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Show J. PIERPONT MORGAN'S ORGANIZING ABILITY . S) His Methods Have Revolutionized the "World of Finance. N OTHING in ancient or modern history his-tory can surpass, or even approach, ap-proach, the power that in the last few years has gathered and grown of itself around the throne of the world's giant financier. J. P. Morgan, j His power is felt not alone in the j busy world of the bulls and bears, but ' is so far-reaching that by a turn of his ; finger he can make his name felt in : the furthest corners of the globe. I Apart from his landed -enterprises, he is now practically in command of the I Atlantic ocean and the ships that sail I thereon. His personality is very marked. It is recorded that a priest who went to visit ' f Wk, J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Morgan on behalf of the coal miners min-ers during the last big strike, returned to his home and said: "I saw many wonderful sights in Xew York, but Mr. Morgan is the most wonderful thing I ever saw in my life anywhere." Hates the Photographer. The great financier has more than one peculiarity. While he hates to be photographed, he has no objection to being looked at. Indeed, he works in an office that is separated from the main Morgan offices by only a glass partition. New Yorkers allude to Morgan's Mor-gan's office as "the glass cage." Of course, any one may enter the main office, and so a peep at the august personage per-sonage is not difficult to obtain. However, How-ever, this is about as near to Morgan as the average man can get. He is distinctly dis-tinctly an autocrat. Of course, it is not impossible to secure an interview with I him that is. to sit for a few minutes in his private office for an interview generally consists in the visitor doing all the talking, while Mr. Morgan listens list-ens until the end of his visitor's remarks, re-marks, when Mr. Morgan says, "No." Sometimes he says "Yes," but those two words seem the entire Morgan vocabulary so far as interviews are concerned. When he does not want to answer a question direct, he closes his mouth like a steel trap and will not answer at all. He js short and vigorous,, vigor-ous,, and his manner can put a man out of his .office quicker than any prizefighter prize-fighter on record could manage it. When he says "No." there is no mistake about it, and no chance that it will not be heard. He Is aggressive to the point Of fierceness- lie impresses von ns a man who must have forced his way by unquenchable energy. It seems impossible impos-sible to believe that, he controls as he does, the destinies of more enterprises than any other living man, with the willing consent of the people interested. "Won't Have a. Secretary. A glance through the office of the magnate will imprest his traits of character char-acter on the mind.; Every one hops through the hopp when Mr. Morgan moves. The routine business of the office of-fice is pursued like clockwork. The quiet, gentle tones of the employes show-that show-that they are not. used to any exhibition exhibi-tion of self-opinion. It is evident they are not paid so much to think as to obey. One peculiarity of Mr. Morgan is he will not employ a private secretary- He has been 'questioned many times on this peculiar notion.but never has given giv-en any satisfactory . answer to the inquiries. in-quiries. He transacts an enormous amount of business himself, and dictates dic-tates a large volume, of correspondence, but the letters which the average man of large enterprise usually confines to his private secretary, Mr. Morgan confines con-fines to no one. He attends to them himself. Though this involves a great deal of work, Mr. Morgan never complains com-plains about it. It is a good thing for him he does not have to attend to the whole of the Morgan correspondence, or even look after the detail of sorting it, for this is more than any one man could attend to. The Morgan mail is something stupendous. stu-pendous. In fact, it involves the running run-ning of a small postoffiee in the Mor- gan offices. Seven men are employed in this department alone: The mail ' arrives all day long. The first batch , frequently fills two wagons. Three men i are kept busy all day sorting the let- ters and putting them into their re- , spective boxes to be carried in turn bv boys to the different heads of departments. depart-ments. Each letter is stamped in the j ; Morgan office, showing the exact time it was delivered there. Any delay can , be traced to its source without much , trouble. The filing of these letters after they are read involves a great deal of work, which, with the copying of the answers, an-swers, fills out the most elaborate private pri-vate postal system in the world. The letters are first divided into foreign and domestic; then they are subdivided, subdivid-ed, there being compartments for each I country and each state in the Union. Then there is classification of their business relation letters of inquiry, letters of instruction, letters pertaining pertain-ing to specific subjects, etc. The whole system is perplexing at first glance, but the men in charge, a' a moment's notice, can procure from the recesses of the enormous file room any letter that ever has been written to the Morgan firm on any subject. It has been figured out that at the current price of real estate in the Wall street district, Mr. Morgan's stor of letters costs him in the space they occupy a yearly rental of about $ln,-000. $ln,-000. As real estate values increase and the mail grows larger, it is hard to tell where this will stop. Several letter let-ter brokers from time to time have approached ap-proached the firm of Morgan & Co. with a view to buying their letters, but all offers have been declined. One man is currently reported to have made an offer of $100,000 for the stock of old letters on hand outside of the active business letters that must, of course, be kept but he could not strike a bargain. , Handicapped by $10,000,000. The power of the personal J. P. Mor-Kan Mor-Kan never has been fully realized by the public. To be?gin with, he is a living liv-ing example of the foolishness of the Platitude that holds It a great handicap to: be born rich. Morgan inherited his banking concern and a little more than $10,000,000 from his father, f. S. Morgan, who in his early years was a farm hand. The fact that J. P. Morgan's private fortune today is conservatively fixed at $150,000,000 shows that he has ' managed to succeed in life despite his early handicap in having $10,000,000 left to him.. Russell Sage once told the writer that the hardest part of the bat-nnn bat-nnn richep was to get the first $1,000,-nem $1,000,-nem "nce 'ou niJke your first $1,000,-000, $1,000,-000, said he, "it is an easy matter to become rich if one is at all careful in his investments." Thus, 'according to the Sage theory, Morgan's great fortune does not necessarily how any proof of marked ability on his part. Even as early as 1890 railroad enterprises enter-prises in the United States representing represent-ing a capitalization of more than $300,-000.000 $300,-000.000 were largely under the control of Morgan, and since then his control has grown in proportion. As an instance, in-stance, he has added to the enterprises whose destinies he practically sways j the great steel trust, with its capital of $1.000.0000,000. All the outlets to the I sea from the northwest and west are practically under the direction of Morgan, Mor-gan, who thus holds in the palm of his , hand this entire section of country and ' its populace by being able to regulate the price of coal. No czar, emperor or king enjoys his power. Personally, he lives a life of luxury. His yacht, th Corsair, is one of the finest in the X. Y. Y. C. fleet, and is a veritable floating palace. His home is palatial. There have been many speculations made as to what disposition he will make of his wealth, but no indication of the Morgan will has ever reached the nubile ear. |