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Sons Of Powerful Financial Men Win
Success For Themselves
It is not necessarily the man who
writes "junior" after great name
who is the actual heir to the
power of the name. Yet it is more
frequently the case than some of
the moralists of the
"three-generations-from-shirt-sleeves-to-shirt-sleeves"
brand would have it appear. Take
for example half a dozen of this
new generation, some of them sons
by birth, others by business
training and adoption, men who
have just begun to make good
notably the coming rulers in
banking, steel, railroads, oil,
and sugar.
J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr.
J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr., heads the
list by precedence and entrenched
position in the world of finance.
He bears a charmed name, one that
is a commercial branding iron, and
he comes into power at the full
maturity of experience. To the
public the big man who sits in the
glass-enclosed room at 23 Wall
Street is a name. To his
associates he is a solid,
conservative force, readily
accepting responsibility, broadly
grasping the dollar end of any
enterprise, laughing heartily at a
joke bearing upon the issue under
consideration.
"Young J."P." is not fond of
publicity, both naturally and by
virtue of his English training,
gained in the last seven or eight
years in the London house of
Morgan, Drexel & Co. Today, his
education completed, he has
entered fully into his great
responsibilities, and has
engineered some important and
delicate tasks. The fact that only
a few days ago he began to build a
$1,500,000 mansion near Glen Cove,
L.I., indicates that the younger
Morgan is at last going to take up
his real life work here in
America. He will be the Morgan
name and hand associated with
Perkins and Steel and Davison and
the rest of the great firm at 23
Wall Street.
No boy in being forced through the
hard mill of apprenticeship ever
underwent more severe training
than J.P. Morgan, Jr., received at
the hands of his father and his
father's friends. When "Jack"
Morgan, as he was then known, was
graduated from Harvard in 1889 at
the age of 22, his father was a
little doubtful about his
commercial ability. To try him out
he was first placed in the banking
house of Peabody & Co. in Boston.
The next year, in 1890, he married
Miss Jane Norton Grew. His was a
perfectly normal life, such as
many a young man would lead just
out of college.
At the end of a couple of years
the reports of his work were so
favorable that his father took him
into his own office. But it wasn't
a case of favoritism. If he made a
mistake he was lectured for it
just a bit more harshly than any
one else. He had to work harder
than any one else in the place.
There wasn't a moment's let-up in
drumming into him that if he ever
expected to stand even in one of
his father's shoes he would have
to hustle some other applicant out
of the line for them. Then he was
shifted to the London branch of
the firm.When the elder Morgan had
been graduated from Harvard and
went abroad to study finance and
foreign exchange at the University
of Goettingen, he amazed the
professors by his ready grasp of
figures and principles. To a
certain extent this manner of
training was duplicated with the
son. But, of course, as the elder
Morgan was a pioneer it was
impossible to make the son follow
exactly the same trail.
Moreover, the greatest of Morgan's
triumphs had been scored since the
son was graduated from college,
and in almost every one of them it
was possible to give him some
subordinate part to play. Thus, in
many respects, his education has
been quite different from his
father's. It is true that the
younger man did not gain the
unusual reputation as a master of
foreign exchange that his father
had at such an age, perhaps it
wasn't necessary that he should,
for in all essentials and
fundamentals he was competent to
do all that was required of him.
At any rate, this was the period
of the first great underwriting of
an industrial corporation, that of
the Sugar Trust. So, at the very
outset it was a different school
of finance that the younger man
was going through than that of his
father forty years before. One
after another big deals were put
through, including the Steel
Trust, and in each successive one
he got a clearer insight and more
responsible duties.
