CHAPTER LXXIII.
RECENT MEN OF MARK.
CHARLES M. SCHWAB.
Born in Pennsylvania, May 30, 1851; rose, from the bottom, to be
President of the Carnegie Steel Company, then, on its incorporation,
became President of the United States Steel Corporation, but resigned,
and later became President of the Bethlehem Steel Company; has large
mining interests, especially in Nevada; he travels much, but resides on
Riverside Drive, New York, in one of the largest houses in the city,
built as an exact copy of a historical French château near Paris.
DANIEL GRAY REID.
Born in Richmond, Ind., August 1, 1858; became Vice-President of Second
National Bank there; then went into the tin plate industry, and in 1895
became one of the organizers of the American Tin Plate Company,
afterwards merged in the United States Steel Corporation; removed to
Chicago in 1897, and to New York in 1899, and was one of the Executive
Committee of the United States Steel Corporation when organized in 1901;
also became a director and leading spirit in the Rock Island Railway
Company in association with the two Moore brothers, William H. and James
Hobart, the Chicago reorganization lawyers. All three are now residents
of New York.
THOMAS FORTUNE RYAN.
Born in Virginia, October 17, 1851; came to Wall Street in 1870 from
Baltimore and the drygoods trade; became prominent in the consolidation
and extension of metropolitan street railroads, and also gas and
electric light systems here and in Chicago, and in the American Tobacco
Company, and later bought control of the stock of the Equitable and the
Washington Life Insurance companies; has been director of many other
corporations, and is also Vice-President of the Morton Trust Company.
JOHN WARNE GATES.
Born at West Chicago, Ill., 1855; kept a hardware store there; then
became salesman in Texas for barbed wire; later established the Southern
Wire Company in St. Louis and Braddock Wire Company near Pittsburg;
after absorbing two other companies, sold out to Federal Steel Company,
which was then absorbed by United States Steel Corporation. He thus
acquired great wealth, and became a large operator in Wall Street, and
organized the firm of C. G. Gates & Co., now dissolved. After buying
control in the open market of the Louisville & Nashville Railway, he
sold it to J. P. Morgan & Co.
AUGUST BELMONT.
Born February 18, 1853; son of the late August Belmont, and head of
August Belmont & Co., bankers, and New York representatives of the
Rothschilds; is President of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and
other corporations; also of the Coney Island Jockey Club and other turf
organizations, and keeps up a large racing stable, is also a director in
a number of banks and railways and other companies, and politically,
like his father, a leading Democrat; is a member of many clubs and
associations; graduated at Harvard in 1875, and has a New York residence
at 44 East 34th Street, but lives much of the year at his country home
at Hempstead, Long Island. He is well known, too, as the financial
director of the Belmont Tunnel, across the East River, between New York
and Long Island City.
WILLIAM H. MOORE.
Born in Utica, N. Y., October 25, 1848; located in Chicago with his
younger brother, James Hobart Moore, in 1873, and both were admitted to
the Illinois bar, and practiced as W. H. & J. H. Moore, making a
specialty of reorganizing corporations; reorganized the Carnegie Steel
Company, and formed the four corporations in “the Moore group” that were
absorbed by the United States Steel Corporation; later controlled the
Rock Island and other railway and industrial corporations, partly in
conjunction with Daniel Gray Reid.
ANTHONY NICHOLAS BRADY.
Born at Lille, France, August 22, 1843; came to the United States with
his parents when a child; opened a tea store in Albany in 1864, and
afterwards other tea stores there and in Troy; became a promoter and
director of gas and electric light corporations in Albany, Troy,
Chicago, New York, and other cities, and, later, of street railway
companies in Brooklyn and elsewhere; acquired a controlling interest in
the People’s Gas Company of Chicago and a very large one in the Brooklyn
Rapid Transit Company, into which he merged his Brooklyn companies; is
also a large stockholder in the American Tobacco Company and many other
industrial companies; resides at 411 State Street, Albany, but his
office is at 54 Wall Street.
