The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1912-01-22

Wyman Morse gone to prison fou
years ago, instead OF 0niy two h
would nave been the richest prisone
VINO ever started to serve sentence
-Four years ago he said recently h,
was worth $22,000000. He had banks
steamships, telephone ana ice com
panies.
Now he is said to be millions in
debt.
Sent to Bowdoin, Me-, college by hi.
father, who was a tug owner ami ice
dealer, the young man kept his par
enfs books for pocket money. When
he was told that he would be mil.
lionare before he died. young Morse
said he wouldn't stop until he had at
least $l0,0000 900.
When he graduated in 1877 he had
his ten million in mind, and looked
to the ice business, which was that of
his father and the latters neighbors.
lie leased first a small pond and then
bay in the Penobscot, but the de-.
mand was too small and he went TO
New York, where for years he quiet
ly bought up ice concerns and merged
them under the name OF the American
Ice company.
When New York wanted ice it had
TO buy of Morse at his price or go
without Then the stock of the
trust was increased to 100000, ,0O0
Morse planned to put up the price,
and up it went--up to so cents per
100 pounds at the New York piers
Competition was renewed but Morse
was found to be a politician also. AID.
parentiy there wasn't a dock along
the water front where a competitor
could discharge cargo of ice
Tammany was in control then--and
Tammany was Morse's friend. up
went the stock of the ice trust to 80
and over, and up went the fortunes
OF Morse's Tammany friends, also.
Then row came. The company
was accused of being a trust. Mayor
an WICK admitted on the stand that
he had bought 500 shares of the /
Morse company just before the price
went up. Two dock commissioners I
also admitted being stockholders. I
However, the proceedings soon We're
dronned.
Morses fortune began to leap and |
he moved to a palatial home on the
West Side. New York.
Then-s srddenly-the stock began
TO drop fast In 1902 it stopped pay
ing dividends, and Morse got ont as
active manager He retained his in
terests, however. and when public in
dignation over his boosting Of prices
ahd subsidized, he organized the Amer
lean lce Securities company, got other
together with the American
Ice company, began paying dividends
Of per cent, and hiked thep rice OF
stock from 81 to SO in year.
Morses Tammany friends made up
A pool and profited immensely, having
been let in and out at precisely the
right time.
In 1907, the Securities company re-
oeated the performance of the other
coDlern After paying dividends
n e times the price dropped from 90 ,
o IL. John w. Gates, c. NJ
schwab ard others in pool 1ost
i1iuysstt s$1 09e,Af0-bGt net Morse He !
gotten out in time with away
6ve his $10,000000 early mark to
he good.
Between these two coups in the ice )
field Morse penetrated into banking !
He organized a chain of banks to as ,
sist him in his ice affairs These in !,
,luded the Bank of the State of New ,
York, Broadway. New Amsterdam, !
Sank of North America, Garfield Ma !
ional, Twelfth Ward, Varick, Nine ;
eenth Ward and several smaller ones, g
IS well as about every one in his old !,
lome at Bath, Me. The process was /.
imple. he had put up the stock of
ne bank as collateral for a loan with
Which he had bought the stock OF an,
,ther Eventually, the combined de- !
,osits of these institutions aggregat- ]
"a $100,000,000 i
He then tried to become master s
t merchant marine and bought sew
raj lines, including the Clyde and
Iallory, as if they had been bags OF e.
eanuts. n
AT the time the banks which he con
rolled were being asked to loan vast =.
ums Of money on the securities he -
yas buying, and in most cases he got !:
he loans 1T was the same plan he -
ad used in buying the banks, using -
he first securities as a basis for =
hahn
In February, 1907, nine months be-
1re the finish came. Morse was mas u
ar of eighty-one ocean-going steam Il
hips, thirteen banks and dozens of &c
ther corporations n'
Morse and his friends then tried u