WEALTH WITHOUT LIMIT

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4313, 23 March 1901, Page 8 (Supplement)

WEALTH WITHOUT LIMIT

THE HUGE FORTUNES OF AMERICAN MILLIONAIRES. The fortunes of 100 years . ago Were puny indeed beside the aggregation* of wealth piled up in America by a score of men. The mention of the sums non at the command of a Rockefeller or a Morgan would have seemed in 1800 to be the suggestion of a personal power so unlimited as to be monstrously impossible. In the year 1900 23 millionaires of America increased their already grelat fortunes by no less than £60,000,000. Mr John I). Rockefeller, whose wealth passes the £100,000,000 mark, alone swelled his wealth by £30,000,000. All this was not in cash. Much of it waj on paper, but is gilt-edged collateral, and thet borrowing' power of the owner is consequently increased. Moreover, interest and dividends are being paid upon these holdings and greater profit would not accrue if the paper were Exchanged at its full value for gold. When men who. operate on this scale win on one line of stock they re-invest their gains. What else-can a man with millions do with his money but speculate with it? But where there was one winner there were unnumbered losers. The little fellows all helped to swell the total of the gigantic sum won by the 23 giants at the stock-gambling same. It was a year for the Titans of Wall street, and little recked they how many thousand minor traders were ruined, provided their great deals went through to complete success and showed unprecedented profits. £2,ft)0,000 A MONTH. It is easy to estimate Mr Rockefeller’s gains during 1900. Eearly in. the year he stated under oath that he owned £6,200,000 in Standard Oil Stock. That stock advanced 400 points before the year was out, being now valued at j early £IBO, its par value being £2O. A moment’s calculation will shew that Mi Rockefeller’s fortune in this one hue increased just £24,800,000 in the year 1900. .Mr Rockefeller operated heavily in the stock of half a dozen railways, and co-operated with Mr J. Pierpont Morgan and Mr James, J. Hill in the formation of a cpllossal railway combination. All these roads were affected by the general stock boom, and Mr Rockefeller's holdings increased some £5,100,000 in value. Altogether, therefore, he amassed £30,000,000.

Mr W. K. Vanderbilt, the bead of the Vanderbilt family and the largest individual holder of railway securities in the United States, speculated on a tremendous scale throughout 1900.' He is a daring operator, but depends on the steady' growth of prosper' "v to bring him out a winnek. He lias unlimited. confidence in the future of America, andi this abounding hope is a large factor in all of his heavy investments. . ■ « ’ He is' an export in railway moti-rs, i and can lay metals, drive an engine, or manage a grekfc system with equal ease. On sheer merit he could hold any ulaco in a railway’s gift. He is courageous, has the Vanderbilt’s I oris of speculation on a.grand scale, and ho was nover so successful as in the year just over. There was ho limit to his investments, and he profited proportionately. ' By sheer speculation alone he won a sum, which his broker’s books show was iio less than £5,000,000. What the increased value of bis holdings is worth to him is harder to calculate, but £1,000,000 is not an over-estimate. MR MORGAN’S COUPS. Mr J. Pieipont Morgan was also n heavy gainer in the year. In coal stocks and in the securities of the Northern Pacific and Erie railways he netted £4,-. 000,000. His two pet projects, which |

be laboured afc all the year, did not really reach perfection until last month, so they are left out of the calculationThose were the anthracite coal combination and the trunk line railway consolidation.

An incident of the year shows how ready Mr Morgan is to grasp an oppoitunity. Whan the great coal strike was on and stocks were clown, there being no prospect of settlement, Mr Mark Hanna, campaign manager for Mr 21 Kinley, came to Mr Morgan and told him that the 'strike would have to be settled forthwith, as the position cf the mine-owners was such that the Republican party would lose votes. Mr Morgan called a meeting of the mine-owiieis that Mr Hanna might deliver his ultimatum.

Mr Morgan did not go into, the meeting, whose purport he then, of all tho coal magnates, alone knew. Hurrying to his office, he ordered his agents to buy every coal share that could be secuied. He knew that Mr Hanna and the President would have their way, and tho prices would fly upward. When the coal men came out of the meeting they wore amazed to find that tho ticker showed a heavy rise in valuables, and that Mr Morgan was some millions wealthier.

It will bo remembered that when Mr James R. Keene was in Londofi last year he peßistentJy declared that American prices were false, and that there must be a great decline. In brief, he insisted that tho boom was fictitious. Mr John W. Gates and Mr Jacob Field, who were therel, joined with him, and tho guileless city men of several newspapers took all they said for granted. The result was that the British holders of American stock sold “calls” —that is to say, they agreed to selll certain lines of stock in specified amounts at a fixed future time for a definite price, which in every case was but a few points in advance of tbe ruling quotations. Messrs Keene, Gates, and Field bought up all the “calls” that could be had. , BRITISH INVESTORS DUPED.

Tha result was that when the stock thus beared down rose from 10 to 30; points, the trio made the British holders deliver or pay the difference). 1 Mr James It. Keene cleared £1,000,000 profit, and Messrs Gates and Field likewise gained £1,000,000 each. Easier; money was natver made, Tho newspapers I which aided the trio are now considered ■by the losers as either very guileless or; very guileful. j Mrs Hetty Gree, of New York, the Amazon of Wall Stretet, showed splendid judgment in speculation, and added last year £2,000,000 to her fortune of £l2,- i 000,000. She foresaw Mr Morgan’s plan • for a coal trust, and quietly bought all i the stock she could secure in the com- 5 panies concerned. • When Mr Morgan ; Came to buy he found that Mrs Ilcibty ; Green was the largest.stockholder, to be reckoned with, and she exacted £600,000 profit from the financier whom she outwitted.

The other great winnings weire distributed as follows : —Mr Russel Sage, £3,000,000; the Gould estate, James Stillman, James J. Hill, A. A, Hausmann and Co., and Mr Thomas M. Lawson won £2,000,000 each; Mr D. O. Mills, Mr H. H. Rogers, and Mr William C. Whitney each made £1,000,000. Quite a number made from £200,000 to £400,000, but it is not worth while to name them.

The estimates of profit givOti above are the result of careful calculations made by, expert writers on Wall street affairs, and in nearly every case the details of the transactions can be given as entered on the brokers’ books.