The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-09-03
J p MORGAN at IS is Called Just Another Banker
Famous Financier Still
Goes to Work Each Day
By ROBERT RUARK

dSSuIdIlCe tIidt IlODOuy ID soih6
to blame him for getting Amer
lea into World War III. 1t is a
fairly comfortable feeling for the
old gentleman, who spent the
better part of 20 years denying
accusations that the House of
Morgan had helped to involve
the nation in the first European
mess.
Whereas the House of Morgan
pretty we'll carried World War
/ on its back, in the current
conflict it is just another bank
and not such huge one, either.
And j. p. Morgan, at rs, is just
another banker, with a passion
for privacy and tulips. The pri-
vacy is as strict as ever, but he
has a new variety of tulip to
play with on his estate at Glen
Cove, L. l. For the first time in
the flowers history, Mr.. Nor
gan's tulips have definite,
pleasant odor.
!: Despite rumors that he is fold
ing his financial wings prepar-
atory to retirement, Morgan still
comes to work every day, ar
irving about IL, leaving at S.
This is a routine he has followed
for years, since he succeeded his
father in 1913. He spends an av-
erage hour at the Morgan Lii
brary at 36th Street between
Madison and Park Avenues. His
evenings are divided between a
few choice friends and his books.
He sometimes gets up very early
to work on his flowers. He is
deeply interested in war news,
and hangs on the radio for latest
bulletins.
ILLS OF WORLD WERE
BLAMED ON MORGAN
1t has taken Morgan long
time to drop the guise of fin
ancial freebooter who could be
blamed for everything from Jap
anese earthquakes to the de-
preston.
A midget helped humanize
him. The Pecora investigation
failed to discredit him. The ter
rifle spending of the New Deal
dWarfed him as an ikon of cap
italism, and new banking legis-
lation finally deprived the House
of Morgan of some of its lower
ing mysticism by forcing its
Transformation into a corpora
ton.
That was the end of an era.
The common apology for al
most anyone is that he was
misunderstood" In Morgan's
case the term is somewhat JUS
tifiable. Proud as Lucifer, per-
sonally shy, Morgan never both
cred to explain his actions. He
knew nothing whatsoever about
the common folk, and never
cared to improve his knowledge.
Called by press and left wing,
he figuratively told the whole
world to 60 jump in the creek.
He insisted on unbroken pri-
Nacy in his personal life, and
truculently enforced it. In The
public eye, this aloofness, coup
led with his tremendous finan-
cial transactions the half
billion dollar Anglo-French loan
in 1918, for instance made
him into a lengendary figure.
The public got its first infor-
NAL peek at Morgan in 1893, dur
ing a Senate Banking Commit
tee investigation. Senator Carter
Glass of Virginia said that only
peanuts and pink lemonade
were needed to convert the
proceedings into a circus" and
Press Agent Charles Leef of
Ringing Bros. Circus had an
idea.
MIDGET SHATTERED
MORGAN LEGEND
He took a female midget, one
Lya Graf, and plopped her onto
Morgan's knees. Thinking she
was a child, Morgan grinned and
asked her where she lived. Said
Midget Graf: Il live in tent"
Flashbulbs popped, and every
paper in the nation played the
picture.
Morgan was Mortified. He was
actually sick about the business
for days, but some of his associ-
ates privately rejoiced. The oc-
currence took a lot of heat off
the Pecora probe.
Morgan's attitude toward the
press .softened somewhat there
after, so far as his public life
was concerned.
When he is with his few close
friends, Morgan shelves his shy
brusqueness for an air of near
heartiness. He is free talker on
those occasions, smokes big Gig
ars and a pipe. He enjoys good
wines and whisky and gin. In
May, 1888, Morgan registered to
vote in Glen Cove for the first
time in Is years. The main pur-
pose was to vote wet on the
prohibition issue.
HE LIKES YACHTS
AND ROYAL FAMILY
Morgan is light eater for a
big man (six feet tall, 195
pounds) but his appetite inn