WALL STREET GIANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 9 (Supplement)

WALL STREET GIANTS.

BUILDERS OF BIG BUSINESS.

«xnro» BASKOB.

MAKER OF EIGHTY MILLIONAIRES.

A new group of financial giants has arisen in America, dwarfing by their achievements the historic figures of the past.

Wall Street leaders of former day 3 were frequently .speculators pure and simple, and not a few were bears, acting of ten as disruptive forces and even In tfanes of stress or panic using every strategy to get prices down and buy Ibl their phantom shares, sold at or near $» top of the market. Fifty .years or more ago the standard ]W integrity now prevailing throughout Wall Street was often absent, and ruthless battles were fought by the giants 'of those days. Times Have Changed. But times have long since changed, and the character of leadership with them. The late Pierpont Morgan's dictum that whoever was a bear on America went broke anticipated the fate of all the great bears, including the last and at one time one of the most successful, the famous Jesse Livermore, a man of iron nerve, who could sell but could never buy. Then arrived a group of shrewd stock market operators who studied values and went with the tide and were nearly always bulls. The most successful of them was Bernard M. Baruch, who during the war sprung full-fledged from the brow of President Wilson as the chief purchasing agent of the Government, and became a statesman overnight, later going to the Peace Conference with Wilson. He claims to have retired from the speculative field, with his millions, but evidence of his fine hand is still felt, occasionally in Wall Street. He made another fortune in Texas Gulf Sulphur. He now devotes much of his time and wealth towaTda political aid to the -fanner. New Type of Men, Lately, however, has come forward a new type, men who have built up great industries and incidentally great fortunes for themselves, who work not only for business expansion but for the market enhancement ol their share holdings, and who frequently take the public into their confidence, so that all who read may buy their shares and participate in their prosperity. There was Mr. Cochrane; partner of Morgans and director of General Motors, who predicted on sailing for Europe several years ago that General Motor snares would advance 100 points, based on earnings and prospects of the corporation. The 100-point rise took place in short order, a share split-up followed, and the shares have since doubled again. Mr. Baskob, chairman of General Motors, has frequently announced estimated earnings in advance and predicted price advances in the shares, which hare always taken place. His last prediction a few months ago was that on their earnings General Motors shares should sell around 230 dollars and Se intimated another stock dividend, waien may be announced in August. Rssfcob is the reigning financial genius days of fa* Carnegie Steel Company, absorption •■*• «*» trust, created 30 millionaires out of his younger partners, Staskob made 80 millionaires fa four year*, Here are his pwn words: "Wo induced 80 of our senior and junior executives to go into debt to buy General Motors atock. We got Pk** 6 jmmqim. to buy 83j0Q0,000 dollars' worth, They est up 6fiW>floo dollars and borrowed 2e*,000,000 £$*£ ' That stock to-day is worth All obligations have been paidoff and everybn* of these men, even the Juniors who put in only 25,000 dollars, is a -millionaire. They became owner* and worked their heads off for anccess. Wo help our labouring men to save and invest in General Motors and wo hays no labour troubles." Ten Very Rich Men. it seems that ...wives ere also en'touraged to buy shares in the company. Mrs. Alfred Sloan, wife of the president of General Motors, however, proved herself a less able financier than her hueband, when a few yean ago at her own request he bought from her her shares in the company at the then market price—and which have since advanced 3,000,000 dollars in market value. But instead of cash her dividends come in ,the form of rare gems or other gifts from time to time. Mr. Sloan toM the writer: 'T haven't bought or sold a chare of General Motors stock for four years. Ten of us who operate the company own half the common stock." In other words, ton men, probably including the Dnponts, own shares worth a billion and a-half dollars. But the outstanding figure in Wall Street to-day in speculative circles ie William C. Durant, whose great vision and courage have brought him what is probably the greatest fortune over made in •peculation. Durant, however, has been a constructive force aa well, for it was he who organised General Motors. It was the child of his brain, now grown into the greatest industrial giant of all times. Jr £■ , But he had to part with its control at a time of financial stress to the Dupont and Morgan interests. Durant has been quoted as saying that no man since the world began ever suffered so great a loss in one day, for that control at present values would be worth a billion dollars of over. It would be interesting to compare this figure with the value of Japan when in a former age two rival contestants for the throne of Japan decided the issue by a wrestling match; But ever since this one defeat Durant has proved himself a master wrestler and has won back hundreds of millions of hie former losses, and largely through operations in General Motor shares in the open market. ... Last winter when the shares hung for months around 125-130, Durant and his following bought them day after day without' limit. Finally, and coincident ; with immense business and earnings, the signal was given, and Durant, acting wft| Arthur Cutten, F'sher Brothers and the General Motors group, headed by Baskob, bought unlimited quantities of the shares, the hears ran to cover, and within a few weeks the price advanced without in- ; tarruption from 190 to 199/ and the

shsjeholdera of tie corporation, including a great number of the public, ware richer by a billion dollars. Another Wall Street record bad been broken.

Modest Millionaire. Durant ie a modest little roan, whose favourite recreation is a game of checkers, but a more picturesque character is bis principal broker, Benjamin Block, whose firm, Block, Maloney and Co., came into prominence in the days of the operations of "Bet-you-«-<milßon Gates" and his group of steel magnates.

Block, who looks like a Koman senator, frequently dominates the market in special stocks on a busy day, commanding his forces like a general in the field He owns the famous racehorse Morvieh which won for him the Kentucky Derby and was never beaten.

The firm of Morgans are far richer and more powerful than ever before. Following the lead of the late Pierpont Morgan, the invincible, courageous and farsighted giant of Wall Street, they have ever been on the constructive side of the market. Morgan's contemporary arti coworker, George F. Baker, is stall.'"going strong as president of the First National Bank at the age of eigpty-nine, and, like Morgan, is always a bull on' America and her industries.