When the Government was to pay
$40,000,000 in gold to France on
account of the Panama Canal
purchase, the Morgan firm was
principally involved, and the
thing had to be done without
disturbing the money market. It
was a transaction that few people
outside banking circles could
grasp, but it stands today as one
of the world's great exploits in
the movement of gold on paper from
nation to nation. The younger
Morgan has a good deal of it to
his credit, too-his first
experience on a grand scale with
foreign exchange. It became
necessary on a certain day to pay
to the British stockholders of
various steamship companies of the
Mercantile Marine $25,000,000 in
gold. Again, in all the
intricacies and technicalities of
such a transaction, Morgan, Jr.,
made good.
At an early period in his career
he had been put to work to learn
the inside of railway finance
under James J. Hill, who, it is
said, came at the close of the
course to refer to his pupil as "a
chip off the old block." No doubt
this comparison suggested itself
to the minds of many prominent New
York bankers in 1907, during the
panic days, when they were openly
following the older Morgan to
safety and furtively watching the
younger Morgan to see how he
carried himself.
When the crash came and the
Knickerbocker closed its doors,
the senior Morgan tried a bold
experiment as a crucial test of
his son. No one had a hint of his
purpose, but he thrust one
responsibility after another on
the shoulders of the young man.
True, he was there to take the
helm at a moment's notice, but
there was no need for him to take
back any responsibility he had
granted. Heredity, and the long
training stood the test.
Morgan, Jr., was master of himself
and the situation. He was never
excited, he never made false
moves. He aided his father in
directing the quick and aggressive
movements that brought order out
of the chaos. From that day "young
J.P." has been a recognized power
in "the Street." Only recently he
was chosen to succeed H.H. Rogers
as a Director of the Steel
Corporation.
He is nearly 6 feet in height and
weighs almost 200 pounds. He has
big shoulders and is very
muscular. His whole appearance is
eloquent of his love of outdoor
life, hard exercise, and temperate
living. His head is massive, like
his father's, with a high
forehead, gray eyes, a big,
well-shaped nose, and a full, firm
mouth and heavy fighting chin
beneath a bushy brown mustache.
He has many of his father's
mannerisms, chief of them being
his deliberate movements, never
hurried or excited, but always
with precision and directness. He
is a man of few words, despising
the limelight. His tastes are very
quiet and his appreciation of art
is said by Sir Purdon Clarke to be
of even finer quality than his
father's.
In one respect he is very
different, quite a noticeable
difference in most of the men of
the second generation. Instead of
his father's brusqueness, he has
more savoir faire. He works by
conciliation rather than by
hard-hitting. But he is no less
tenacious and direct. His town
house is alongside his father's in
Madison Avenue, and he has a fine
London home in Grosvenor Square.
He is a Director of a score of
companies and member of a dozen
exclusive clubs, both in New York
and London.
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Now that John D. Rockefeller,
Jr., has decided to devote himself
to the distribution of his
father's fortune, the only
representatives of the name in
Standard Oil among the younger
generation will be William G.
Rockefeller and Percy A.
Rockefeller. William G., a son of
William and nephew of John D., was
born in 1870 and was graduated
from Yale in the class of '92.
Lawson paid him the tribute of
designating him, as far back as
1905, the "future head of Standard
Oil", when it was evident that
John D., Jr.'s, "rapid education
into the secrets of the system"
did not offset the fact that his
health was not rugged enough for
him ever to take his father's
place.
Immediately after William G.
Rockefeller left Yale he entered
business under the direction of
his father. He made a very apt
pupil and showed that he inherited
much of the ability which gave his
father and uncle their reputations
"the able and excellent business
son of William Rockefeller," as
Lawson called him in this period.
When Amalgamated Copper was
organized he was elected Secretary
and Treasurer. But in 1903 he
resigned, giving ill-health as the
reason. It has usually been
believed that he has been more
than willing to live down and
forget this part of his career. He
made his headquarters at the
famous 26 Broadway, and is at his
desk there with great regularity.
He has a keen perception of his
duties and responsibilities. He
has several times been a foreman
of the Grand Jury, almost every
year since 1898. He never neglects
to cast his vote.
