Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1912-06-07
M|LL|ONA|RES-
WHAT THEY ARE
Very Much Like Other People.
Few Are Looked Upon as
undesirable Citizens"
Nv q c EnRars


NEW YORK. June What sort Of
men are your Wall Street milionaires?" I
was asked the other day
How long is a railroad Journey"
felt ike replying but didn't Instead,
merely said; Very much like other peo-
pie.
But aren't they horribly uncouth2
always thought they were terribly uncui-
tured-and worse
Not at ALI. I replied in defense of a
uoh-maligned class Some of them are
among the finest men in America.
You surely do not mean that? Do they
really possess a full measure OF the vir~
tuesY'
I assured the questioner that, taking
them as class. they did
wall Street nillionaires' are not all a
pack Of biped wolves seeking whom they
may devour The majority are not even
undesirable citizens.
The term wall Street" is more elastic
than a rubber band 1t embraces any
thine-in the popular lima gination-from
the get-rich- thievishly fraternity, who
never see Wall Street to the strongest Of
our hnanciers and banking institutions.
wal Street nilionaires" include alike
fortunes in sheer gambling and the most
conservative of our bankers and local
capitalists.
How many men have made-snd re-
millions solely through stock
speculation? Take the number that has
sprung to your mind and divide II by
hundred and II whole hundred still re-
mains. do some more dividing. Note that
I said solely through stock speculation.
Men ike John W Gates-a typical Wall
Street millionaire Of the fiction writer's
brand-had to he more than gamblers and
had to do more than buy and sell stocks
IN order 70 get where they did. Before
he blew into Wall Street Gates had earned
the reputation Of being the best salesman
in the United states He knew how to
make nails and pull wfre-the genuine
article-bet+er than any expert in the
business And having made supplies he
knew how to sell them. He was thus no
nonentfty no brainless cypher. But his
famous offer to bet you a million was
rernern bered, while his real achievements
IN the field OF industry we're quickly for
gotten-if they were ever known-by the
public.
Not one wall Street millionaire" Of
devoid Of special ability in some direction
or other The self made ones who stay
rnillionaires are not fools. Very few of
them are knaves: either
The trouble is that the crazy exploits of
the few besmirch the reputation of the
many And Of course when a Wall Street
plutocrat runs amuck 1t makes spicy
front page story. In one hour at Monte
Carlo table Charles NJ, Schwab earned
more unpleasant notoriety than years OF
amazing achievement in steel making
could combat 1t drove him, in a sense,
from the presidency Of the greatest indus
trial organization in the world. the bill
lion dollar Steel corporation Since then
he has done bigger things than any other
steel worker in the United States. but
nine people in ten would. on hearing
Schwabs name mentioned. recall the
Monte Carlo incident and let the rest
pass.
have never met a more generous a
larger hearted set than wall Street mil
lionairee." Even the worst of them have
the redeering virtues OF generosity and
charity. They practice these virtues, too.
on a scale the public can not imagine.
black sheep in the Wall Street million
alre'' fold The most rapid Ere swearer
I have ever encountered is one OF our
very prominent traction magnates And
his vocabulary hetrays him as being what
he really is Then others admittedly
could not write Greek poetry or rival
Caesar or Cicero as Latin writer's But
that is their misfortune rather than their
fault Quite a few of them do their hest
to make up for what they missed They
Try hard 70 develop a taste for and an
appreciation of art and music They
spend lsyishly in encouraging and cult
waiting the refinement Of life They may
know more about Reading than about
Rem hrandts but when they get away
from the one they do often try to be-
come acquainted with the other
Then there Is another and more numer-
Gus class Of Wall Street milionaires {"
Men of the Morgan, Sreyer Seligman
Kahn, Barton Hepburn, Levi p Morton
calfher need no apologies on the score Of
culture Not a few Of the finest intel
Iects in the country find their sphere OF
activity in Wall Street
Mixing the good with the bad. the re-
sulting composite Wall Street million
ARE" is not such q worthless, dlsreput-
able dishonest character as is too often
n1isrepresented.