THE LATE RAILWAY MAGNATE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 190, 15 September 1909, Page 2

THE LATE RAILWAY MAGNATE

THE LAST SCENE. By Gable.—F»ess Association.—Copyriga' New York, September. 13. The late Mr. E. H. Harriman, knowing he was dying, summoned Mr. Picpont Morgan, who haa been liia chief opponent.

Mr. Pierpont Morgan conferred with him for two hours on Thursday aud arranged to uphold the market for the protection of Mr. Harriman's interests. During the funeral all the trains over 64,000 miles of railway simultaneous')' halted fo r ten minutes.

Mr. Harriman was ono of the '"selfwoade men" of New York. He was born in 1848, and, after receiving a commonschool education, started life as a broker's clerk. He had interests in nearly fifty corporations of various kinds, principally railways. The systems which he controlled have a total milage of 27,500, and the stocks and bonds held by his "group" represent 07 0,000,000 dollars and 1,225,000,000 dob llfirs respectively. There has been "much gambling" in railway stocks 171 America : foi« f weeks past, owing to rumors of the ! seriousness of Mr. Harriman'* illness. | "Very few of the reigning nionarchs I -could more seriously alarm the financial | world by taking to their beds titan Mr. Harriman has done by breaking down," •said a recent writer, speaking of his illj ness. "In most cases, if one of them | -died his successor would ipso facto succeed him, and except for a few tremors . on Bourses no damage would have been done to the living^..But who would succeed Harriman? Is the questiou that naturally fills people with heavy thoughts and inspires thean to panicky stock dealings. Mr. Harriman controls railways and other things to the value of hundreds of millions; all those huge interests are centred in his hands, ivid should he pass away there is no knowing what pools might be dissolved, what agreements suddenly terminated, and what great properties coino hurtling on to the market. In this way Mr. Harriman thus exemplifies the vast trustfulness of human [nature, even that racial variety of it which is'gcnerally regaided as among the smartest. He handles many millions whose investors take the fact of his name being there as guarantee enough for the stock, and rely upon : mm to do practically what he chooses ! to got them their return. Probably he does it, regardless of who else suffers;, Mr. Schwab, a smaller but »til] considernblc millionaire, has boasted that whitever be charged against him, he ahvars saw that liis friends did well—which na was said at the time, coldly implied that the rest of those who followed his lead were losers."