On one occasion, when certain acts of his had been criticized as constituting a possible violation of the law, he, although believing implicitly that he had not offended, forthwith abandoned the continuance of these acts, so as to leave no shadow of doubt of his intent to obey the law. He explained at the time that though every citizen had the right to criticize legislation, and should seek to have changed such laws as he deemed unjust or uneconomic, he was bound to obey these laws so long as they remained on the statute books.
In physical stature Judge Gary is of medium height. He carries his years well and appears yet in his prime. The impression he gives the observer is that of a statesman rather than a man of affairs, an impression heightened by his deliberate speech and his appreciation of the finer meanings of words. Most of his portraits represent him sitting straight up, just a little stiffly, but when interested in a conversation, the Judge invariably stands, or rather paces deliberately back and forth, his hands stuck in the waistband of his trousers, and his head bent forward at an angle of deep thought. And as he warms to his subject, he now and then gesticulates slightly, or, turning to his listener, drives home some argument with pointed forefinger. At the remembrance of some amusing incident his twinkling eyes light up what is usually a decidedly serious countenance.
All those who during the World War were in touch with what was being done by the Government to meet the enormous new manufacturing needs created by the war know that the Steel Corporation, in the great emergency, invariably put patriotism above profits and that its hearty coöperation helped materially in bringing about the desired end. Judge Gary was responsible for the Corporation’s attitude in this as in other matters.
Honors have been showered upon the head of the Steel Corporation by universities and colleges, and the American, French, Belgian, and Italian governments, and the late Pope Pius X presented a gold medal containing his profile portrait to Judge Gary in recognition of his efforts for improving working conditions. But beyond all these honors he values the esteem of the men under him, and the good will of his competitors.
It would be hard to find a more suitable ending for this brief study of the leading figure in the industrial world than the quotation applied to him by the principal steel makers of the United States and Canada on the occasion of a dinner given in his honor in October, 1909. Here were men who had fought with him and against him, who had had every opportunity to estimate him both as friend and foe, and who, after the trying times of the 1907 panic, declared that he had “played the game and played it fair”:
“Moderate, resolute, whole in himself, a common good.”
John Pierpont Morgan
“The greatest banker the world has ever seen.” Thus the head of the Deutsche Bank called the late J. P. Morgan during his lifetime, and as the years pass students of finance are becoming more and more satisfied that the German, himself a banker of no mean repute or ability, spoke truly.
Without J. Pierpont Morgan the organization of the United States Steel Corporation would, in all probability, have been an impossibility. The carrying through of so vast a project required a financier of his prestige and of his financial courage. There was no other banker big enough or bold enough to undertake such a task, and no history of the Corporation would be complete unless it contained a résumé of the work of the former money wizard.
So large did Morgan loom in the public eye during his lifetime and so much has been said and written of him since that it would be difficult to say anything of him with which the reader is not already familiar. But it has perhaps not been generally realized that Morgan was a patriot of the right type. He was, to use a financial term, “a bull on America.” His confidence in his country’s future was unbounded, and he had the courage of his convictions to put his great fortune into the development of American enterprises.