The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-10
GOULD MAY GO INTO MONEY LENDING ON ENORMOUS SCALE Russell Sage's Policy Has Been Incentive to Men
 With Large Capital ELDER VANDERBILT ORIGINATOR OF PLAN In His Day He Had More Ready Money to Lend Than Any Other
 Man in America-0ther
 Big Lenders
BY HOLLAND

New York. June .-(Special)-What proportion of the whole amount needed in order to enable the Missouri Pacific railroad to overcome, for year at least the serious crisis of June l, George Jay Gould furnished is matter of surmise. It must have been considerable. It was not the first time that MT. Gould, out of his personal funds or those of the Gould estate, has given assistance to the Mis- souri Pacific company. In the aggregate, first and last he has furnished many mil lions to this company, undoubtedly being impelled thereto by his knowledge that his father hoped if his life was spared to demonstrate, by the upbuilding of the Missouri Pacific, that he had constructive ability which would make it possible to compare him with other constructive forces in the railway world.
 The impression has for some time pre- vailed that MT. Gould would be glad to withdraw completely from active railroad responsibility. He is thought to have learned lesson not yet forgotten at the time when he had the ambition to create a transcontinental route of which the Missouri Pacific and Wabash were to be the important links.
 So also it has been surmised that MT. Gould might, if he were freed from re- sponsibility, occupy himself with the business of lending money, possibly upon a large scale and in such manner as to make frequent turnovers possible. His long association with Russell Sage must have furnished him with experience which would be valuable if he were to undertake a business of this kind
 The first important private money lender upon a large scale since the days of the civil war was Commodore Vander- bit. He was of the opinion that he could make better use of his money if he were to lend it out upon collateral and at short time than would be possible if he were to enter the speculative market although he did sometimes speculate. The commodore was commonly thought, between 1865 and 1873, to be able to com mand at any time as much B, ,000, 900. and that was a large amount for the time. In fact, 1t was the understanding that Commodore Vanderbilt and Daniel Drew when acting together, were able to con trol the money market and were presumed to have done so upon several occasions. Yet just after the close of the civil war the fortune of each of these men was es- timated at about $15.000000.
 Commodore Vanderbit's office was at the lower end of Broadway. and he sat at a window which gave upon Bowling Green and from which he could see the approach of any person whose expected destination was his own office.
 Vanderbilt as a Money Lender
 Almost every day the commodore re- ceived visitors in his little parlor office who came to borrow money from him upon collateral, not infrequently giv- ing demand notes exactly as brokers were then and are now accustomed to do when negotiating what are termed ''call'' loans. He was glad to lend money sometimes in large amounts, never charg- ing more than the prevailing rate and usually exacting fairly high grade eurity.
 Some of the veterans of the Wall street district have always suspected that Rus sell Sage received his first hint of >the opportunities that lay in the lending of money in this way from an experience he had with Commodore Vanderbilt, or one of which he had heard.
 As money proposition, the method appealed to Russell Sage greatly He