One of America’s Rulers.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 20, 15 May 1912, Page 2

One of America’s Rulers.

The Core of J. P. Morgan’s Character.

IF you have nothing else to do to-day for an hour or two, just sit down and ruminate on this question: What would the world be like just now if J. Pierpont Morgan had remained at Gottingen when he was a young man and b ome the profes-or of mathematics? . Would there, for in-tame, be a steel trust for the l.'nit -.1 'states attorneygeneral to prosecute? Would there be a "money trust" —a— inning that there :- one—for the Hou.se of Representatives to investigate? When would the panic of 1967 have ended? Would there have been any panic? What would have been the linanc-ial condition of the railway -V ~:enis —the E. and <?.. the Reading, the

Northern P.u!i’,’ ami the rest? Would the trusts have developed to anything like the same extent? Whatever may be the right answer to these, questions, the mere fact that they ■an be asked plausibly about any one man shows that he is in the class of Titans. He might have lieen a professor of mathematics at Gottingen. He attended the university there, and specialised in that fas filiating science. And about ten years ago, when a number of New Yorkers who had attended that university held a dinner in honour of their old professor of mathematics*, then visiting America. Morgan was one of those present. The old professor, in making h!« after dinner talk looked sadly upon J. P.. and with gentle s-neerity remarked that he wa« glad he had succeeded a« a banker; “but,"’ he went on, “ I regret th.-.t you did not remain at the university. Had you Hayed with me, you would have, been my assistant a« long as I lived, and, unquestionably, at my death you would have lieen appointed professor of matlieniatics in my place.” This story r« told by Pari Hovey in his “Life-Story of J. Pierpont Morgan,”

which, we are told, with nice discrimina« tion, is " authoritative ” but no: ‘’autliO' rised.” This story may be taken to indicate the core of the great- banker’s character. He had never quit specialising in mathematics; but applied mathematics rather than "pure” mathematics has been his speciality since leaving Gottingen. The passion of his life has been a love for exactness —exact statement?; exaet knowledge and exact reasoning. Ai business project not founded on mathematics ha-, for Morgan, nn foundation at all. And you might as well try to introduce sentiment into one of Euclid’s demonstrations as try to intro* duee it into one of Morgan’s big business projects. Not that he is without

sentiment —no sentient being is or can ba —but he rules it out of bu-ine-s. The first great commandment for Mr. Morgan is :‘"Render to Caesar the things that are Caears’s, and to God the things that are God’s”; that is to say, do business on business principles, and business principles, especially banking principles, must revolve around the mult plication table. There can be sentiment in regard to business. So there can he in regard to astronomy. But the man who undertakes to modify his calculations of an eclipse for sentimental reasons will find that lie has i-hoscn the wrong o.cupation, and business. In the long run. is as grimly uiideviating in its obedience to law as Arcturus and the Pleiades are. Morgan knows that, and every other big banker know- it. and many a time gets undeserved cur-e« in consequence. "It is worth while,” -ays Carl Hovey, reflecting upon Morgan’s character along thiis same line, ’* to consider him in the light m which bis old professor saw him-— just long enough to associate with hia personality some of those very definite! traits for which mathematicians are renowned.” Hovey continues:

