The Washington times., 1922-05-28
gSTns# gnsTan#8 BUSINESS AND FINANCE ~5H%%&ESnD
FINANCE
AND
BUSINESS
by b. C. FORBES.


president Of the General Electric
Company? =
After all. aren't the public entitled
to be interested In the men VINO
manage great enterprises employing
many thousands of workers and do
ing business which touches the lives
of every one of US?
This one anecdote win give you q
better idea of Gerard Swope's char.
acter than anything else you couid
possibly read about him. 1t was told
me yesterday by a son OF the man
who figures in the story.
When Gerard was a boy MS
fathers business struck serious
financial difficulties. The bankruptcy
court gave him a clean bill Of health.
He had borrowed $1,000 from a per
sonal friend. Gerard learned Of this
and went to work, determined TO
earn and save enough TO pay off the
obligation. And the very first 81 900
he saved he took to his fathers
friend. with every penny Of interest
| added. Although the friend refused
| to take any interest. Gerard let him
know that he regarded II as a matter
Of honor to pay every penny, botn
principal and interest. And he did.
| WIN Tfldn VI llc hIBh ShoA~A 49,
| ter and caliber of Owen d. Young as
| chairman and Gerard Swope as
president, and with the services OF
| the veteran Mr.. Coffin available in
An advisory capacity. General Elec-
| tries stockholders needn't worry
much about the future management
Of this wonderfully successful en-
terprise. It's employees. by the way,
now total 100000
| Demand for tips" would suggest
that the public are likely to enter
| the stock market more freely In the
very near future.
Are the majority Of people inter
ested In business subjects? one
| middle Western Newspaper when
| prints this column daily started to
apply the pruning knife to its costs.
Among other features which II was
concluded could be dropped without
disappointing very many OF It's read
ers was this column. 30. as an ex'
pertinent, the paper left the column
out.
Within a week 1t received GAL let
ters of complaint and protest!
The column was promptly restored.
| Politics and politicians used to be
the main topics Of discussion among
the public. Today the vast major
ity of people are more interested In
business and business men than IN
politics and politicians. Business. In
some form or other, IL the bread ano
butter OF us all. And all men are
interested In that which affects
their pocketbooks.
Moreover, the power exercised by
those directing vast organizations
Lis today greater than the power eI.
ercised by most politicians. II
business goes to the dogs, all the
wise men in Washington put to-
gether cannot fill empty pay en-
velopes.
A prediction: There will be no
general reduction in railway wages
Or, II there Is. trouble will arise.
The cables say that J. p. Morgan
has made II plain that he would
not be interested IN any proposed
lGerman loan which was not backed
by tangible security. Near assur.
ances Of good faith and good Will
would not be acceptable to him. He
specifies that he wants to make
sure that definite, irrevocable pro
vision Is made for meeting the IN
terest and taking care Of the prin'
cipal.
American investors will be safe in
concluding that any German loan in.
dorsed by J. p. Morgan & Co. will
be a fairly good risk. No one will
suspect Mr. Morgan Of being unduly
pro-German. On the other hand. he
Is not at all likely to let himself
become a cat's-paw Of the French. as
he and his associates are big enough
and broad enough and farsighted
enough to take a large, unprecedented
view OF the whole German financial
problem. Mr.. Morgan is no financial
lizard; neither is he easily fooled
And in the matter OF this mag nitude
he will have the benefit of the ad'
vice and guidance of all his partners,
most of whom got where they are
! purely by their demonstrated ability
to handle important matters success
paper. woolen goods.
J Some things which look cheap
Sugar, cotton goods, rubber, copper
silk goods, low.priced automobiles
paper, woolen gods.