STUYVESANT FISH.
Son of the late Hon. Hamilton Fish, Governor of the State of New York
and Secretary of State in General Grant’s Cabinet. Born June 24, 1851,
at New York, N. Y. Educated at Columbia College, New York, graduated
1871. Entered railway service October 1, 1871, after which he, up to
June 20, 1872, became clerk in the Illinois Central Railroad, New York
office; June 20 to October, 1872, secretary to president of same
company; November 1, 1872 to December 31, 1874, clerk with Morton, Bliss
& Co. at New York, and Morton, Rose & Co. at London; January 1, 1875 to
March 15, 1877, managing clerk Morton, Bliss & Co., holding their power
of attorney; December 14, 1876 to March 6, 1879, member New York Stock
Exchange; March 16, 1876, elected Director Illinois Central Railroad,
and appointed treasurer and agent for purchasing committee New Orleans,
Jackson & Great Northern Railroad; November 8, 1877, elected secretary
Chicago, St. Louis & New. Orleans Railroad; and March, 1882,
vice-president Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans Railroad; January 7,
1883 to April 2, 1884, second vice-president Illinois Central Railroad;
April 2, 1884 to May 14, 1887, vice-president; May 18, 1887 to November
7, 1906, president same road; President American Railway Association
April 27, 1904 to April 25, 1906; Chairman Seventh Session International
Railway Congress, Washington, D. C., May, 1905. Elected Director of the
National Park Bank, March, 1883, and so remains; elected a Trustee of
the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York in the year 1888 and
continued as such until February 23, 1906, when he resigned. What Mr.
Fish did for the Illinois Central Railroad Company while its President,
is shown in the following extract from the London _Statist_, and also in
the Annual Reports of the Directors of the Company, which make a
marvellous exhibit of Mr. Fish’s able and sagacious management during
his long régime:
The Illinois Central is the most important of the systems running north
and south between Chicago and the Gulf of Mexico. At one time its
prosperity chiefly depended upon the cotton crop; but although this crop
still gives it a large traffic, its prosperity has been built up by the
acquisition of a large share of the grain and maize traffic. In the old
days corn, or maize, was sent through the Western States for shipment
_via_ Boston, New York, and Baltimore, but the Illinois Central has now
succeeded in diverting a vast portion of it to New Orleans. It now
derives its revenue from carrying a large traffic at low rates in
competition both with the Eastern lines and with the water transit of
the Mississippi; In recent years the Company has built extensions which
now enable it to participate in the coal and iron ore traffic required
by or originating in the Birmingham iron district. The Illinois Central
has always enjoyed good management. In its early days, when the accepted
principle of railway working was to charge high rates and to carry very
little traffic, its policy conformed to that of other well-managed
undertakings. For the past twenty years its policy has changed; it has
sought to render to the public the maximum of service for the lowest
possible rate. The success of this policy has exceeded all expectations.
In the twelve months to June 30th last the Company carried traffic at a
lower rate than ever before, and yet obtained a record profit, both
actually and relatively to its capital expenditure. This success has
resulted from good management, economy of operation, and economy of
capital expenditure.
GOVERNOR HUGHES AND WALL STREET.
In respect to the present agitation at Albany, as recommended by
Governor Hughes, to investigate Wall Street methods, I do not hesitate
to say that as the head of the firm of Henry Clews & Co. I am perfectly
willing at any time to allow a representative, appointed by either the
Federal or State authorities, to examine the books of my firm, as the
result of such an examination can reflect nothing but credit on our
business methods. I should, however, object and refuse to show, in any
instance, the names of our customers, as our relations with them are
confidential and will not be betrayed. Ever since our firm was
established we have made a practice of issuing notices of purchases or
sales to clients, giving in each case the name of the broker from whom
bought, or to whom sold. This is now, I believe, the custom in other
offices, and is a guarantee that brokers execute the orders on the floor
of the New York Stock Exchange.
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