“As ever; one knows, mathematicians •re very 'set’ in their ways. ami go through life upon a secure basis of settled notions; their love of precise statement, their antagonism to the vague ami indefinite, their somewhat unsocial reliance upon their speciality as comprehending all the wisdom of the world, are equally well known. Mr. Morgan is at least half a mathematician. And so it comes about that the opposite and ’inmathematical side of his nature—his faith and his fire, his impenetrable resolution and strength in action —relates itself inevitably to matters which the hand an grasp and the eye ean see; to a beautiful vase, a promising railroad, a business -oinbiiration in which the gam is as sure as bookkeeping, a hospital in which actual ailing people will he eared for by a. tua! proficient doctor*: but not. it is fair to sav. to some political or social enterprise of which the benefits ire doubtful, and there the sin- ■ vrity and wisdom of the movers remain to l<e demonstrated. - ’ ■ - - i this world, son ' ■ • Morgan is a m • D I womei world ho really onnt may be divided inti tl ■ two lasses—masters of I masters of tl faet. We i son mes tl amers and the dot - : r reallv - ■ ■ me man I a doer. M. raa ■; f ideas, ths vorld s yet to Ideas is s b, until they begin to eml iv themselves in 1 t lemonstrat themseh - in I formulas, do n n his : . n of art seems I to t lose woi ks upon w ' " ■ ■ . a ■’ reial val le. He takes few or no I-:. - - - ;ta the living artists who an' egmuing to "n ke good.” There are many art patrons in Anu i -a who • v;-i. ; less than one tithe of what Mr. Morgan expends ou Art, who exert ten tmrns the power he exerts for the advance of living art and content] ra y art sts. fhe explanation is simple. Fhe other itrons an responsive to - He is not. r < y has ! e -n to - ,] before as. I is ’ . by Mr. Hovey of the Kaisers ■■ tment e er his first meet ing w.-.h Mr. Morgan. Th. y were dining together, and th« Kaiser oj ened the - ’ - * of Socialism. He was “surprised to find that his guest was not in the ' : it rested in a political m< vement 1 - - - . • . - ■ rhe Kais i tfterwar.i. in a letter to a friend, said: -Try as 1 Id, his conversation fail Itoreeal to me that he had any r eom- ] ■’ - n of tl e vast harmn ies an 1 •-oi.rii,;. of the ■ ommercial universe. I was amazed to find him not well informed regarding the historical an! philosophical development of nations. His pediti al economy leaves him un.:oneemed regarding Socialism, •• i..- ii un- . .. ill soon eonstit the most ipendous piestion everywhere.” Mr. Morgan confessed tl at he La l never been sufficiently interested to study into what '■ocialism mean- exactly. And the Kai—r Is said to have remarked: “I ar.idea." Am ther story, that may or may not illustrate the -ails' defect in l.i-’ har-a«-ter, .* t* . I of Morgan - v*-.t -evcral years ago, as a tru-tee tl.e X. Y. Metropolitan Mu-euni. to the <treat, Omm of the Sahara. A young Englishman had been deputed to condt: t the Morgan party aero~s the desert from

the Nile Valley. The yoking Englishman afterward related his experience as follows: — **l had been directed to take charge of Mr. Morgan and hw party in the * penial train he had ordered for the sixhour journey across the desert, a»ad at the station he came up to me and in a jovial manner asked me how I did. This introductory ‘How do you do?’ were almost the only words ”he said to me. For the rest of the six hours he scarcely uttered a syllable, with the exception of two terse questions about the desert. ■’Throughout, the entire journey he appeared to be plunged in the deepest thought: he -at immersed in the profouadest i-onteiiAplatiofi, in the wickerwork arm. ha r in the little saloon. This mood of "ilent thoughtfulness was the more surprising to me, because the journey .s -.» Hill of interest that the ord narj travellei asks numb rless questions along the route. After leaving the alley o: the X.h- the lu»e enters a long and desolate rapine having immense < lift-like walls «-f gray lime-:one. and finally climbs to the weird plateau of th" Lib>a:i D*-t rt. Mr. M« rgan was left ’ - - g this : no one attempted to draw h < attention r • ■ now and then he - - _ - ' ' of iht little 1 its i stations on tin t lun- - - - . ■ • . • 1 . -' : ■ - -■■ :: :. - -_ _• . | ' ' ' - thought Wis < - action as si k g big a’.-I he niu-c nave got through a 1 nun - - . • " ’ - its ; '’ • g eferred press - ’ .. - - - toting about thrni. or it might mean ’hat he Lad "omethh;g .-n his mini too gent t e throw off at v iO i;iue. Taken with other similar ane. dotes it -eems to mean a nature -' : ' - timent and essed by a b . ... - s entin -• divoneJ commercial values.

Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has been the recipient of the I'fraud Cross of the Red Eagle «-f Prussia, the Grand <’r«*ss of the Order of Saints Maur.ee and Lagan,- -f Italy, the badge of the Legion of Honour of France, the badge of the Order *.f Osmanie of Turkey and me,ials of the Queen Victoria Jubilee, the t'orouation of King Edward VII., and the Coronation of King George V., besides var-v-us other -decorations of minor importance.