He has already begun to qualify by
shedding his hair, and at least a
part of his head rivals in
shininess his uncle's before the
advent of the famous wig. He is a
good-looking man, being large and
of muscular build. Life has
brought few furrows into his face.
His expression is almost boyish,
and there is often a beam of good
fellowship in his features.
People who study faces have said
his nose and mouth are not those
of a man whom you would regard as
dangerous as his forebears; he is
more human. Still, there is that
in the chin and nose and general
carriage of the head that shows
the courage and persistency of the
family.
He is fond of dogs and has
extensive kennels at his country
place at Greenwich,Conn. Several
of his dogs have taken prizes at
Bench shows. He is a popular
clubman in New York and the
country, quiet in dress like most
of the Rockefellers.
Louis W. Hill
A new name was added to the
list of leaders of American
railroaders a couple of years ago
when James J. Hill, the most
conspicuous single figure in the
railroad world, resigned the
Presidency of the Great Northern
in favor of his son, Louis W.
Hill. "The richest heritage," said
James J., "that a young man can
have is stern necessity." That
heritage he was not able to give
to his son, but he did what he
could to make up for it. He gave
him quite as valuable an
asset-stern responsibility.
If ever a young man had heaped
upon his shoulders a tremendous
burden it was Louis Hill, for the
Hill roads were not so firmly
established as not to have greedy
competitors, and if the name of
Hill was to survive it needed a
strong man to conserve them. The
father determined that the son
should be such a man. And Louis
Hill is indeed a level-headed,
conservative, unostentatious young
man for whom nothing was omitted
in his education that would fit
him for the task now allotted him.
When he was 12 years old a family
conference was called at the big
stone house on Summit Avenue, St.
Paul Half a dozen careers were
suggested for the boy, but after
all had been talked over he sprang
a surprise on his mother and
gladdened his father by saying;
"I'm going to be a railroad man."
The young President of the Great
Northern knows railroads from the
ballast up, for he began as a
workman on a construction gang,
then became a workman in the shops
and operating department, and
finally a clerk in the executive
offices. On the way up he held the
post of President of the Eastern
Railroad of Minnesota, and because
of his excellent conduct of this
small road impressed his father as
capable of handling the great
system. The elder Hill went after
things with a big stick; the
younger man makes less noise, he
is more patient, has a great fund
of diplomacy. He looks for
powerful friends and conciliates
enemies. His method of attack is
to mass facts and figures and
resources, to make himself
impregnable before he presents his
demands, and then when the time is
ripe to get what he wants by
reason rather than by a fight. But
he gets what he wants.
Not long ago a reporter was sent
to interview him. "Mr. Hill, what
do you regard as the prime
function of a railway
corporation?" he was asked. It was
a period of railroad baiting in
the West, and it was expected that
the question would elicit some
defense." Get revenues," replied
Mr. Hill shortly. "And then?" "Get
more."
The reporter waited patiently to
have something added. Mr. Hill
waved his hand. The interview was
over. As a young student at
Phillips Exeter Academy "Louie"
Hill was not popular with his
classmates. He was too solemn and
sedate, and his manner had
something of the hypercritical in
it. He was not a brilliant
student, and cared more for
outdoor exercise, particularly
bicycling, than he did for books.
He was graduated as was his
brother "Jim," and both boys went
to Yale, Louis graduating in the
class of '91.
"Jim," as he is called, traveled
around the world. He was the older
and his father naturally tried to
push him forward, but he lacked
the keener and more thoughtful
brain of his younger brother.
There was another brother still
younger, and all three have been
put through a rigid course.
Once when the father was away the
youngest stayed away from work,
and was suspended by the foreman
for it he had a $6-a-week job at
the time. When he got back his
father congratulated the foreman
on his nerve. Out of it all more
and more responsibility was laid
on the shoulders of Louis Hill,
and thus he became the natural
heir. For a time James N. was Vice
President of the Great Northern,
but he finally retired on the
"sick list," and now is making
quite a record in Wall Street as
Director of a score or so of
companies. But in railroading "L.
