WALL STREET'S "INNER GUARD" WHO HOLD THE PURSE STRINGS OF THE NATION
Bond, Frederick Drew
Wall Street's "Inner Guard" Who Hold the Purse Strings of the Nation THE Pujo committee's investigation of the "money trust" brought out the fact that the old swashbucklers of Wall street have...
...Wall Street's "Inner Guard" Who Hold the Purse Strings of the Nation THE Pujo committee's investigation of the "money trust" brought out the fact that the old swashbucklers of Wall street have gone and the pocket-books of the American people are now controlled by a new set of rulers, using far more subtle methods...
...But who the new rulers are the public does not know...
...But right now the Bankers' Trust Company is the very center of the large, "legitimate," speculative activity of Wall street...
...Now, what gives these three men their wonderful positions and their consummate power...
...This is the Baker, who admitted not long ago before the Pujo committee that in the panic of 1907 it was Morgan, Stillman and himself who controlled the situation...
...But right now the Bankers' Trust Company is the very center of the large, "legitimate," speculative activity of Wall street it meant little until very recently...
...It consists of George F. Baker, Edmund C. Converse and Francis L. Hine—three quiet men of vast power So completely do these unheraldFRANCIS L. HINE ed men direct every move on the chess-board of national finance that not a single great stock market movement goes on without their consent...
...The unsung leaders of Wall street, who "doeth their work in secret," constitute an inner guard that rules less by brute force than by diplomacy...
...This guard is in command of the money and credit of the country right now...
...He gains added power because he is also president of the First National Bank...
...Hine is of old New England parentage and is a man personally of wide and various interests...
...Francis L. Hine is chairman of the Clearing House of New York City...
...Its directors are from the largest financial groups of the street...
...It is the institution where the threads of action leading to all parts of the street are gathered up and controlled...
...The second may, Edmund C. Converse, is president of the Bankers' Trust Company...
...Leadership in Wall street changes very quickly, and within a few years Baker, Converse and Hine and their immediate associates may be "down and outers," so far as the financial game is concerned, but their successors whoever they may be, it is pretty safe to predict, will be the new type of money-genius—who sits at his desk and pulls the strings that operate from the Atlantic to the Pacific, although he himself is no speculator or avowed dealer-in-securities at all...
...Not a single great promotion is made without their agreement...
...And the third of the "inner guard" is George F. Baker, 73, but hale and hearty...
...Though director in some of the greatest corporations in America, he is also closely connected with the Union Theological Seminary...
...This probably means little or nothing to those outside of the financial circles of the land...
...The great influence that this bank wields is shown by Baker's own statement that he has, by virtue of his position, become a director of at least 49 other banks comprising the very cream of financial, transportation and industrial organizations of the country...
...Not a single reorganization of importance occurs without their direct or tacit consent...
...Baker is better known than GEORGE F. BAKER the other two because he was Morgan's closest personal friend in the street...
...And so, in substance, it means that one or more of these three men either personally or through allies take an active interest in practically EVERY big movement—receivership, underwriting or what-not that occurs in the street...
...Indeed, even in Wall street it meant little until very recently...
...All the interests above mentioned are directly represented on its board...
...This is the very "sanhedrim" of American finance—consequently, he By FREDERICK DREW BOND Famous Financial Analyst and Author of "Stock Prices," a University Text-Book is a man who holds the fate of practically any small bank or trust company in his palm...
...Not a single great manipulator of Wall street starts a campaign without consulting them first...
...now the most powerEDMUND C. CONVERSE ful bank in all America—the bank of which George F. Baker has been, until very lately, the head...
Vol. 5 • May 1913 • No. 20
