The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-04-01

it cannot he claimed that the Morgan
interests entirely dominate the policy
OF the National City bank they have
within she past year or two become
extremely important factors in that
institution Further than this, they
have clearly strengthened their domi-
rance in the First National bank and
in the National Bank of Commerce;
and il is on all sides "A well-known
fact that in the trust company field
they have now become the one tn
tluence Of unlimited power. The
Bankers Trust company and the
Guaranty Trust company, the two
largest and most important insttu-
tons of this type in the United States,
are purely Morgan companies, The
influence of Of the House Of Morgan
in the other large trust companies
such as the United States Trust com
pany and the Farmers Loan and Trust
company has grown steadily during
recent years,
To say therefore. that the House
Of Morgan and its associates now dom
mate the banking and credit resources
Of Americas financial center is not
stretching the truth. For ii must
not be overlooked that the control of
these great Wall street institutions in
wolves, directly or indirectly, the con-
troll Of large number Of smaller
banking institutions both in New
York and other cities
There is one other great field of
finance which Is conspicuously iden-
tined with the Morgan name today.
This is the life insurance field. Up
TO the death of Mr.. Hartman the
control Of life insurance interests in
a large way in New FORK city was di-
yided between the Morgan and the
Hartman interests The Morgan
House has for many years been the
dominating influence in the New York
Life Insurance company, but only
Within the past year or eighteen
months has it come into control of the
Equitable Life Assurance society To-
day Mr., Morgan is well known as the
financial high priest Of life insurance
and his firm and it's associates clearly
possess the dominating power regard
ing the handling Of the hundreds Of
millions of dollars of invested reserves
and resources of the enormously veal
thy insurance organizations in this
city. II is little wonder, therefore
that there should he great public In
terest regarding the individuality Of
the men who are today recognized as
at the forefront of this enormous con-
Centration of financial power.
The growth OF the House Of Nor
gan from it's relatively small begin
ming of nearly t"rty years ago Is an
extremely interesting story. Mr.. L.
nation of the firm of Drexel. Morgan
q Company in 1871. been the real ac~
tive head OF the business and the one
personality which has dominated the
policy of the nrm from the beginning
In the earlier days Mr., Morgan was
but q minor partner, in financial
sense, but the record Of the firm dur
ing all the years which followed has
fully demonstrated that j. Pierpont
Morgan's minor position was even
then entirely confined to his financial
interest. For II was he and not the
Drexels or the other partners who
set the pace or planned the path
which the Morgan House was to follow
for the ensuing forty years.
This is not 10 say that MIR Morgan
has always been all the brains of
the concern. He is not all the brains
OF the concern today. But he has
probably always been the one man
who has had the discernment to select
men Of brains to cooperate with him
and help create the situations which
have, during these long years nearly
always developed into vast opportuni-
ties OF PROFIT
Leaving aside the Drexels. who
We're able men. but chiefly valuable
because OF their wealth and business
4 connections, the most conspicuous
Personality In the Morgan firm prior
p 1909 was Charles H. Coster MIR.
tNSltf Was not DhiN an enormous
worker and "A wonderful master Of
detail, but he was clearly a creative
business genius of the highest or
der. The spectacular rise of the Nor
gan House in the nineties was largely
the result Of the panic of 1893 and
the ensuing depressions. The rail-
roads OF the United States in the main
went bankrupt in those years. 1t de-
volyed upon the Morgan House TO re-
organize many of these great railroad
systems. Mr. Morgan personally prob
ably never devised a reorganization
scheme In his life. The man who
was the great planneF of the TeOrgani-
cations for the Morgan firm was
Charles H. Coster. Probably the
schemes for lifting from bankruptcy
all the great properties like the Erie
the Reading, the Southern and the
Northern Pacific were mainly The work
/ OF this remarkable man. MIR. Coster
vas, therefore, not merely a genius
for detail, as the Street commonly
says, but he was the real originator
and plauner Of the unusual financial
construtive work which was accom-
piished by the Morgans during the
closing decade of the last century.
/ In the early part of 1900 Charles
II. Coster died and this incident mark
ed the end of one notable era in the
history of the Morgan firm, as well as
! the beginning of IA still more remark
able period. With Coster dead the
House of Morgan was in a sense like
a ship without IA pilot. Mr.. Morgan,
/ therefore, turned in various directions
TO find some one TO take the place OF
his dead lieutenant AT this period he
selected two men. First Mr.. Charles
J Steele, q well-known lawyer and man
of recognized ability. and, secondly.
Z George w. Perkins, one of the young
vice presidents OF the New York Life
Insurance company
The entry of Mr.. Perkins into the
firm of Morgan will always be assoc
ciated with the formation Of the
I United States Steel corporation. which
up TO recent times has generally
been pointed to as the most nosa BILE
achievement of the House OF Nor
gan. The opinion has frequently been
expressed in Wall Street that had