The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-21
GATES ESTATE
 DROPS DOWN
 TO SI8,OOO,OOO
APPRAISAL SHOWS THE FINAN- CIER'S FORTUNE FAR BELOW THE ESTIMATED FIGURE EVEN HIS COUNSEL
 ERRED.

New York, Aug 21-According to
 the appraisal of the estate of John
 W. Gates, the financier who died in
 August, 1911, his fortune totals, in
 round numbers, only $1s,O00, 900. which
 is less than half the figure he was
 generally supposed. to be worth at the Il time of his death It is less than a
 year ago that the value of the estate
 was placed at between $3o, 100000 and
 $40, ,000s000. by Judge Henry A. Glider sleeve, his counsel and the drawer of the WillsaA q
 For several years before his death John w. Gates had been practically out of stock market speculations and had devoted himself to the upbuild- ing of several large enterprises with | which he was identified, chiefly the Texas Company. the rival of the Stan dard Oil Company in the ,Southwes- 1 tern oil fields. He withdrew from | Wall street in 1907, the panic year, l under circumst stances which at first
 convinced the Street that he had been l crippled financially, but as events progressed those who had believed l that the "house of the twelve part l ners'' had dissolved on the brink of 1 ruin were compelled to revise their 1 estimates. This Stock Exchange firm | of c. G.s Gates & Co, was nominally | headed by the financier's son, but the elder Gates was the dominant factor | in it's affairs.
 l It had been organized to succeed Harris, Gates & Co, the brokera ge I house through which John W. Gates
 conducted his earlier operations in the | Street. During its brief existence it had been by far the most spectacular firm on the board and was credited with carrying at times as much as 1 $125, 100000 on margin.
 l Gates himself had been one of the boldest operators in the market and was the biggest bull during the boom of 1906.
 Armed with millions made in the promotion of various steel combina- tions in which he was interested in cluding the absorption of his Ameri- can Steel and Wire Company by the United States Steel Corporation, Gates | first broke into Wall Street as a great | figure in 1901. His successes had made money for a large following. With their help he became factor ! in the Street and worried even the
 Morgan interests. It laid up many l scores against him. which the public generally supposed would be paid off
 some day.
 1 His first and most famous triumph was shortly after the formation of the Steel Corporation. Wall Street woke up after brief period of excitement on the stock market to find him in control of the Louisville & Nashville, |
 taking it away from the Belmont in- terests. J. P Morgan & Co.,. stepped in and took the road off the hands 1 of the Gates crowd at handsome profit: In later years he was frequent ly arrayed against the Morgan inter- 1 ests and was one of the big figures in the pool which acquired the Ten nessee Coal and Iron Company and the Republic Iron and Steel Company. These two concerns were commonly l believed to have been bought as the nucleus for proposed rival to the United States Steel Corporation The panic killed any possibility thatI might have existed of such combina-l tion when the syndicate was forced to relinquish the Tennessee Coal and Iron company to the Steel Trust.
 It was when the silent panic early in 1907 began that whispers first gain ed currency of heavy shrinkage in the Gates fortune, but after the smoke F had cleared the Street evolved the opinion that with characteristic mo- bility Gates had switched his bull position before the crash came. He himself shortly after the dissolution of his son's Stock Exchange firm in the Summer of 1907 made public an nouncement that he was as rich as ever s