W." it is who succeeds "J. J.," as
they refer to father and son in
their offices.
A year after he was graduated from
Yale the present president of the
Great Northern figured in a
romance that had been running
quietly for several years. He
married a trained nurse, Miss
Maude Van Courtlandt Taylor,
directly after her recovery from
typhoid. Her almost fatal illness
decided Mr. Hill and in the
convalescent ward of the
Presbyterian Hospital of New York
he asked the girl he had known in
St. Paul to become his wife.
Miss Taylor's father, Courtlandt
M. Taylor, was President of the
Bankers' Life Association, and
some years ago moved to St. Paul
from New York. The romance began
on the golf links at St. Paul, but
Miss Taylor was eager to do
something in life and returned to
New York and took a course as
trained nurse. it was while
attending a typhoid patient that
she was stricken with the illness
that almost proved fatal but won
for her a husband, the young
master of 6,000 miles of railroad
and hundreds of millions of
dollars. They live in St. Paul in
a $50,000 house alongside that of
James J. Hill, a wedding gift to
the son.
Horace Havemeyer
The fourth of the Havemeyer sugar
kings at least he seems likely to
become the fourth is young Horace
Havemeyer. "Hod" Havemeyer, as his
intimates call him, is a young man
who threw over a college course
and went in for overalls and
cowhide boots over in the
refineries in Williamsburg. That
was not many years ago, but
already young Horace is a Director
of the American Sugar Refining
Company, the American Coffee
Company, Vice president and
Director of the Brooklyn Eastern
District Terminals, Vice president
and Director of the Brooklyn
Elevator and Milling Company, and
Director of the Cuban-American
Sugar Company. He is the son of
Henry O. Havemeyer, for many years
head of the Sugar Trust, who died
in 1907.
That was the period when secrecy
and silence where the unwritten
laws of the business. Henry O.
Havemeyer admitted that he could
and did regulate prices of sugar
and asked, "How about it?" If he
had lived a few years longer he
would have found out a good deal
about it. During the past year or
two, while young Horace has been
absorbing his education, he has
learned many things that the
Havemeyer family before him did
not know. For one thing he is
having it carefully impressed on
his youthful mind that there is
such a thing as the United States
courts.
Much is expected of the new
generation. The original Havemeyer
emigrated from Germany in 1802. He
started a sugar bakery in New
York, and his wife assisted him in
the "bake." She was Miss Catherine
Billiger of Little Britain, Orange
Country, N.Y. This sturdy couple
had two sons. William Frederick,
who was for several terms Mayor of
New York and Frederick Christian,
father of Theodore A., richest of
the Havemeyers, and of Henry O.,
the father of the present Horace,
who by preference has gone back to
take the "bake" just like the
ancestors who founded the sugar
dynasty.
Clarence H. Mackay
In the telegraph field the late
John William Mackay has been
succeeded by his son, Clarence H.
Mackay, one of the young leaders
of finance. He is 36 years old. He
hadn't reached his thirties before
making a solid place for himself.
Even at that early age, his rule
for success was to devote himself
strictly to his work and to tread
as closely as possible in the
footsteps of his father. The son
had had a careful training in
order to take the place that he
would inherit. Even as a young man
he had been placed where he could
absorb knowledge about the wire
nerves of the world's trade.
His father's dearest dream was the
Pacific cable. When it was landed
at San Francisco the son was on
the spot and was so active that
when an accident happened it
caught him just as it did the men
who were doing the work. Today he
is President of the Commercial
Cable and Postal Telegraph
Companies and a number of others.
