THE PLUTOCRATS
THE AGE OF THE MOGULS, by Stewart H. Holbrook; Victor Gollancz, English price 16/-. ‘[ HE story of America’s multi-million-aires is not altogether edifying. The golden age for making vast fortunes lasted, roughly speaking, from the end of the Civil War until 1877, by which time the enormities perpetrated by the fortune hunters had caused certain restrictions to be placed on their activities. Since then the restrictions have gradually been made more severe until "under present day rules, almost every man in this book would face a good hundred years in prison." While exploiting a virgin continent, and enjoying opportunity for enrichment without parallel in the world’s history, they swindled both the general public and each other with complete disregard for ethical principles, Surprisingly enough, one or two of them earned widespread popularity as public benefactors and several made lavish gifts to charity. These, however, were exceptional, at least among the earlier "Moguls." Daniel Drew, for instance, was a psalm-singing drunkard who was not interested in railways as a transportation system, but merely as "property to be manipulated for his own profit." Jay Gould tried to corrupt President Grant through the medium of his brother-in-law so that he might more easily corner the American gold market. In more modern times W. R. Hearst, whose newspapers made a Studied "appeal to the fundamental emotions of sex, love, hate and gain, laced with carefully-regulated doses of pity running with tears," was not above faking news whenever it suited him to do so. In a final chapter Mr. Holbrook describes the lavish vulgarity with which the plutocrats spent their money. No luxury was beyond their reach, but is it not morally instructive to learn that in spite of colossal sums spent on specialists, J. P. Morgan never succeeded in discovering one among them who could cure, or even reduce, the fiery redness of his nose?
R. M.
Burdon
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 781, 9 July 1954, Page 14
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316THE PLUTOCRATS New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 781, 9 July 1954, Page 14
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