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"
BY q. c. FORBES.

NEW 1ORk, June f.-- what SORT OF
men are your Wall Street milionaires?"
was asked the other day
How long is a railroad journey I
felt like replying but didn't Instead, I
merely said: Very much like other peo-
pie"
But aren't they horribly uncouth? I
always thought they were terribly uncul-
tured-and worse
Not at ALL ! replied in defense OF
much maligned class. Some Of them are
among the finest men in America.
you surely do not mean that? DO they
really possess full measure Of the vir-
tues?"
assured the questloner that, taking
them as class. they did.
''wan Street millionaires' are not all
pack OF biped wolves seeking whom they
may devour. The majority are not even
undesirable citizens.
The term "Wan Street" is more elastic
than a rubber band 1t embraces any
thing-in the popular imagination-from
the get-rich thievishly fraternity. who
never see wall Street to the strongest OF
our financiers and banking institutions
"Wail Street millionaires' include alike
the spectacular spectators who have made
fortunes in sheer gambling and the most
conservative of our bankers and local
capitalists.
How many men have made-and re
tained-millions solely tns rugh stock
speculation Take the number that has
sprungsto your mind and divide - by a
hundred. and il a whole hundred stln re-
mains, do some more dividing. Note that
/ said solely through stock speculation
Men like John w Gates--a typical Wall
Street millionaire OF the fiction writer's
brand-had 10 be more than gamblers and
hadafo do more than buy and sell stocks
in order to 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 wire-the genuine
article better than any expert in the
business. And having made supplies he
knew how to sell them He was thus no
nonentity. no brainless CIPHER. But his
famous offer to bet you million" was
remembered, while his real achievements
in the field OF industry were quickly for
gotten--if they were ever known-by the
public
Not one wall Street millionaire" of
the most criticised pattern will be found
devoid OF special ability in some direction
or other The self-made ones who stay
millionaires are not fools. Very few of
them are knaYes. 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 it makes a spicy
front-page story. In one hour at a Monte
Carlo table Charles M Schwab earned
more unpleasant notoriety than years of
amazing achievement in steel making
could combat II drove him, in a sense,
from the presidency of the greatest indus
trial organization in the world, the bill
Iion-dolar 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
Schwab's name mentioned. recall the
Monte Carlo incident and let the rest
pass
have never met a more generous,
larger hearted set than wall Street mill
lionaires." Even the worst of them have
the redeeming virtues OF generosity and
charity. They practice these virtues too.
on scale the public can not imagine
On the other hand, there are a few
black sheep in the wall Street million
ARE fold. The most rapid fire swearer
! have ever encountered is one of our
very prominent traction magnates And
his voca bulary betrsys 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 few OF them do their best
20 make up for what they missed. They
try hard to develop a taste for and an
appreciation of art and music They
spend lavishly in encouraging and cult
waiting the refinement OF life They may
know more about Reading than about
Rembrandts, 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 millonaires
Men OF the Morgan, Speyer, Seligman,
Kahn. Barton Hepburn, Levi p Morton
caliber need no apologies on the score of
culture Not a few of the finest intel
lects in the country find their sphere of
activity in wall Street"
Mixing the good with the bad, the re-
sulting composite Wall Street million
aire' is not such a worthless. disreput-
able. dishonest character as is too often
misrepresented
As@n-.=..ze.s.-..-.=-z