Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-04-01
Tuesday, April I, 1918.
John Pierpont Morgan.


Dispatches from Rome tell of the
death there, Monday. of John Pierpont
Morgan. MIR Morgan's name has been
household word in English speaking
lands in recent years, as one of great
est financiers of this age or any other.
Mr.. Morgan had been in the banking
business for more than half a century
and he had become The financial die
tator OF the country. \ visitor to the
Journal Office, Monday forenoon, re-
marked on seeing the first bulletin
from Rome:
Il never could be quite satisfied in
my own mind as to the influence, as
a whole, of such financial and industr;-
al magnates as Mr.. Morgan upon the
0estinies of a people-a balance for
good or for bad. | suppose we are to
draw our own conclusions and be guild
ed thereby. according as We recognize,
or think we interpret, the will of an
inscrutable providence.
We may well accept the solution as
beyond the judgment of mar. Let us
not attempt to judge. Let us remember
the apparent good we know he has ac-
complished and leave the balance to
tic High Court before which Mr.. Nor
gan has Keen summoned, we hope with
confidence and without fear.
Let us today remember that in 1901,
when panic seized Wall street IL the
struggle for control of the Northern
Pacific Railroad, Mr.. Morgan came to
the rescue, and he came at moment
when it was felt that only such imam
cial giant could turn aside financial
disaster Again in the fall OF 1907 the
country turned to Mr.. Morgan to avert
a menacinS panic that threatened the
nation. In less than two days Mr.. Nor
gan had created a pool Of Sio,0oO,0 900
that turned the tide and saved untold
financial panic and disaster. that.
might seriously have effected every
vocation of the country's web Of life.
Aside from these two incidents Mr..
Morgan probably will be chiefly re-
membered for the part he took in float
ing the United States Steel Corpora
ton. The violent decline in the seeuri-
ties of the steel trust during the de-
preston of 10000. ard the storm OF
criticism that broke forth from the
thousands of investors in the United
states and in Europe who put their
money into these securities. had been
4 thorn in Mr.. Morgan's side, and his
chief ambition in the years that fol-
lowed was 70 see the steel securities
in such position in the market that his
most bitter critics would be forced TO
concede that he built the great trust
on a substantial foundation.
As an example of business capacity
of remarkable kind, Mr.. Morgan was
almost without parallel. He was as
capable as any of the Rothschilds in
the money line and his achievements
as an Industrial organizer surpassed
any similar feats performed by other
operators in the United States or
abroad Among the concrete results of
Mr.. Morgan's financial genius were the
reorganization of the Buffalo and West
Shore, and its lease to the New York
Central; the reorganiza ton OF the
I,o VIA
ment of the Great Southern and the
reorganization of the Erie. His influ-
encc was also materially felt in the
Pacific system. Some of the achieve
ments which he made incidents TO his
money and railroad business are the
present efficiency OF the Japan and
China carrying trade, the consolidation
of the Western Union Telegraph and
the American Bell Telephone Company,
and steel industries an6 the launching
of the Edison process of magnetic iron
ore separation
We might so on indefinitely. Almost
every day of Mr.. Morgan's active bust
ness life was worthy of record, because
of the great bearing it necessarily had
upon the fortunes and lives of thaus-
ands of others. Perhaps that is why
we may hesitate to judge, but first ask
ourselves why it is permitted that a
single individual, only human, should
be tempted and tried by such trust and
power.
An Evil Sees Its Fate.