The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-13
KIND OF MAN MORGAN IS
B. c. Forbes. in Leslie,s.

B. c. Forbes in Leslie's.
 1T EFT us start off with few ques-
 tions. typical of the many con- = stantly asked about the heir of the greatest financier America ever produced.
 Is Jack Morgan a second J. P? He is not
 Is he very able man? Able, yes; transcendently able, no.
 Does he aspire to fill his fathers shoes, to sit on the throne set up by his father and rule the financial world? J. P Nor gan the second is not ambitious to be- come great dominating force over the whole kingdom of finance. He possesses neither the will nor the qualities to be- come a Napoleon. He is obsessed by no lust of power. While far from being a figurehead in the activities of J. P. Nor gan & Co.,, he is content to let his trusted associates, particularly Henry P. David son, bear the brunt of the actual execu- tive work, conscious that it is in capable hands. MT. Morgan prefers to live ra- tional, unfevered life; for no honors or
 
 life, forego the satisfying pleasures of hsc domestic hearth, or permit himself to become more of a money making ma chine than a man, husband, a father. He is infinitely more zealous that the reputation of his firm shall not be tar nished in the slightest degree than he is over winning additional millions.
 What kind of a personality has he? He Is the most undiplomatic man of impor- tsnce in all America He is the product of his heredity, veritable Bourbon. He would consider it beneath his dignity, he would regard 1t as weak, contemptible, mugwumpish to go out of his way one inch to placate the public or enable it to understand his motives-or even to re- move a single false conception any of his acts may have created.
 He understands the public and can put himself in its place as little as you or understand royalty or could put our selves in its place. one of his associates, stanch admirer, told me; and this unquestonably is the truth. His father did not have to reckon with the sover- eighty of public opinion during the greater part of his life and his attitude toward the common people cost him, be- fore the end, more than can be recorded. His son has not yet learned the lesson. Morgan the younger is as punctilious as any man in the land that his acts shall be honest and in every way above reproach, according to his lights; but he has woefully failed that, next to doing the right thing the most important con sideration is to do it in the right way, that the public may see it Is right He is sadly, seriously lacking in states manship, fact that more than once has occasioned the financial community es- pecially it's more responsible members, grave concern, for MT. Morgan typifies high finance in the eyes of the people, and when he assumes a cavalier, I-don't- cere-a-snap-of-m f-my-fingers attitude-as he did, not without provocation when witness before the Walsh industrial rela- tions commission-the effect upon the public, upon public sentiment, upon citi- zens and voters, as we'll as upon law l makers, is incalculably injurious not | merely to financers as a class but to the welfare of all. This hauteur of MT. Morgan's con tutes perhaps his most regretable defect..-
 Is Morgan dOmineerng? Mo- His ap- parently lordly attitude toward the pub lie is due to a mistaken idea of his place in the financial structure. He does not look upon himself as the most dominant | figure in the financial world, as poWer- full enough to defy anybody and every l body. as beyond the reach of criticism or control; he sees himself merely a private banker doing large, valuable. construc- tive business, beneficial for the develop ment of the nations resources. honest