San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-01-10
At 43,
!. OUTSTANDING
MONEY KING
Wins Greatest Fame by
Snatching Auto Firm
From ]. P. Morgan.
By CHARLES B. FARMER
Universal service Staff Correspondent.

SmVerBdi service StaII Correspondent.
NEW YORK, Jan. "a tall, dark
man with an indolent air and the
drawl Of South Texas on his tongue
today is acknowledged as one of the
great leaders of Wall Street.-The
man who beat Morgan"
He is Clarence Dillon-just 43-
who etches landscapes for diversion,
fishes for relaxation, and makes no
secret that he is an apostle of relaxa-
ton.
This is the Dillon credited with en-
cheering a gigantic merging of New
York banks, who is said to be arrang-
ing a $75,0OO,000 deal by which the
public will gain control of the securi-
ties Of the National Cash Register
Company.
The same man consummated the
S146,O00,000 Dodge motor deal, outbid-
ding ]. p. Morgan & Co. in the
largest single cash transaction in the
worlds industrial history. OF that af-
fair of last spring he says modestly
between pipe puffs. as he peers at you
from under heavy-lidded eyes:
I'VE were just fortunate enough to
have our bid accepted.
STRANGE TO STREET.
Wall Street has seldom known such
a leader. There was the elder j. p.
Morgan, domineering and inaccessible ;
the canny T.. III, Hartman, who wor-
ried himself into a shroud; the big,
bluff John W. Gates, who wrote his
name in financial water. But young
Dillon, who started life as bond
salesman in Chicago in 1913-after
studying art in Europe for two years
lis quite different.
So far as l know, the man hasn't
slogan by which he lives but it should
be "Toujours EAudacei" IL ever
there was a man who is always daring,
IL 10 this one. The secret Of his sue
cess might be summed up thusly:
Always daring-but absolutely GER
rain Of the fundamental facts Of any
LUCK HELPS HIM.
There was a time. though when
luck--O, yes, luck does play its part.
You know-brushed its wings across
his shoulders. That was when he
went to work selling bonds for Will
liam A. Read and Company in Chi
cago. --s--
He had Just "blown In" eight thou
sand dollars in Europe studying art
A sum which a Western railroad
gave him after a railroad accident.
He had 10 make money to support
his wife and child, and the best way
N m rfrtL he ua1l
ing TO wealthy old millionaire whom
William A. Read and Company could
not reach.
@Tbe thing for you to do is to let
him come to you-too many statesmen
have been trying to flush him."
That WAS the advice a friendly law
gers gave him, adding
Maybe I can send him to you"
THINKS 1T JOKE.
A few days later Dillon's telephone
rang while the office was filled with
brother-salesmen. Could Mr.. Dillon
see Mr.. So-and-So about his bonds?
Dillon looked around the Office
surely a joke was being played on
him, so he answered:
Sorry sir, but / am very busy
today. Possibly / could grant you
half an hour tomorrow at 8 O'Clock"
Thank you'll be there tomor-
row.
The next day at three the sought
after man of millions came humping
in, and said:
."All these bond statesmen are after
me. But my lawyer says you are the
one to advise me correctly. / have
so much to invest now-what do you
adviser"
Dillon rose to the heights of auda-
city at that moment when he said:
Really, my dear sir, l can't adj
wise you soundly until l have a COM
plete list Of your bonds. Then / can
suggest what will make a well-round.
ed out list for you"
DILLON GETS TRADE.
Did he let the bird fly from the
hand by that? Not a bit. The old
gentleman was impressed by Dillon's
shrewdness. So he answered quietly:
Tomorrow you shall have the list"
He did, and he made a client who
n still on his books. OF course there
was q gigantic piece of luck in that.
An audaciousness that carried point.
But it was Dillon's sound knowledge
of his subject which won out-and
without which luck would have avil-
ed nothing.
Some time after that the late Will
liam A. Read brought him to the Ne/
York office, where he worked along
side of some of his Harvard friends.
He was merely told:
Pick out a desk and go to work at
anything that suits you"
VISITS SAN ANTONIO.
Dillon did. But every now and then
he would quit work, pack up his traps
and journey down TO San Antonio,
Texas. His birthplace, where his
father Is a banker in moderate cir.
cumstances. Taking a couple Of dogs
and shotgun, he would go out for
a weeks hunt at time. then go back