Mr. Mackay's Summer home is at
Roslyn, L.I., and from it he makes
the journey to the city every day
in the Summer on a fast yacht. In
1898 he married Catharine Duer,
the writer, who has recently
attracted much attention by her
advocacy of women suffrage. At
Roslyn she is one of the School
Commissioners, while Mr. Mackay is
President of the local Republican
Club.
He is an all-around athlete and an
enthusiastic racquet player and
sportsman, that is, when he can
get out of the rut of business and
turn to sport. He still maintains
a polo stable, but rarely indulges
in the game. The fact of the
matter is that when he took his
father's place he consciously
dropped sport for work, and the
same qualities that made him a
good sportsman are now making him
a good workman.
William K. Vanderbilt, Jr.
Such, too, is the case of William
K. Vanderbilt, jr. While his
father is in France retiring from
many of his business activities
and devoting his attention to
racing, the son is in America
taking up the burdens he is laying
down. Several years ago the young
man went to work like a
ten-dollar-a-week clerk, with this
difference, that he didn't have to
do it, and didn't get a cent for
it. Of course, he wasn't worrying
much about the rent and coal, but
he kept the same hours as a clerk
and gradually familiarized himself
with every detail of the New York
Central's affairs.
He has combined both financial and
practical training. He has studied
the modern methods of finance in
Wall Street, has been taught the
details of syndicate building,
knows how securities are
underwritten, and can transfer
bonds with all the legal
formalities. He knows quite as
well what an electric locomotive
should be how to ballast a
roadbed, how curves and bridges
are built, and the difference
between a standard and a "cull"
railroad tie. Railroad officials
have testified to a great change
of heart toward young Mr.
Vanderbilt at their board
meetings, from toleration to
serious deference and respect.
Mr. Vanderbilt, too, is a commuter
in the Summer, coming in on his
fast steam yacht from Great Neck,
L.I. Some years ago he married
Miss Virginia Fair, youngest
daughter of James Fair. The
Vanderbilt Summer home, Deepdale,
is a large tract including the
famous Lake Success, stables, many
motor cars, and yet, withal, the
simple life.
It wasn't many years ago when
"Willie" Vanderbilt was known only
as a "speed maniac." In 1900 he
came home from Paris with a racing
machine known as the "White
Ghost," much to the discomfort of
Newport's dogs and chickens. That
was followed by an even faster
machine, the "Red Devil."
His spectacular arrest in Europe
some years ago for an accident
added to his reputation. The
Vanderbilt Cup races have been the
means of still further attaching
his name to speed. Then his yachts
Virginia, Tarantula and Hard
Boiled Egg, the last because it
couldn't be beaten brought more
fame. But when every one had made
up his mind about him he surprised
them by becoming a toiler. At
Harvard he made great headway as
business manager of The Advocate,
and he knew it was in him to make
good.
Young William K., Jr., is 32 years
old, rather slight of build, and
of medium height. His black
curling hair and heavy eyebrows
shadow two sharp sincere eyes. He
moves quickly and erectly with his
slight shoulders squarely set.
"Mike" Donovan, Roosevelt's old
sparring trainer, says the young
man has one big quality,
confidence in himself, and that no
amount of jolting can drive it out
of him.
In the Vanderbilt family there is
also Cornelius, the third of the
name, grandson of "the old
Commodore." He has himself been
Commodore of the New York
Yacht-Club, and also Lieutenant of
Company D of the Twelfth Regiment
of the New York National Guard.
But he has made a real reputation
for himself by buckling down to
hard work.
Among other things it might be
mentioned that he has made some
railroad inventions himself, not
dilettante ones, but some of them
of the kind that the Harriman
lines adopt as well as the New
York Central.
Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt was Miss
Grace Wilson. If she made some
social triumphs before her
marriage she has made even greater
since, for the Vanderbilts are on
friendly terms with Emperor
William, the Empress, and the
Crown Prince. Recently Cornelius
Vanderbilt was appointed by Mayor
Gaynor as Chairman of the
committee to welcome Col.
