John Kimberly Mumford

“ Instead of winking at the destruction of values, lining his own pockets, and leaving the bones of an institution for the financial beachcomber, his custom has been to conserve everything of worth—and he could see values where other men could spy nothing but a fee and a lawsuit. ”

“ When the people, one and all, understand that the right of plenty and the right to engage in trade are the fundamentals of liberty, trusts will no longer be productive of anything but good, because it will be possible to regulate them so that their operation shall never approach the stage of confiscation. The danger lies in their monopoly of production, secured by means which are a wrong upon our liberty of will. ”

“ In brushing Segal from its path, Earle discovered, the trust had enmeshed Hipple, who had looted the bank in hope of saving Segal's skin and his own. The building, and a vacant safe therein, were all that the receiver had to work with when he set out to tow into harbor a scuttled, dismantled, and dangerous derelict.
From the beginning of his singular career, Earle's plans of reorganization have been novel in that they were not framed for his own profit, and unique in that plain men could understand them. To the gentle art of professional receivership his method has been a sad blow. ”

“ Business, with him, is simply business. His experience with the Sugar Trust has opened up a wider field to him than that of mere finance. When he handed in his resignation as a director of the Rapid Transit, he had in mind a plan for the public treatment of service corporations. He believes that they should be allowed to make a large profit, and then compelled to expend most of it in improvements and perfection of service. There is strong ground for belief that he has an idea of doctoring the country's ills in the same manner as he would a sick corporation. ”

“ We talk about liberty and shoot off firecrackers, but what we always have in mind is liberty of the body, which is really the smallest part of the matter.
"I believe in the people. Put this matter so that every man can understand it, and I'll bet on the decision of the people every time. The real issue has been obscured by clamor against massed capital. There is the first mistake. People are frightened by big money. Massed capital, the corporation, and organization, are essential to keep us in the forefront of the world's trade, and to support our population. ”

“ He has become an institution. No big company in Philadelphia can fall ill, tangle up its affairs, be mismanaged or robbed, totter, tumble, and go to pieces, but a hurry call is sent for George Earle to come over and patch up the fragments. ”

“ Any trust that is evil must of necessity be doing these things.
"But it is our fault. When a trust robs the government of duties by a secret removal of cargo, or by undervaluation, the government is as guilty as the trust is. ”

“ The only place where his biography could be had was in Philadelphia, where any man you meet in the street can tell you that Earle is a great "business doctor." Like many other big financial men, he has come stealthily to fame. ”

“ For saving money, for making money, he has a natural talent, but perhaps the queerest of his quirks is that he doesn't care—at least, so those say who know him best—whether he makes it for himself or for somebody else. ”

“ This monopoly might take a hundred million dollars unjustly from the people. That is a very possible sum. The beneficiary would certainly be willing to surrender ten per cent of it to perpetuate his privileges—and think what effect ten million dollars, judiciously expended, might have on an election!
"Men have said to me:
"'Why, it is impossible that these people, with unbounded wealth, would resort to such petty forms of thievery as cheating the customs!'
"Nothing that promises gain is impossible to the man who from his youth has made the dollar his guiding star. ”

“ A codirector, who possibly has had to give in to him, says he is a "Jesuit," who lets nothing stand in the way of what he aims to do. That he has craft is plain. If he hadn't, he would have stood a fine chance with some of the financial jugglers he has had to deal with—bankpresidents, for instance, who replaced missing currency with "stage money." ”

“ The sole question for you to decide is whether that institution shall be yours, or that of others, who are earnestly seeking it, and that question you must now answer."—Receiver George H. Earle, Jr., to the creditors and stockholders of the wrecked Philadelphia Real Estate Trust Company.
TO best a heavy-weight octopus in good condition is a first-class performance, and the man who demonstrates his ability to do it can hardly keep from being dragged into the spot-light. ”

“ True, they are robbing us, but what has made the trusts a menace is our lack of understanding and our habitual neglect of essentials. We have spent so much time complaining about the trusts taking our money that we have gone blind to the infinitely greater robbery. ”

“ If any amendment is to be made to the Sherman Act, it should be to provide that under it any man, who can give security for the costs of action, shall have the power to prosecute a trust.
"Legislation, under present conditions, offers no hope of cure. We are not clear in our understanding, we are too mercurial, and lawmaking has become a disease. For any trying condition, and on the flimsiest pretext, we rush to enact laws, ill-considered, ineffectual, some of them in bad faith ”

“ Persistency is ingrowing with him. He looks easy, but is as stubborn as a mule, even in small things. In his automobile, one day, he set out to show a guest William Penn's farm of Stoke Pogis, and missed the way. ”

“ He traces his lineage back through Putnam, Warren, Mad Anthony Wayne, the Otises, and I know not how many more leaders in the Revolutionary struggle. There never seems to be absent from him the consciousness that for everything he does he must by and by be able to render clean accounting to his forefathers. ”

“ I am told that the trusts are already planning a campaign for the modification of this law. They believe that it threatens their freedom of operation. They, it seems, have quickly found the hole in the bag. ”

“ When he went to the first meeting, they said they were glad to see him back.
"It cost me twenty thousand dollars to come," was the laconic reply, and with his acceptance he handed in a sealed envelope. "I may differ from you on the course to be pursued here," he said to the president; "in this envelope is my resignation. You can use it whenever you wish."
A MAN WHO HAS FRIENDS AND FOES
In Philadelphia there is only one opinion now about Earle's ability. There are several about his personality. One man tells you he is a "live wire." The next you meet says he is a "sure-thing man." ”