MAGNATE RETIRES WITH £20,000,000.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11123, 24 July 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAGNATE RETIRES WITH £20,000,000.

y ; NEW YORK, June 2. "■;.. Mr Thomas E. Ryan, the' financial magnate who began life as a clerk in a Baltimore store, has retired. from business with a fortune of ' about twenty millions sterling.- -, / '"Mr Ryan is only fiftyrfive, but he has had; enough of the strenuoushess of Wallstreet. His position is a remarkable one, and there is probably no man living' who has * exercised spT much cbntrolin so many •ffowerful Organisations. '": He was; a director of , thirty-five great corporations, and his interests * included tramways, electric' railways, insurance, gas arid electric companies. He was also a directorof the ; St. Paul and the Uriipn Pacific lipes, the American "" Tobacco Trust, and the Morton Trust Company, a banking institution. ' For the last twelve months he has been gradually, disposing of his interests, and the sales of the stock he held is partly accountable for the recent heavy slump in American securities. One of Mr Ryan's greatest financial coups was his. capture ; of the control of the Equitable Assurance Company at the height of the period of scandals that recently surrounded that coiicern. J ' Mr Harriman, the railroad magnate, wbo aspired to the control, . was completely out-manoeuvred by Mr Ryarij who bought out Mr Hyde's interests. A He afterwards declared that it he had riot obtained possession of the Equitable at this time .the greatest financial "panic America had ever seen would have been precipitated. Before he was twenty-five Mr Ryan had made a considerable fortune. ;He soon deserted thej Baltimore store in which he |began life, arid entered a New York ■' stockbroker's firm in a humble capacity. It .was not. long before he was able to purchase a seat for -himself iri the Stock, Exchange. ■'•'. His last trip to. Europe resulted in his getting some valuable concessions in the Congo from the King of .the Belgians. , Mr Ryan is now : hopeful that he will be elected as United States Senator from Virginia, where he has a palatial country home. ■...-, , / . ■■■/■