The log cabin Democrat., 1921-05-09
GREEK ROYALTY
 GETS GRIP ON
 LEEDS MILLIONS
Coming Marriage of Young Leeds to Princess Solves Fi-
 nanceS of Royal Family.
YOUNG GIRL IS TRUMP CARD
Great Fortune Built Up by One-Time Indiana Florist, Then Tin Plate King and Railroad Pyramider
 to Go to Greek Nobility.

10 Go to Greek Nobility.
 New York.-Royalty, rather bat tered now by fortunes and misfor- tunes of European wars, seems in a fair way to get practically every pen ny of the "tin plate" millions of the American Leeds family. Good old America
 The great fortune built up by the late William E. Leeds, once Indiana florist, humble railroad worker then manufacturer of tin plate, then rail- road pyramider, is going for the bene- fit of impoverished titles of Greece.
 News came from Athens the other day which, it is now disclosed here, means that royalty as represented by King Constantine of Greece and his relatives, have won the lone chance of getting the Leeds fortune.
 King Plays Trump Card.
 And a seyentcen-year-o girl was the trump card' of the king of Greece in the game of royalty vs. American millions. The girl is Prin- cess Xenia Georgievna, second daugh- ter of Grand Duchess Marie and niece of King Constantine. She is to marry William B. Leeds, Jr, eighteen-year- old son of the late w. B. Leeds and Mrs. Leeds, who is now Princess Anastasia of Greece.
 Young Leeds is sole heir to the mil. lions his father left from his exploits in midwestefr and Chicago finances. Mrs. Leeds, now Princess Anastasia, of course has the use of the estate, variously estimated S3O,OOOOOO to S40.. 100000, but on her death, under the terms of the Leeds will, the whole es. tate goes to young Leeds or his heirs
 In other words, Greek royalty didn't stand much chance of keeping the Leeds millions unless they got the son of Mrs. Leeds Princess Anastasia) into the royal family some way or other.
 Princess Anastasia has been i'll of late, too. In fact, she has been so i'll In Athens that young Leeds recently rushed from New York to France, then by airplane to Athens, to be at the bedside of his mother.
 It Is interesting to note that Athens press dispatches say that young Leeds proposed to Princess Xenia the day after he arrived in Athens to see his sick mother. He was promptly accepted. And Xenias acceptance means the battered and unlucky roy alty can struggle along a few cen- turieS more with the new riches, un- less politics or whims of subjects change things from royalty to democ. racy.
 Building the Fortune.
 And now the details of how the Leeds fortune was started and built up are being recalled and uncovered.
 Few persons of great wealth had a humber start in life than William B. Leeds of Richmond, Ind. It is a strange contrast to the life of the king, princesses and others of Greek royalty who now share it's benefits. Leeds started in Richmond as a flor ist, and by his marriage in 1883 to a relative of Harry Miller, then gen eral superintendent of the Pennsyl- vania railroad, he got work in the railroad field. At length he was d. vision superintendent of the Richmond division of the Pennsylvania and his wife inherited a large sum of money.
 Then with Daniel c. Reid as partner Leeds went into the making of tin plate. The tariff laws were aimed at the development of home in- dustrles and a tariff on tin plate per mitted the growth of that business down in Indiana.
 Moore Brothers as Partners.
 Acquiring the aid of W. H. and J. Fl. Moore of Chicago. Leeds and Reid soon organized the business on a na- tlonal scale under the name of the American Tin Plate company. In 1898 the United States Steel corporat'on bought the concern and the profits of the "big four" were estimated to have been close to S40,OOO,00O.
 Mir. Leeds and his associates in. vested their profits in the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railroad. Those were the good old days of watered stocks and the observation-disclosures combine soon had the Rock Island a far different institution than in the calm days of R. R. Cables control. Leeds was made president of the road in 1902, but after two years he Quar. reled with his partners and was oust. ed from office. However, he had "cleaned up" and his fortune had gfown apace. Divorced From FIrst Wife.