Evening star., 1932-07-24

Of the present era; says there is plenty
of money available and the problem Is
to bring it out of hiding; that our rail-
roads are our most important industry;
that our Government should select ex-
perts instead of politicians for the semi
governmental jobs such as the inter-
state Commerce Commission and the
Federal Reserve Board, and that Wall
street misses the iron hand" type Of
leadership such as was displayed with
great public benefit by the late J. p.
Morgan and George F. Baker
There were great many securities
In 1873 for which no market could be
obtained" Mr. Connor said. And in
that period we had labor strikes which
were followed by destruction of prop
erty. We had bread lines and soup
kitchens"
The first move toward improvement
came when Mr.. Vanderlip and his as
sociates began to buy Chicago & North
western stock and gradually to advance
the price.
After they had been at work for
about three weeks said Mr., Ccnnor
jay Gould. seeing the effect they were
having, started his Union Pacific. and
as these two stocks were advanced 1t
encouraged others to take up lines OF
stock in which they were interested
The market began to show general I'M
provement.
"Mr. Gould. realizing that there was
great timidity upon the part OF a
number of persons, decided to sell puts
on Union Pacific. so that the buyers
would know that their losses were lin-
tied"
Under this arrangement the buyers
sc 1,od too n +
ting their blocks of stock to him at a
specified price within certain period
of time Thus they were insured
against unlimited loss. provided Gould
Was solvent, and Gould would encoun-
ter no loss on the puts as long as he
kept his stock moving above the option
price.
by 1879" Mr.. Connor continued
came the resumption Of specie pay
ment. This added to the hopeful feel
ing which had been developing. Be-
tween that period and 1886 Jay Gould
made nine-tenthS of the fortune which
he left when he died.
independent of his Union Pacific. he
started to buy bonds of the Kansas Pa
cific road, which we're selling between
and 12. He followed the price up to
had control of more than two-thirds of
the total bond issue of that road. He
reorganized the property and finally
closed out with profit of something
more than $10,000,000.
Acquired Other Properties.
During the period from 1878 to 1886
he acquired control of number OF
other railroad properties, such as the
Southern Pacific. Missouri-Kansas-
Texas, Texas & Pacific. Iron Mountain
and Wabash. He built the American
Union Telegraph lines, built the cable
company. consolidated American Union
Telegraph with Western Union Tele-
graph and acquired control of Western
Union
I'm building extensions to the rail-
road lines which he bought and in
building the American Union Tele-
graph and his cable company, he
formed what were called construction
companies which raised the cash for
these activities. After the first con-
struction company had been closed out
at a profit of so per cent to the sub
scribers. Mr.. Gould had no difficulty
in raising any amount of money for
the other companies. Every one of
handsome returns. the largest profit
being $50 per cent"
This was period when great per
sona1 fortunes were made. John S
Kennedy, according to Mr.. COnnor
made his fortune by buying Northern
Pacific stock when it was selling
around S. Some of this stock was in
his possession when the corner took
place and 1t sold at 1000.
Their foresight In buying deprecated