The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-04-26

ments made by such men as Messrs
Morgan, Baker, Stillman, Hill. &c, COM
manded almost universal public attention.
and far outweighed the opinions andI
comments of other people who had nod
been quite so successful in the kind of
business under discussion. There is sope|
subtle cause underlying this change ioq
public attitude. There is some good
reason why the house of Morgan. for in
stance. CANNOT talk to the public. and
gain any large degree of public atten-
ton. As a mater of fact the Morgan
statement of this case was a clear and
apparently honest presentation of an
honest opinion. 1t seemed to be written
in a better form for public consumption
and understanding than was the report
of the Pujo Committee. Like that report
it was. of course, largely statement OF
opinions rather than of facts; but ths
opinions were at least based upon iHti1
mate personal knowledge rather than upon
evidence or hearsay. Theoretically, such
a statement, from such source. aboh1
a matter of large finance. should have
commanded a public hearing.
Can il be possible that the leaders of
large finance in this country have en1
tirely lost the confidence Of the public
and if so, why?
The answer to these two ques tons. is
itself largely a matter of opinion. The
House of Morgan has not lost the conf
dence of financial people. Whenever any
big problem of finance has to be solved,
1t goes to them if it is too big for any,
body else. The faith of the house is moi
questioned in financial circles. Its money!
strength is not questioned anywhere. Its
ability to do what il promises TO do is
almost taken for granted, and to this
part of the question, there can hardly
be more than one answer.
But the man in the street has no
money interests worth while. He is not
a big manufacturer seeking to RAISED
money, banker trying 10 finance sol
thing, merchant trying TO make conf
solidation. or a foreign government try1I
ing to raise a loan. He considerS
himself detached and unbiased
judge on financial matters: does not
pretend to have much knowledge on
the subject. and is willing to confess when
it comes to a showdown that his Judg7
ment Is about half guesswork and he
rest prejudice. He has picked out Two
or three facts which he thinks he knows
and has them mixed in with his guessed
and his prejudices.
The fact in the matter is that let-
ter from J. P. Morgan & Co. misses this
kind of man very widely indeed. In
the first place it is letter from a cor
poration and not talk with a map
1t lacks the strength ,of straight out
from he-shoulder communication from
the. late ]. p. Morgan The fellow who
reads it does not recognize in it the per
sonality of anybody and feels that he IS
reading sort of brief, probably writ
ten by q clever lawyer for the sake OF
making a certain impression. He de-
cides first of all what he wants to make
the public believe and then gets the best
men on the job of putting the argu-
ment In form that will be convincing
The result is that the public does nit
read it at all. but passes it by without
comment.
It has often been stated in one formI
or another that nobody but a man CAM
lead nation. In finance we seem to haveI
lost sight of this old principle. Nova
days men seem to be sunk in corporations
and individuals lost in great firms. tt
may be that we shall not have again inI
finance any great confidence on the partI
of the publiesin the leaders of the finapS
cial world until we raise up another chi
Of men such az Morgan was ct the ~
Of his cayeags v