A GREAT FINANCIER.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VI, Issue 62, 5 August 1897, Page 2

A GREAT FINANCIER.

THE SUCCESSOR TO JAY GOULD. “ By tar the most interesting figure in Wallstreet these days,” says the “ London American,” “ is that of J. Pierpont Morgan, the man who is known as the financial doctor and surgeon of the money district. Jay Gould was a great power in bis time ; everyone feare 1 him, and few respected him. To-day Pierpont Morgan is just as great a power ; all fear him, but all respect him. He could crush and wipe out of existence many a rich man and great firm ; but he is not a destructiouist. Ou the other hand, he is the financial prop upon which many a concern leans while trembling upon the verge of bankruptcy. He is the one man whom the Vanderbilt’s fear, and nothing could induce them to antagonise him, lor the * Doctor of V\ all-street-’ is pugnacious, fond of his own way, and a dangerous opponent i-t all times. While his individual wealth is small compared with the money strength of the Vanderbilts, lie practically wields more power in the financial affairs of the couni ry tb.au any other dozen men. He controls absolutely the tens upon tens of millions of American securities held by wealthy Englishmen and English corporations. These investors give him absolute control of their American affairs, and he can buy or sell as he pleases. W r ith this great power always at his beck and call he can make or break corporations as he fancies. But it is always : xcrcised in the affirmative sense ; never in the negative. This is where Morgan and Gould differ, Mr. Morgan is popularly supposed to be. worth 50 millions. It is doubtful if he is worth more than half that sum. Yet if he were a sepculator in the gambling sense of the word he could accumulate almost untold wealth. But he is sturdily and unalterably opposed to speculation. The quibbles of the hulls and bears on the floor of the Exchange, fighting and shouting to get the best of an eighth fluctuation, be regards*as a species of petty finance. Personally Mr. Morgan is not a pleasant man for the stranger to meet. He is gruff and emphatic in speech, wasting no words, and putting all of his tremendous em rgy into the little that he does say. To journalists he is the worst man in New York to try to interview. Theie is not one chance in a hundred of the interviewer being sueci ssi’ul, and the chances are 99 to 1 that he will leave the office feeling that he has been jumped and tra mjiled upun and smashed generally by some ponderous machine. Mr. Morgan is over six feet in height, with a great breadth of shoulder, white hair, grey moustache, and heavy features. Wall-street has long recognised him as its king. Of late years he has been the muster mind which has directed all the great reorganisations in the financial world. He has just completed the work of restoring to healthy activity the Richmond Terminal system, with its tangled ramifications, representing £50,000,000 worth of property. Now he is euga’ged in a similar work with the Erie road. His connection with the Bond Syndicate, formed for the purpose of keeping the Government gold reserve from fading away to nothing, is of such recent date that it scarcely ne< ds mention. During the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes he formed the syndicate which disposed of the £40,000.000 bond issue, enabling the Government to resume specie payment. Bishop Henry C. Potter is better acquainted with the charitable gifts of Mr. Morgan than anyone else ; hut he is a man who can never he induced to talk when he has been cautiom d to keep silent. It has been said that Mr. Morgan gives £250,000 a year in charity. There is only one fad that Mr. Morgan has, and that is the raising of collio dogs.”