JOHX C/ERPOXT MORG 1 \ 



46.9 



ings, or made a single suggestion, but 

 confined himself to voting on the 

 various resolutions. It was 1 871 that 

 Mr. Morgan, then thirty-four years old, 

 entered into partnership with Anthony 

 J. Drexel, the great Philadelphia 

 banker, and laid the foundations of the 

 now existing international banking 

 house. Mr. Morgan had by this time 

 attained prominence in the financial 

 world, but he was still far from the 

 position of leadership, and for a num- 

 ber of years he was even in his own 

 firm overshadowed by the larger dis- 

 tinction of Mr. Drexel. 



FORTY YEARS OF PREPARATION. 

 It was not until after he was forty 

 years old that Morgan became num- 

 bered among the first dozen or so men 

 in American business who must be con- 

 sulted in the largest transactions ; and 

 it was only in the last twenty-five year? 

 of his life that he was commander-in- 

 chief. Fort}- years of preparation ! 

 That is an object-lesson that may have 

 some value even in these days when 

 young men are eagerly seeking leader- 

 ship in business without that maturity, 

 stability, and character which long ex- 

 perience gives. The secret of Mr. Mor- 

 gan's ability to retain for so many 

 years the supreme direction of affairs, 

 hi- continuing intellectual and bodily 

 vitality after he had passed the half- 

 century mark, may be found chiefly in 

 those fort\' years of maturing powers. 

 He did n< t waste himself in his early 

 manhood ; therefore he was a giant in 

 his old age. 



PLAIN YES OR NO. 

 Allusion has been made to Mr. Mor- 

 gan's long silence as illustrated by the 

 anecdote of his " dummy directorship." 

 Like General Grant, whom he resembled 

 in some other respects, he was always a 

 man of few words. He had absolutely 

 no gift of public speech, although at 

 times he displayed a remarkable power 

 of verbal characterisation in some strik- 

 ing phrase which in a single sentence, 

 like "the panic of undigested securi- 

 ties," summed up a financial situation. 

 He listened, but said little, but his de- 

 cisions, often expressed in a simple 

 " Yes " or " No," became 111 the financial 



world like an opinion from the Supreme 

 Court in the legal world. He was a 

 member of many of the prominent clubs 

 and associations of the world's great 

 cities ; he attended many meetings, he 

 sat at many public banquets, but he 

 never made a speech. He did not in- 

 herit, nor did he cultivate, the art of 

 winning popularity. He was often short 

 and brusque in his manner, although 

 this brusqueness was not of the heart, 

 but rather was a shield against in- 

 truders and trespassers upon his time. 

 Mr. Morgan was indeed a statesman 

 in his world-wide knowledge and influ- 

 ence ; but he was no politician. He 

 did not know how to curry popular 

 favour. He could solve big business 

 problems in a day, while other men 

 were struggling with them for months, 

 but he was not an expert in influencing 

 public opinion. 



A GREAT MONEY MAKER. 



Mr. Morgan was a great money 

 maker, but he was equally distinguished 

 as a money spender. To form a true 

 estimate of his position and power, one 

 must understand his genius in these two 

 directions. He was no miser. He was 

 in business to make money, but not for 

 the mere sake of accumulation. The 

 public has not been informed of the 

 amount of his wealth ; perhaps he did 

 not know himself. But this is certain, 

 that while he had the opportunity of 

 becoming the richest man in the world, 

 he was not the richest man. His power 

 is not to be found in the number of his 

 own millions, but in the billions of 

 which he was the trustee. No man ever 

 controlled the money of other people 

 in such tremendous sums as he did : 

 and he charged high for his trusteeship. 

 Undoubtedly he delighted in driving a 

 good bargain both in selling bonds and 

 in buying arl objects; but however 

 much he made, the other people to the 



irgains did not seem to lose. Criticism 

 has been made of the enormous toll he 

 sometimes levied upon the operations 

 which he conducted for others. But he 

 was like the great surgeon who charges 

 .1 big fee for an operation taking only 

 a few minutes : what he was charging 

 for was not time, but experience and 

 skill. Mr. Morgan's judgment was a 



