Millionaire and Man

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 June 1912, Page 4

Millionaire and Man

The millionaires of the Uuggenheini group" have Leon abused bitterly and with justice in the United Stato during the last few years. They have been engaged in the exploitation of Alaska, and, according to many reliable reports, they have croated monopolies and crushed opposition with ruthless disregard for the public interest. Four years ago the Senate's Committee on Territories was told that the Guggenheim* lield such an oppressive monopoly over all steamship lines, wharves, terminal grounds and right* of w»y in Alaska that it was impossible for free .settlers to enter the country. " They sometimes take desperate means to intimidate independent capital," said one witness. "Five men were shot down from ambush in Keystone Canon wJiile surveying a line for the Home railway. One of them was willed, and the leader of the GuggenTieini forces was convicted of the crime. The people who liad promised to finance the line were forced to withdraw from their contracts." President Roosevelt condemned the Guggenheinis in one of his presidential messages, and vetoed a suspicious deal that was giving thorn £8,000,000 worth of coalbearing public lands for a payment of about £10,000. But whatever may .have been the commercial sins of this family of millionaires, America has reason to-day to be very proud of the way in which Mr Benjamin Guggenheim met death on board the Titanic. Tliis man of enormous wealth abandoned deliberately his own chance of lifo, we are told, in order that he might JieTp To .save others. Ho and his secretary, an unnamed hero, put aside the life belts that a Reward had found for them, and in their evening clotlies they assisted the women into tho boats, whose accommodat'on was so cruelly insufficient. "We will '40 down like gentlemen, , ' ho .said. This incident of .splendid courage and selfsacrifice is one of the many stirring deeds that made the loss of the mighty steamer a triumpli as well as a tragedy. l>nt it has a significance of its own. Mr Benjamin Guggenheim showed his countrymen that a multimillionaire, the arch-tyre of modern cap ft a I ism, could yet be a man. — Lvttelton Timos.