J.P. Morgan

“ He gave me a wise little smile when I put the money down on Sharkey.
"Well, it's a pleasure to do business with a man who wants an American to win," he said, "and the hell with the smart dough, eh?"
"Yeah," I said, and tried to smile back, but so much of the smart money was going on Schmeling that I wondered if May Roberts hadn't made a mistake. I couldn't remember who had won. "You know what J. P. Morgan said—don't sell America short."
"I'll take a buck for my share," said a sour guy who barely managed to stand. "Lousy grass growing in the lousy streets, nobody working, no future, nothing!" ”

“ First: There are 56 other corporations (not included in the Pujo schedule) each with capital or resources of over $5,000,000, and aggregating34 nearly $1,350,000,000, in which the Morgan allies are represented according to the directories of directors.
Second: The Pujo schedule does not include any corporation with resources of less than $5,000,000. But these financial giants have shown their humility by becoming directors in many such. For instance, members of J. P. Morgan & Co., and directors in the National City Bank and the First National Bank are also directors in 158 such corporations. ”

“ They were originally fashioned in the Pelao Islands, and brought thence to Uap in canoes over a stretch of four hundred miles of ocean. A very large fei could not be changed into smaller coin without seriously disturbing the currency of the island. The owner of one of these twelve-foot masses of wealth is a sort of J.P. Morgan. Like the man with the million dollar bill in Mark Twain's story, he does not need to break his money in order to pay for anything he may buy, but readily secures all that he desires on credit. ”

“ Mine men, stockholders, and financiers the country over understand this, although the Eastern newspaper-reading public has been taught to believe that this type of promoter must be a Get-Rich-Quick operator.
A broker in Wall Street who speculates in the securities of the New York Stock Exchange for his own account is considered unsafe. E. H. Gary, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Steel Trust, stated under oath at Washington in June that J. P. Morgan never speculates. Ask the average member of the New York Stock Exchange what chances the stock-gambler has. ”

“ It is said J. P. Morgan could raise $10,000,000 on his check any minute; but the man who is raising a large family on $9 a week is a greater financier than Morgan.
To modernize an old prophecy, "out of the mouths of babes shall come much worldly wisdom." Mr. K. has two boys whom he dearly loves. One day he gave each a dollar to spend. After much bargaining, they brought home a wonderful four-wheeled steamboat and a beautiful train of cars. ”

“ These disclosures, towards the end of 1887, ended the first period of active Garrett management in the Baltimore and Ohio. The directors then turned to New York bankers for the cash that was needed to put the affairs of the company on a sound basis. Samuel Spencer, who afterward became a partner in the banking house of J. P. Morgan and Company, was elected president and active manager. He introduced radical reforms, entirely revolutionized the organization, and adopted modern methods. ”

“ The plan by which the defendant carriers were enabled to carry out this scheme and apportion among themselves proportionate interests in the property acquired and the burden to be assumed was not simple, but elaborate. The financial arrangements seem to have been made through Mr. Baer, who was the president of and a large stockholder in the Temple Company, and Mr. R. J. Bacon, of the firm of J. P. Morgan 3 Company. ”

“ It is the controlling consideration in its effect on competition in the railroad and industrial world.”
HAVING YOUR CAKE AND EATING IT TOO
But the power of the investment banker over other people’s money is often more direct and effective than that exerted through controlled banks and trust companies. J. P. Morgan & Co. achieve the supposedly impossible feat of having22 their cake and eating it too. They buy the bonds and stocks of controlled railroads and industrial concerns, and pay the purchase price; and still do not part with their money. ”

“ Ogilvy that temporary franchise mentioned in his telegram, it might help me to get in right with J.P.M, at the start,” his hopeful suggested. “I guess it would be kind of poor to be taken on as one of the regular staff of attorneys for a Morgan corporation, eh? Say, they pay those chaps as high as fifty thousand dollars a year retainer!”
“Guarantee it!” his father shouted. “Guarantee it! Well, I should snicker! We'll just show J. P. M. and his crowd that they made no mistake when they picked you as their Sequoia legal representative. ”

“ It is unnecessary to review the evidence; it is too voluminous. The question is one of fact and estimation, and we will content ourselves by stating the conclusions at which we have arrived.
We are of opinion—
(1) That Williams & Thomson had such an interest, and were so situated in the cause, that they had a right, by leave of the court, to except and object to the charges and allowances presented by the trustees and receivers, and that they had a right to appeal from the decree of the circuit court to this court.
(2) That the said decree was a final decree for the purposes of an appeal. ”

“ On the twelfth of March, 1875, they filed a bill for foreclosure and sale of the mortgaged property in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Louisiana, and were appointed receivers in addition to their character as trustees. The railroad covered by the mortgage was the road running along the gulf between Mobile and New Orleans, and was in a dilapidated condition, needing new bridges, new embankments, and extensive repairs, as well as rolling stock and machinery. ”

“ The Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company furnish $5,000,000 in bonds to be used for the purchase. A portion is to be used to buy the bonds of the old company; a part to pay preferential charges and claims, and to return the property, amounting to $300,000. These two persons are to have the remnant not consumed by those charges on that fund. So, to make their commissions or brokerage or compensation larger, they come to contest with trustees, attorneys, and officers of court who for five years have been at work. ”

“ Each sporangium traversed by a central subcylindric hollow columella, which extends also to the branches, but does not reach to their apices. Capillitium of slender threads, more or less branched, and combined into a network. Spores globose, violaceous.
Spumaria is essentially related to Didymium by the crystals of lime upon the walls of the sporangia. Rostafinski's figure 158 can only be regarded as ideal or diagrammatic. I am disposed to question the existence of the central columella altogether; if it does exist, it must be extremely defective. ”

