The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-13
Z. III. Hartman Recognized
Project Was Impossible.
WHERE is THE LINE
Between Wise, Healthy Combi-
nation and Illegal COntroI.I
Kansas Will Be Independent of
Trust, Holland Says.

coInInltlee OF congress Tor the purpose
Of discovering whether a money and
credit controlling trust exists it would
have become apparent at the annual
meeting of the national banks of this
city. The only apprehension which
prevailed at the time of this meeting
was that there might be confusion
and embarrassment or vexatious pro-
crast1nations in the financial district
on account of the fire which was de-
troylns the Equitable building at the
moment these meetings We're being
held. In only a few instances were
the recommendation of the comp
troller of the currency that bank di-
rectors should be citizens of the towns
In which the banks of which they are
directors are situated accepted by the
New DIRK banks. A considerable num-
Der of bank directors of this city have
their legal residence in New Jersey or
IN Connecticut. Some directors live
even farther away.
There were many conjectures as 70
the reason which led James Stillma
to retire from official association WI II
all of the banks with which he has
been identified since 1891 excepting
the National City bank.
When Mr.. Stillman resigned the
presidency of the National City bank
a few years ago and accepted in place
OF that office the post of chairman of
the board his most intimate friends
explained the action by saying that
Mr. Stillman purposed a gradual re-
tirement from all business activity
He bought a beautiful home in Paris
and since 1909 has lived in that citv
although he has made each year brief
visits to the United States.
From the time Mr.. Stillman became
president of the National City bank
in 1891, until about the middle of the
second administration of Theodore
Roosevelt he was intensely interested.
and not from a money-making point
of view, in the development of New
Y ork city along artistic and public
improvement lines. He was also great
~ interested in the develOpm ent of the
United States. He believed that 1t
was possible, and probably inevitable,
that the United States would within
the next twenty-five or thirty years
take a pre- eminent place among the
nations of the earth.
Some of Mr.. Stillman's friends have
reported taht he was never able to
understand the spirit or the purpose
of the widespread antagonism to com
binations of capital, ability and ser
vices of skilled artisans. Without
combinations of that kind he believed
1t would be impossible for the United
States to progress very greatly. And
know him well that one of the reasons
which led him to take up his residence
In Paris was a feeling that the Ameri-
can people are too much given to hos
conspicuous ability and whose achieve
ments have been very great.
Mr. Stillman retired as director of
the Second National bank some eight
or nine months ago. At the elections
of Tuesday he was succeeded as a di-
rector of the Lincoln, the Hanover and
the Citizens Central banks by others.
Some of his friends have suggested
that he thus retired from associations
with other than the City bank be-
cause he was anxious to act in har-
mony with the recommendations of
the comptroller Of the currency and
secretary of the treasury, Mr.. Mac
Veagh.
The Money Trust Investigation.
II there be tacit agreement or I'M
Outstanding between two or three
groups, the members of which repre-
sent very large money capital and
banking interests, which would en-
able them so to control bank credits
or capital as gradually to get within
tnelr own sphere of influence much
OF the industrial or railway interests
of the United States, such an agree
ment must have been made within the
past ten years. When Commodore
Vanderbilt and Daniel Drew were the
money powers of New York neither
was the owner of a larger fortune than
about $1O,0O0,0OO. By combining
these fortunes and acting in co-opera-
ton these two men were able to in
nuence the money markets of New
York and, to some extent, those of the
country Today, however, a fortune
OF $40, 000,0O is of little consequence
so far as the larger undertak kings of
capital are concerned. Yet the needs
of railways and the demands which
some of the greater Industrial or more
important comm erciaI undertakings
must make if their plans are to be car
ried out compel financing along very
large lines. It would be impossible
for instance, for the Pennsylvania
Qcaf L
plans which it is understood it has in
mind for improvements. expansions
and the perfecting of terminal facili-
ties unless that company were able to
capital.
Now the wonder is where the line
which would bound normal, heaIthful
and wise combinations of great money
capital can be drawn. Great capital
must act upon its own discretion. Tt
must consider securities And in these
days of large undertakings it must de-
pend upon cooperation.
Capitalists Are jealous
AS recently as 1899 it was recog-
nized that there was gradually form
ing at least three, and possibly four,
groups of money capital, one of which
was identified by the name of Mr.
Morgan, another by the name of ia
cob Schiff, and still another by the
name of Rockefeller or that of the
Standard Oil company There is no
man of large financial experience who
does not know that these groups were
not characterized by any real har-
mony. Underlying each of them exist
ed great jealousy of the others. One
Of the foremost fnanciers of New
York, a man whose name is identified
with some of the largest of recent fl
nancfng operations. recently said. ION
the surface we all have to be courteous
ana apparently friendly but under
meath the surface there prevails a jeaI-
ousy of which the public has little
knowledge"
Mr. Speyer's Achievement
When Mr.. James Speyer, in the last