EASILY MADE MILLIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

EASILY MADE MILLIONS.

FIFTY-ONE AMERICAN CAPITALISTS INCREASE THEIR INCOMES BY A MILLION EACH.

Last year proved a highly prosperous one—on paper—for the millionaires of the United States.

Mr John Rockefeller .made more money in 1898 than anybody else. His profits for the twelve months amounted to no less than £6,000,000, due chiefly to the great rise which took place in the value of 'giltedged' securities, such as the bonds of the St. Paul, Pennsylvania, North-western, and Consolidated Railways.

Mr Cornelius Vanderbilt and Mr W. K. Vanderbilt contrived to make £4,000,000 each, or rather their capital did for them, seeing that their profits were cecasioned by the advance in price of the securities in which it was invested.

The same ■ cause contributed to the £3,000,000 made by Mr Russell Sage, who also reaped large profits from his extensive money-lending transactions. A similar sum accrued to Mrs Hetty Green out of her judicious operations in real estate, and the upward movement of stocks and shares. She is also said to have made money by not spending any—a remark which applies equally to Mr Russell Sage.

Mr William Rockefeller finished the year with a sum of £2,000,000 to the good, as did also Messrs Roswell P. Flower, J. Pierpont Morgan, Philip D. Armour, Geo. J. Gould, and John Jacob Astor.

Mr J. Pierpont Morgan is a banker and railroad organiser, and his profits arose from reorganisation schemes of the Erie, Northern Pacific, Southern, and Hocking Valley Railway. It is said that he cannot be induced to undertake the reorganisation of a railway for less remuneration than £200,000. How Mr George J. Gould contrived to make his £2,000.000 may be gathered from the extraordinary rise in the price of Missouri Pacific and Texas Pacific shares, in which he was largely interested. In 1897 the Missouri Pacific were as low as lOdol. a share, but last year, they rose to 50 :lois. Texas Pacific increased no less than 230 per cent, in value. As many as ten Americans are credited with profits of £1,000,000 each. They are Messrs D. O. Mills, Charles T. Yerkes (of Observatory fame), William C. Whitney, H. O. Havemeyer, P. A. B. Widener, W. L. Elkins, Thomas H. Ryan, Anthony N. Brady, John W. Mackay, and H. M. Flagler. Messrs Nelson Morris and Edwin Gould added £700,000 each to their wealth; and Messrs Collis P. Huntington.George Crocker, W. S. Stratton, and W. W. ■ Astor £600,000 each. The profits of the big industries of the United States amounted last year to £256,000,000, which shows that the country can now produce in twelve months wealth to more than double the value of everything in the whole of the States a hundred years ago.

All of these millions, however, might be called unreal, as the figures are based on the fluctuations of the stock market. They exist only on paper.

With a panic in Wall-street—which the bears predict—these millions would all vanish in an hour. Thus Mr Rockefeller has already 'lost' as well as 'gained' several millions.