470 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



jewel of great prii His favourable 



opinion, in the later days of his 

 supremacy, was sufncienl to insure suc- 



>s 



A CONSTRUCT IVE SPENDER. 



It was, however, as a spender, rather 

 than as an accumulator, that Mr. Mor- 



i occupied the mosl unique place 

 among .ill the men of his time. Let it 

 be said to his everlasting credit that 

 his spending of money had always a 

 constructive, not a destructive, influence. 

 He lived richly, but was not guilty of 

 vulgar and demoralising display. He 

 distributed immense sums of money, 

 but in doing so, did not weaken or cor- 

 rupt the social structure. I lis philan- 

 thropies were simply enormous, and 

 most of them were unknown. Many of 

 them were even unsolicited. Mr. Choate 

 has snid publicly that the amount of 

 money Mr. Morgan gave probably ag- 

 gregated as much as the fortune he be- 

 queathed to his heirs. He did not apply 

 scientific investigation to philanthropy, 



Mr. Rockefeller has done with such 

 astonishing efficiency, but Mr. Morgan's 

 intuition in giving was almost as unerr- 

 ing as his judgment in finance ; and it 

 came to pass that Mr. Morgan finally 

 became a sort of court, not of last, but 

 first, resort in matters of philanthrophy 

 as in business. If he said "yes," then 

 the object for which it was proposed 

 to raise money thrived ; if he said " no," 

 it was abandoned or postponed. When 

 he gave, he gave promptly and liberally. 



A GREAT ART AMATEUR. 



But Mr. Morgan not only gave freely 

 to public objects and private charity, 

 but he also spent enormous sums in the 

 satisfaction of his own taste. Here 

 11 wonderful to relate — his judg- 

 ment rarely erred, and his spending was 

 beneficent in its social effects. I al- 

 lude, of course, to Mr. Morgan's art 

 purchases. Mr. DeForest, vice-presi- 

 dent of the Metropolitan Museum of 

 Art (Mr. Morgan was himself the presi- 

 dent) has declared that Morgan was the 

 greatest art collector and art amateur in 

 the world. He spent millions upon mil- 

 lions in collecting, but the value of his 

 art possessions is probably two or three 

 times what he paid for them. How 



vastly he has aided art by his purchases 

 no one can calculate. Certainly the 

 people of the United States have no 

 cause to complain of Mr. Morgan in 

 this phase of his career. His art posses- 

 sions are now in the States. Many of 

 them are in public museums, and all of 

 them, whether public or private, will 

 continue to be held for the inspiration 

 of art and the cultivation of the beauti- 

 ful in life, for many years to come. 



HIS PERSONAL LIFE. 

 Of the personal, intimate, side of his 

 life, not much has been said or perhaps 

 can be said, for while he was a public 

 man, he did not live much in public. 

 It is known that he had behind his 

 veneer of brusqueness, a gift for friend- 

 ship, and that he could and did inspire 

 affection. One of his partners could 

 not trust himself to attend the Morgan 

 memorial meeting in the Chamber of 

 Commerce for fear that he would be 

 overcome by his feelings. Senator 

 Root's voice broke when he spoke in 

 that meeting of his departed friend. 

 There were tears seen in the eyes of a 

 great captain of industry at that meet- 

 ing, though he is a man whom the yel- 

 low press delights to picture as a mon- 

 ster of rapacity. The Bishop of New 

 York spoke to me with almost a sob 

 in his voice of his thirty years' intimate 

 association with Mr. Morgan. There 

 was something higher and finer and bet- 

 ter than rank commercialism or cold 

 calculation in Mr. Morgan to inspire 

 the affection of such men as these. Mr. 

 Morgan was a staunch churchman. A 

 fellow vestryman of his in St. George's 

 Church testifies that he never missed a 

 meeting of the vestry when he was in 

 the States. This is not a " fashionable " 

 church. Its principal work is among 

 the poor. He often " passed the plate " 

 there on Sundays. He was a delegate 

 to, and attended all the conventions of 

 the America Episcopal Church. His 

 last public appearance was at an Easter 

 service in Rome a few davs before his 

 death. 



The qualities which made Morgan a 

 leader among men were his intuition, 

 his courage, his fidelity to his word, his 

 imagination, and his ability to select 

 men in whom he could put his trust. 



