Concerning Morgan

Judge Elbert Henry Gary permitted the Saturday Evening Post to print last week an interview concerning the late John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), the man who had raised him, a reluctant Illinois lawyer, to head the United States Steel Corp. Said the Judge:

"The people of the United States are reaping today where the late J. Pierpont Morgan sowed."

"If Morgan had not lived and labored it is conceivable that certain early business practices--trade wars, for example--might not now be so universally regarded as errors."

"A Morgan tradition is developing that is wholly false."

"If there ever was a business statesman it was J. P. Morgan."

"I do not know of one in all that brilliant procession, [of] many men who have figured prominently in the business and industrial world, who was the mental equal of J. P. Morgan."

"Mr. Morgan was physically a strong, vigorous man, and in his youth was handsome. When his mind was in action his dark eyes shone like coals of fire, and his magnetic influence over others was beyond accurate and full description. When he was dealing with human affairs, however, the expression in his eyes was that of a tenderhearted, sympathetic woman."

"The domineering man repulses others, while the dominating man attracts them. This is the sharp distinction so many fail to see when they talk of Mr. Morgan."

"He could make the most self-contained of his associates feel the thrill of his achievement."

"I never knew anyone to doubt his personal integrity."

"It was not unusual for competitors of Mr. Morgan to place their entire fortunes in his hands without documentary protection of any kind."

"Though they [his partners] were known as partners, their agreements were those of employes. All the capital was owned by J. P. Morgan. His associates were not entitled by contract to any share of the profits, yet I happen to know that he voluntarily shared with them--and liberally--at the end of each year. . . . He made them all wealthy beyond their dreams."

"I was engaged in the practice of law in Chicago. . . . Mr. Morgan was interested in the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway, known as the Outer Belt Line of Chicago. . . . Having information which was not in possession of Mr. Morgan or his legal staff, I saw instantly that his plan would not work. 'You can't do that under the law,' I explained. 'I don't hire lawyers to tell me what I can't do,' was Mr. Morgan's [famed] report. 'I hire them to tell me how to do what I want them to do'. . . . [From this, some have drawn the unwarranted inference] that he was willing to do an illegal thing if a way could be found to do it; safely. But such," said Judge Gary, "was never the case. His statement to me was merely typical of the challenging way he adopted at times. One was supposed to know that what he planned to accomplish was not in defiance of the law."

"It is not generally known that he was a deeply religious man [Protestant Episcopal]."

"He was just and generous in his judgments. . . . [Once] Mr. Morgan started to retract his [unjust] words, and then suddenly his voice choked and there were tears in his eyes."

"He could not sing well; he was frequently off key, but that did not keep him from trying to sing, and otherwise joining in the gayety."

"His greatest service to the country was in the reconstruction on solid foundations of industries Wrecked by less farseeing management. . . . Morgan was building all the time. The charges for his financial aid were often low and often conservative, even when he was admittedly the only man in the country capable of furnishing this service. But in nearly every case he insisted on having absolute authority to name the new management when he agreed to reorganize an industry. It was not the money he was able to gather to put into such enterprises that made him successful; it was the management."