The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-09-01

Commercial National Bank He was
then a young boy. and was industrious
and courteous and always had a pleas
ant and honest expression in his face.
I had done business at the Commercial
National Bank while l. was a commits
sion merchant My relations with the
bank were continued after entered the
oil business. Our refinery was small.
and we had to battle very hard. On one
occasion I asked for an unusually large
loan. It wasn't much, but 1t was big
enough to make the cashier hesitate.
] went TO Stiliman Witt, the president.
He, took some of his own securities from
the safe, and. handing them to the
cashier. said: Here is the collateral.
Let Mr.. Rockefeller have the money.
He IL all right and will pay II back
81 had kindly feeling for the bank
and for all the men connected with II.
When I sent for Davy Norton he had
risen to the office of cashier. and had
held the position for seventeen years.
I recollected his prompt attention to
his duties and his agreeable manners.
'Davy.' I said. L have bought some ore
land and want to dig the ore out and
send II to market J don't know any
thing about the ore business: neither
do you. but you can learn. I should
like to have you sell my ore. Leave the
bank and hunt around for a good part
mes
How He Bought Six ships.
"Davy looked over the situation and
formed a partnership with Mr.. E. w.
Oglebay, who had an ore office OF his
own. Next We began to talk about
ships. / thought we should have two.
one to come down the lakes while the
other was going up the lakes. Davy did
not understand ships, and SO Samuel
Mather kindly loaned us II. G. Dalton.
the expert OF MS own firm. Mr.. Dalton
got up plans for two ships. Times were
very dull There were Six shlpbuildlng
plants on the lakes-ons at Chicago. one
at Saginaw. one at Detroit, one at Lo-
rain. and two at Cleveland. All of them
sent in bids because they reeded work
just then. Mr.. Dalton said the bids
were surprisingly low. Every plant, you
sec. was, competing against all the other
plant..
That being the case 1 said to Mr..
Dalton. we shall buy six ships We
gave an order for one ship TO each OF
the bidders, They were little surprised.
was later informed. Soon after that -
and Mr.. Rockefeller smiled NJ the men,
o-y, the American ShipbuiIding Com
pany was organized. All of the firms l
have referred to Joined the combin ton.
Thus having ore lands and means of
transportation. my interests were duly
considered n 1901. when different proper
ties were brought together and called the
United States Steel Cooperation. had
something besides money and was taken
in. something. you know. that gave me
standing and made me useful"
Il suppose" the same man said to Mr..
Rockefeller. that you have passed
through some dull times yourself?''
"Oh, yes: I have gene through some
very hard times Mr.. Rockefeller
answered. MY partners were not al
ways confident. We had TO borrow money
and it was frequently hard to get. We
almost went under during the panic OF
IS73 Twenty years later. several of my
\ associates were deep in debt. They came
to me saying they could not stand the
pressure and purposed to sell some OF
their Standard stock. Letters poured
in from shareholders. Two OF my
clerks were kept busy writing to such
persons begging them to keep their ccur-
age and not TO part with their stock. l
was a heavy borrower myself and walked
these porches." he was at Forest Hill
al the time. late at night trying to plan
how / could help my friends. number
of them did sell some OF their shares.
though l begged them to hold On.
enabled to make. | did not want the
stock. but l was unwilling TO see II dIss!-
pated. to see IL sold to strangers and for
less than IL WAS worth
(COTSrigbt. !9l2. b. James B. Morrow