The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-03-05
AGE-HERALD WANT AID

1 for the Central Trust which at that
 time almost staggered the imagination.
 Nothing like these figures had ever been
 reported by any other banking institu- tion The company was able to pay not
 only large regular dividends but some times extra dividends of 100 per cent. 1 The prestige and prosperity which it secured under Mr. Olcott have been main tained and are represented by recent quotation of $740 for each share of the l trust company's stock.
 l Mr.. Olcott's work was wonderfully well done and might have continued for some years but for progress of the dis ease which caused his death. His name will always be traditional as one of the most successful bankers New York city and the entire country have ever he'd. THE UNION TRUST
 1 The Union Trust company was organ ized chiefly for the purpose of conduct ing a trustee business. It was estab- lished in the third year of the war be- | tween the states. It was able to se- cure highly profitable business in the form of trusteeship under wills and , mortgages Many estates were commit ted to it's charge. The vanderbilts were for many years greatly interested in the Union Trust company although upon two or three occasions friction between Pres ident King and one another of the Vanderbilts threatened to impair the friendly and profitable relation. Horace Clark brother-in-law of William H. Van derbilt, was at one time engaged in con- troversy with President King. William H. Vanderbilt himself was upon one oc- cason excessively annoyed because Pres ident King insisted that such security as
 MT. Vanderbilt proposed to offer as the
 basis of a negotiation with the trust | of government bonds of the largest de nomination. Bonds of that character were exceedingly difficult to get. Some years later Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was director of the Union Trust company. earnestly, almost pathetically, urged King not to insist upon the choice of a
 man for a vacancy in the board of direc- tors with whom MT. Vanderbilt was bit terly estranged. President King was an unyielding man and he had his way, but when the will of Cornelius Vanderbilt was read, it was discovered that he had /! so changed it immediately after Presi dent King refused his request, as to make another trust company the trustees of | that part of his large estate upon which
 trust was established This was very profitable piece of trusteeship and the Union Trust lost it because of the cleo | tion of man as director and, in fact, about the only man in New York for whom MT. Vanderbilt entertained feelings that were almost those of bitter enmity. 1 MT. King was president for long while i of the New York Stock exchange. He
 seemed to many persons to be not mere 1 ly of phegmatic disposition, but. as cold
 as ice, yet his reputation for Integrity
 and ability was so great that he was
 able to maintain himself with high credit | in that important office and also as president of the Union Trust company. l Neither Mir. King nor MT. Olcott could 1 have dreamed that the day would come when the institution of which they were presidents would be merged For in their l time the tendency toward consolidation
 of banking institutions had not yet been developed.
 l Some of the veterans of the financial
 district said this morning when speak | ing of this merger that formerly off, cers of the trust institutions of New
 York were esteemed, as a group as per haps the ablest bankers of the country.
 There is admiration, even wonder that
 the young generation occupied in the na- l tional and state banks and in private banking institutions of New York is re- vealing ability of the highest order, of which there has been special demonstra- l tion by reason of the relation established between the government and our allies since the war bega4 and the New York bankers