MAGNATE RETIRES WITH £20 000 000.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 27 July 1907, Page 4

MAGNATE RETIRES WITH £2O 000 000.

iff Thomas P. Ryan, the financial magnate who began life as a clerk in a lialtimorc store, lias retired from business with a fortune of about twenty million" sterling. Mi' Ryan is only fifty-lite, but he has had had enough of the streiiuousness of Wall street. His position is a remarkable one. and there is probably no man living who has exercised so much control in so many powerful organisations. lie was a director of thirty-five corporations, and his interests included tramways, electric railways, insurance, pas and electrical companies. TTe was also a director of the St. Paul and the IVum Pacific lines, 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 sale's 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 re<wntlv Mirroundcd the concern. Mr Harriman. the railroad magnate, who aspired to the control, was completely out-manoeuvred by Mr Ryan, who bought out Mr Hyde's interests. He afterwards ileclared that if he had lint obtained possession of the Equitable at this time the greatest financial panic America had ever seen would have been precipitated. liefore he was twenty-five Mr liyan had made a considerable fortune. He soon deserted the Baltimore stove in which he began life, and entered a New York stockbroker's linn iu a humble capacity. It was not long before he was abb* to purchase a seat lor himself on the Stock Exchange. His last trip to Europe resulted in bis "Wfiii" some valuable concessions in the Congo from the King of Belgium. Mr Rvan is now hopeful that he will be elected as United Wales Senator from Virginia, where he has a palatial countrv lioni".