Moreover, these corporations cover scores of smaller and subordinate companies. Through Missouri Pacific Mr. Gould was interested in something like fifty companies, and the other great systems would run the list of the subordinate concerns up into the hundreds. As president of the Union Pacific, Charles Francis Adams once testified that he did not know how many presidencies he held, and Mr. Gould would have had an excuse several times better than Mr. Adams possessed for not having at his finger ends the number of concerns with which he was connected. At his office yesterday nobody would venture to say what the list would foot up.
Mr. Gould was president of the Missouri Pacific, the Manhattan Elevated, the Texas Pacific, the St. Louis and Iron Mountain, the International and Great Northern, and a director in Richmond Terminal, Western Union and Union Pacific. He is credited with a control of the stock of the elevated road and a large amount of its bonds; with the largest individual holding in Western Union stock, besides stocks and bonds of its leased lines; a control of Missouri Pacific stock and large amounts of its bonds, particularly the new issues of fives; a large block of Wabash, the amount at times running up to 40,000 shares; an interest in Union Pacific, including, perhaps, 1,000,000 of the collateral trust bonds; heavy investments in the other lines known as Gould properties; a block of New York and Northern securities, and a control, with Russell Sage, of the St. Louis Southwestern.
In Wall street the Gould will was accepted with something akin to a vote of thanks. The satisfaction was in the fact that there was to be no partition sale, with the flinging upon the market of such a batch of easily affected stocks as Jay Gould had gathered. Even a partition of the securities in the will would have made many owners and possibly clashing of interests, where now one hand would cast the vote represented by this enormous aggregate of stocks. This voting power would rest absolutely and individually with George, and would make him even more than his father a power in Wall street, at least for a time.
Just now he is getting open praise even far beyond what appears in the will of his great business ability. Some who know him by his acts say that his weak points are his combative obstinacy and his penuriousness. Stories upon stories are told of his miserly disposition, but they come in large part from roysterers who looked upon the eldest son of Gould as under some sort of obligation to put up the cash for their festivities when out in company. George did nothing of the sort, but had a sharp account for each penny expended, and kept himself posted in prices of things from the highest to the lowest grade. He has not his father’s slow-moving anger so easily set aside for future use when an enemy was to be crushed. Instead, the young man is apt to flare up and show his hand to his own detriment.
When it comes to the fighting to hold his own against competition, which will be necessary in all of the properties left by the multi-millionaire, George will be met by a warfare entirely different from that directed against Gould senior. The fact that all the wealth, so to speak, is left in one pile, simplifies the war for its possession, and from this time on George Gould will be one of the best watched, best courted and very soon best hated men in America. His training has been a very narrow one. He has not studied finance in any large school. Schooling of any sort has been distasteful to him, and while not positively illiterate, he has no taste for books even on financial questions, but has a tremendous head for figures and loves plenty of bustle in his work.
The lack of charitable bequests did not surprise Wall street, but there was no dearth of comment on the matrimonial board into which four of the children have been constituted, with the two Mrs. Goulds as ex-officio advisory members. Bets were offered that if the other members of the household attempted to act as a committee of the whole when an engagement was to be announced, that in some shape the intervention of lawyers would be necessary, and all the possibilities of this selection of bride and bridegroom by arbitration were discussed. As it stands now, an obstinate love match without family consent may cost Howard or Frank, or Helen or Anna, a round sum of nearly $8,000,000, and put this amount into the other five pockets of the present sextette.
The death of Jay Gould leaves vacant the presidency of the Missouri Pacific railway, the Texas Pacific, the International and Great Northern and Manhattan Railway Company. George J. Gould, it is expected, will take his father’s place in these companies. In the Western Union company no position becomes vacant, except that of a membership of the board of directors.
George Gould is president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. He is first vice-president of the Manhattan railroad and of the Texas Pacific. He is second vice-president of the Missouri Pacific and the St. Louis and Iron Mountain road. He is a vice-president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and a member of the executive committee of its board of directors. He is a director in the Wabash and the International and Great Northern. He is a member of the Stock Exchange.
Edwin Gould, the second son, has a shorter list of offices. He is president of the St. Louis Southwestern, a director in Western Union and a member of the executive committee, and a director in the Manhattan and Missouri Pacific railroad companies. He has done some very successful work in finance, and has been counted a very shrewd operator from the beginning of his business career. The story is told of him that when he was starting out in money-making his father decided to test his mettle, and was highly delighted when the youth came out of the conflict with flying colors. Edwin Gould is a member of the Consolidated Exchange.
Howard Gould, the third son, is getting his first experience in business. He has been given as a start a seat in the directorate of the International and Great Northern Railroad Company.