The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-27

under the new regime. Mr.. Morgan has
declared repeatedly that he was the bank
and that everything and everybody else
was subordinate to him and his dictator
ship.
The partners, although many of them
are wealthy men, were figured in the
machinery of the bank as little more
than clerks. The personnel of the bank
was subject to change any hour the
same as with the late Mr.. p. D. Armour
and the late Mr.. Marshall Field, as we'll
as many others of lesser Importance.
With the distribution of the senior Nor
gan's estate, the great | am element
of strength has undoubtedly been weak
ened. The bank machinery is there IN
tact but the amazing personal influence
Il tie genius " . a,;.nitted that he per-
sonally was the bank is gone. There is
an evident sense of uncertainty among
the surviving partners as evidenced by
the employment of publicity agent
in the person of a veteran financial news
paper writer at a salary said to be $4,000
a year. In Mr.. Morgan's life time that
was the one thing he would not stand
for-publicity. Mr. Loeb's employment
Is reported to be something of the same
sort of high-elass publicity for the Gug-
genheim interests, also at a fancy SAL
airy. This seems to mark new depart
ure for financiers representing vast and
varied interests.
What About Rockefeller?
The street and the press would like to
know how about the location of the colos-
sal John D. Rockefeller fortune. His per-
sonal fortune is supposed by many to be
greater than that of any man on EARTH
Close students and observers of finances
believe that his income exceeds $40, 900
a year and that he haA aore than 81 l,000,-
600 600 invested In stocks and bonds of
railroads and industrials. Although ap-
parently entirely out Of active business.
he Is known. to be in close touch with
every important development and often
times had a leading hand in the great
| swings that go to make up the financial
history of the country 1t is commonly
believed that he prepared for the panic
of 1907 by depositing in private safety
vaults more than s100,G00000 cash. This
came in handy when he went to the res
cue of several OF his old associates and
personal friends. If estimates Of the
amount and variety of his present hold
ings are anywhere near the facts, it is
hardly conceivable that he would per-
nit serious break in prices or that he
would permit important advances until
the background situation was framed
up better to his satisfaction than it is
now
Mr.. Rockefeller Is believed to have been
behind the remarkable campaign in the
stock OF the subsidiary oil companies
into which the parent organization was
divided The speculation in this list of
stocks has been on a terrific scale and
the price movements fantastic. There
have been times when the combined
| market value of this group of stocks has
been three times as great as the best
figure ever reached by the parent organ
ization.
The theory is that Mr.. Rockefeller has
been engaged in the manipulation in Or
der to prove to the world that the gov
ernment and supreme court had been
making monkeys of themselves in under
taking to run his business. Whoever has
been behind the gigantic and grotesque
manipulation has certainly been playing
a remarkable game-mal<ing money by
the hundreds of millions of dollars, mys-
tifying spectators all over the country
and playing hob generally with opera
tions in that special field Of activity.
There has been wider and wider specula-
ton in oil stocks than In anything which
has been before the public in years and
there appears to be good ground for the
suspicion that the "old man. has been
enjoying to the full a stupendous game
to his vast personal profit and TO the hui
initiation of Mr.. Tafts department of
justice and the judges of the supreme
court who elected the gospel of reason
into the problem of corporation regula-
ton by the government, and at the same
time recover from the humiliation to
which the powers that be tried to sub
ject him. 1t is an interesting story and
In the opinion of Wall street has more
elements of reality than romance.
Growth of Banking Houses
The growth of the international bank
ing houses having headquarters In New
York has been almost marvellous during
the last decade. There are three or four
big houses of this class whose resources
are greater than those enjoyed by the
Morgan banking concern at the height
of its power. Every once in a while
one of these institutions about which lit
tie was known by the public developed
resources that had never been suspected.
Not so very long ago Fritz Hefnze invad-
ed Wall street and at a critical time In
his career enlisted the cooperation of
a private banking house having. supposed
Berlin connections of Importance. Mr..
Heinze was offensive to a group Of very
large sized capitalists and they got after
stocks in which this bank was known
to be interested and tried to shake it
loose from Heinze 1t was a nasty at
tack and to the uninitiated 1t looked as
though the drive against the banking
house might be successful One morning
when the situation was blackest and
there was loud talk of the approaching
downfall of the banking house. word
was passed around through authorized
news channels that the Berlin partner
had placed $30,000,000 to the credit of the
institution. There are several other quiet
going houses believed to be able to COM
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