When II was over
Mr. Morgan sent for him, and he came.
Said Mr. Morgan:
"Mr. X. you know what We have
agreed on. You alone stand out. l
think It important, in the interest OF
your bank and Of all the banks, that you
should come IN"
mo" said Mr.. X, II shall not come
In"
Then give you fair notice that IL you
do not / will break you and your bank
together"
And he came in.
OF course, / do not know whether
these things, or any Of them, happened
in this way. 1 give you the versions
current in London and believed in Lon
don. They help explain how 1t is that
Mr. Morgan's prestige has grown In Eng
land to its present height; not among
men Of finance only, but with the gen
eral public. Such mistakes as he has
made do not seem to have much dimin-
ished it, Napoleon. to whom he and all
other masterful men are likened lost
many a battle and finally his throne.
Mr.. Morgan has lost battles, too. but his
fame and authority here in England.
where he lost them, were never so great
as now. u. W. D.
rInFC n0CDhc TAI 0ME nay