“ Their contracts are with a voluntary committee of bondholders who have made a purchasing agreement. They have not purchased the railroad nor purchased the bonds, but have m de an agreement with the committee that they should purchase and sell to the railroad on a variety of conditions which may not be fulfilled. Any higher bidder may acquire the railroad. The trustees have a reserved right and obligation to purchase the road. Williams & Thomson may not appear and carry out one word of the engagement, or comply with the conditions to bind the buyer with the bondholders' committee. ”

“ If such an agreement should be obtained, then the railroad, franchises, equipment, and property should be sold under a decree of foreclosure and sale in the pending cause according to law, and bid in by the committee for the purpose of carrying out the arrangement. It was also agreed that the receivers and trustees should, by the Louisville Company, or in some other satisfactory manner, be protected from all their obligations and liabilities ”

“ Their status as bondholders and otherwise does not seem to have been denied. As bondholders, and as interested under the second mortgage, if not under the purchasing agreement, we do not well see how the court, under the circumstances, could have refused their application. The trustees themselves, who were the nominal complainants, were the parties interested to obtain large allowances for themselves, and could not be relied on to have them reduced. ”

“ The surface of the æthalium is often covered by a continuous layer of some excreted substance, which is called the common cortex.
The wall of the sporangium, typically, is a thin, firm membrane, colorless and pellucid, or colored in various shades of violet, brown, yellow, etc.; it is sometimes extremely delicate, as in Lamproderma, or is scarcely evident, as in Stemonitis; in other instances it is thickened by deposits on the inner surface, as in Tubulina, or by incrustations on the outer surface, as in Chondrioderma. ”

“ Sporangia simple and stipitate or sessile, sometimes plasmodiocarp, rarely combined into an aethalium; the wall a thin membrane, usually with an outer layer of minute roundish granules of lime. Stipe present or often wanting, seldom prolonged within the sporangium as a columella. Capillitium consisting of slender tubules, which branch repeatedly in every direction and anastomose to form an intricate network, the extremities attached on all sides to the wall of the sporangium ”

“ He was primarily a banker, and, as such, acted as an agent for wealthy clients in the investment of money. Some people would call him a practical railroad man, a steel manufacturer, a coal operator, because he was interested in such things and dealt in them. But Mr. Morgan was essentially a worker with money — a master of finance. While his business was a partnership, and not a corporation, he was its dominant factor. No man had greater influence in financial and industrial circles, nor was any individual more trusted. ”

“ They have no right to contest the claims or the accounts of the plaintiffs or those of the attorneys. They must take the property as they find it and the charges on it should they purchase the property. ”

“ Capillitium of tubules forming a loose net-work, with wide expansions at the angles; the nodules of lime numerous, white, very large, with pointed angles and lobes, by confluence often branched and reticulate, [Pg 100] and occasionally forming a pseudo-columella in the center of the sporangium. Spores globose, minutely warted, dark violaceous, 10–13 mic. in diameter.
Growing on old wood, leaves, etc. The sporangia .4-.6 mm. in diameter, more or less irregular. The great abundance of lime in the capillitium and the large distinctly warted spores distinguish this species. ”

“ A number of plasmodia collect together from every side and become fused into a single body, often of considerable dimensions; from these combinations originate the large spore-receptacles which are called æthalia. ”

“ Morgan was recognized as a colossal figure in the world of finance, and his counsel and presence were always influential. His breadth of vision, keenness of conception, and ability to immediately grasp and understand the most difficult problems made him a giant power among financial men in all parts of the world. By many prominent financiers and business men he was looked upon as the greatest financier the world has produced for at least a century. ”

“ Combination and control of other people’s money and of other people’s businesses. These are the main factors in the development of the Money Trust. But the wealth of the investment banker is also a factor. And with the extraordinary growth of his wealth in recent years, the relative importance of wealth as a factor in financial concentration has grown steadily. It was wealth which enabled Mr. Morgan, in 1910, to pay $3,000,000 for $51,000 par value of the stock of the Equitable Life Insurance Society. ”

“ Now, since a, B, b, A, are integers, so also is P; and thence Q; and thence R, etc. But since A/B, P/A, Q/P, R/Q, etc. are all between -1 and +1, it follows that the unlimited succession of integers P, Q, R, are each less in numerical value than the preceding. ”

“ Morgan steadily achieved the consolidation of the greater industries into trusts or combinations and effected a community of interests between them and a few dominant banking organizations, with allied insurance companies and trust companies. In New York City have been centered, as never before, the banking reserves of the nation, and here, by the financial management of capital and speculative promotion, there has grown up a unified control over the nation's industrial life. ”

“ VII—MORGAN—FINANCIER
No study of the men of our time would be complete without considering one of the famous financiers of the present age of wealth. Among a group of several, J. Pierpont Morgan stands easily first as the greatest organizer.
Born in Connecticut in 1837, he studied in Boston and later in Germany, and at the age of twenty became a banker. His first large business deal, however, was in the acquisition of a railroad, taking it from the hands of an infamous ring who controlled it and reorganizing [Pg 166] it. After this he adopted the syndicate method for floating bonds. ”

“ Morgan and his partners are usually large owners in the companies they influence or even control. Often they do not own 15 per cent. of the stock of the banks they dominate. Often they become directors with but a few shares of qualifying stock. Still more often their influence is exerted merely as financial advisers. Often they nominate the president of a [Pg 616] railroad or manufacturing company as Morgan & Co. ”