Roosevelt on his return to New
York, and he was active during the
Hudson-Fulton Celebration.
Returning again to the Rockefeller
family and Standard Oil, Percy A.
Rockefeller, brother of William
G., is another who is making good
in the great corporation at 26
Broadway. He is already Director
of six corporations. Percy
Rockefeller married Miss Isabelle
G. Stillman; in fact, it would
seem that intermarriage is playing
an extremely important part in the
amalgamation of the wealth of our
American multi-millionaires.
H. H. Rogers, Jr.
H.H. Rogers, Jr., son of the late
executive head of Standard Oil,
holds a Captaincy in the same
regiment as Cornelius Vanderbilt,
being Captain of Company L. It is
not a regiment or company of "kid
gloves" either, but according to a
recent showing by Mr. Rogers
himself his own company contains
men from all, walks of life. He
attends to his duties strictly,
never missing an annual
encampment, roll call, or drill.
But that isn't the only or
greatest thing he attends to
strictly. He has made quite a
reputation for himself for
sticking to business since he was
graduated from Columbia ten years
ago. Shortly after his graduation
he married Miss Mary Benjamin,
daughter of G. H. Benjamin, whose
brother's wife was a sister of the
late Henry H. Rogers. The young
heir to the Rogers name is a
hearty devotee of tennis and other
outdoor sports.
Robert Walton Goelet
Among others of the younger
generation who may be mentioned as
making good is young Robert Walton
Goelet. One of his most recent
ventures was erecting a new hotel
to be known as the Ritz-Carlton on
the block between Forty-sixth and
Forty-seventh Streets in Madison
Avenue. Recently while abroad he
attracted much attention by the
purchase of the famous Chateau de
Sandricourt for $300,000, with its
famous furniture of Louis XV.,
Louis XVI., and the Empire. He is
perhaps a little more devoted to
sport than many of the younger
generation of millionaires.
Allan A. Ryan and Claudius J.
Ryan
It is said that Thomas F. Ryan in
retirement has placed his hope in
the firm of Allan A. Ryan &
Brothers. These two young men,
Allan A. and Claudius J. Ryan,
have inherited the remains of the
business that put their father on
the road to success. Before the
panic, when Mr. Ryan saw it
coming, the brokerage firm of his
sons enabled him to get rid
quietly of much of his superfluous
holdings. After it was over he
quietly began to buy stocks in
again, through his sons at the
cheap market that prevailed. But
that isn't the only or main part
of their business. They have
hustled on their own account and
have built up a large clientele.
These two brothers are quiet,
industrious, earnest young fellows
and by this process are therefore
fast piling up their fortunes. Mr.
Ryan has always made it a hobby to
make them self-reliant, and they
are. From the start he threw all
the responsibility on them that he
dared, and now he feels great
pride in their achievements.
Comparatively little is known of
these young men outside of
business.
.George F. Baker Jr.
In the banking world George F.
Baker, Jr., is now Vice president
of the First National Bank, of
which his father is head. He is
also connected with several trust
and securities companies and three
or four railroads.
James A. Stillman
People need not speculate on who
will succeed James Stillman,
former head of the National City
Bank, as Director of eight
railroads, officer of trust
companies and industrial concerns.
It will be James A Stillman, his
son.
The younger Mr. Stillman has been
trained in business since he was
graduated from Harvard in the
class of 1896. First he served as
clerk, then as assistant cashier,
and a couple of years ago was
elected a Director and Vice
President of the bank. He has
already taken his place as a man
of business and society. He and
his wife, who was Miss Anne N.
Potter, have their town house in
Seventy-second Street, near Fifth
Avenue and have built a country
home on the Hudson not far from
the elder Mr. Sillman's, near West
Point. The younger Mr. Stillman is
a member of many clubs, a golf
enthusiast, and a lover of the
open air, with somewhat of a
record as a hunter of big game in
the Rockies and Canada.
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