Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-04-03
The Quiet Passing Of the Wizard Of American Finance.

cles. That is the inquiry which the general public has asked
itself over and over again in recent years when financial IN
certainty or rumors of ill health OF the part of the great fl
ancier have gained circulation.
The magic wand of this wizard of finance HAD so often
been waved over distressed railroad systems to afford relief,
his staff had so often been used to smhe the adamanhne Amer
lean pocketbook to cause the waters of new life for industry
and trade and manifold projects OF great proportions to spring
forth. that to many minds it seemed as though when his great
heart ceased to beat there must ensue a mighty cataclysm in the
spheres of transportation and commerce AMI financial develop
ment.
Monday morning the cable flashed the intelligence that
Mr.. Morgan had passed out into the beyond. The hum of in
dustry sounded as of yore. The wheels of transportation did
not stop their ceasless turning. The tramp of myriad feet i'll
the marts of trade and finance continued as though the great life
had not been brought to a sudden close. Even the pulse Of
Wall Street did not reflect realization that the man regarded as
The world has learned anew the truth uttered by an
other man great in his particular field, the late Joseph Pulitzer.
who proclaimed in his newspaper that "The indispensable man
If we had given pause for thought. we might have appre-
ciated the fact that the late f. II. Hartman meant more to the
active railroad world than did j. P. Morgan, and yet the IIar-
riman lines ar is prosperous and as progressive as when the
wizard of transportation consolidation was alive, save as fed
eral authorities have sought to resolve that system into its ma
tural elements through the process of dissolution by the courts
or through voluntary submission to the mandates of Uncle
Sans legal department.
We might have realized that with billions of dollars rep
resented by other great financial houses no single life. no in
dlvldual financial concern could eImoody IN ltSelf the activity
and progress of a great country like ours II even monopolize
the financial strength of the American metropolis.
But even if the House of Morgan could be regarded as
centerng in itself the financial activities OF community Or ma
ton, the fact remains that the great financier left "A son. who
for years had been carefully trained to take his fathers place
at the head of the Morgan banking firm: than able partners had
oCh "uNu " VIZ ohcclH ll"HI tlWt 10 'H' ~ tHdt lS SVt''SS
and stability should at no time whatsoever depend upon the
life o work of a single Individual; and that other business
houses and the money markets and Wall Street itself had noted
for months the manifest decline of the master mind. and had
discounted the crisis that might have been preciphated by the
advent of his unheralded death.
Truly the indispensable man did not pass out with the
breath of John Pierpont Morgan. But if he was not essential
to the financial stability of American finance, then no man can
ever hope to reach that acme of influence and ability, for it
has fallen to the lot of few men in the history of the world to
deesG sn' tremendous financial power he was abel to WELD for
Having become in 1860 American agent and attorney for
the London banking firm of Gporup PeahO Nv G. Co in which
his father was a partner, he rapidly acquired the experience
Mo@ ss a co. and a 0 i'm ISL s ni I'm Drs2e1' NJ rs@ 1 + Co. OF O"'n'Y'
Upon the retirement Of the Drexels he "ecame head of the
ing houses in London and Paris az we'll as m Philadelphia Which
speedily gained recognition throughout the world as the lead
ing private banking firm in the United States.
One of the first great exploits which added tremendously
to the prestige of the Morgan house wa the floating of the
United States bond issue of $62 OO0.0 900 during the Cleveland
administration, but that great feat was completely o~vershadow-
ed when the firm broke the world S record of gigantic financial
transactions by floating the securities of the United States
$@1,1OO!OOo.6 900.
The Morgan firm not only organized the international IIar-
vester company, more Familiarity known as the harvester
trust, but it has also reorganzed innumerable railway sys-
TENS and industrial projects, and fioatcd various international
loans, including $5O.000OO0 in subscriptions to the British war
loan of 1901 during the late unpleasantness in South Africa.
1t has been estimated that the Morgan firm controlled Ii
rectly or indirectly no less than $4,000 miles Of railway as well
as large American and British steamship lines, in addition to
its great banking business, and yet this distinguished son of
Connecticut found time to devote generous time to the finer
things in life.
Mr.. Morgan was an enthusiastic traveller. a devotee of art,
a patron OF American yachting. a free han led contributor to
educational institutions, the builder of a great hospital in the
city of his adoption, the owner of one of the most famous colec-
tons Of paintings in the world.
He was long commodore of the New York Yacht club and
built the American yacht columbia. - which defeated the
shamrock in the races for the America s cup in 1899 and
1901. He had made innumerable gifts TO the New York
Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
the New York Public Library, and other deserving institutions.
There is a disposition in these times to regard any rich
man with suspicion, often unjusty, and yet the world owes Mr..
Morgan recognition of a tremendous service through his act in
calling a conference of fellow financiers, who at three O'Clock
one morning signed an agreement to support the weaker trust
companies of New York and thus checked the panic of 1907
If there were time and space various other instances Of Mr..
Morgan public spirited action might be enumerated
1t was no small achievement to found a house like that of
j. p, Morgan & Co. 1t was a mark of financial genius to $ or
ganize it that it should continue to loom large in the world of
finance, after its founder had passed on. The mantle of the
great financier has fallen upon worthy shoulders in the person
Of j. p. Morgan, Jr, or "Jack' as he is affectionately called
by his fellow financiers.
One of the younger partners is Harry P. Dawson, who
stands next to Mr.. Morgan and who is recorded as the ablest
and most aggressive among the younger bankers in New York,
and another is William II. Porter, an Addison county boy and
a graduate of Middlebury College, described in an article in
the current Mcclure $ as "a man of extraordinary memory and
knowledge of securities and commercial paper"
With these and other experts in their reSDective folds in its