Mount Cambitas
In justification of its selection of Mr. Young over other candidates for the magazine’s Man of the Year award for 1929, Time Magazine declared:
“… the discerning citizen would pause long before putting any of them ahead of the man, apparently the one man, who could and did perform the year's largest politico-economic job for the world's leading nations. Economics underlies war. War leaves economic tangles which must be straightened out before society can proceed in peace.”
“Last January when European powers, President Coolidge not objecting, asked Mr. Young and John Pierpont Morgan to come to Paris, Mr. Young was reluctant to accept…. There was no patriotic compulsion to go and do some more hard work, especially since it then looked as though no amount of work could bring success.”
Time Magazine. Vol. 15, No. 1, January 6, 1930
Not yet born in 1930 it is difficult for me to know how the term “politico-economic job” was interpreted by Time Magazine’s readership, so I will not seek to interpret it in any concrete sort of way. Rather, I will focus briefly on the man who was invited to accompany Owen D. Young to Paris — namely, John (Jack) Pierpont Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943).
Before proceeding, however, it should be noted that Time Magazine was perspicacious in its assessment of both the cause of World War I and the outcome of the task at hand. For surely, World War I was about Great Britain’s effort to stifle Germany’s industrial and economic might, and surely the Young Plan, although initially accepted would soon find its way into the trash heap of world history. What remained was the Bank for International Settlements that he helped to found.
Jack Morgan was the son of John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913) and the grandson of Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-1890). Junius’s grandfather, Joseph Morgan II (1736-1813) fought in America’s War of Independence. In 1853 Junius traveled to London where he met the American-born, London banker, George Peabody (1795-1869). Whereupon Junius was invited to join Peabody’s banking firm as a junior partner and cultivate the firm’s trans-Atlantic relationships. Upon Peabody’s retirement in 1864 the firm’s name was changed from George Peabody & Co. to J.S. Morgan & Co. and by 1869 J.S. Morgan & Co. had become the largest American financial house in London. In 1871 J.S. Morgan & Co. financed the French government with a very large loan upon its declaration of war against Prussia. It was this war, known as the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), that resulted in the utter humiliation of Napoléon III and the formation of the Zweites Deutsches Reich (2nd German Empire). It was also the resulting enmity between France and Germany that Great Britain exploited to entrap Germany into still another war with its neighbor in 1914.
Although surely a candidate, Jack Morgan was never awarded Time Magazine’s Man of the Year. This said, he did manage in 1923 to become the focus of one of the magazine’s cover stories. The story began,
“Advertising pays just as liberally in Wall Street as elsewhere. Gilded on its windows or carved on its lintels, appear the names of countless bankers and brokers ….”
and continued later,
“On the southeast corner of Wall and Broad streets, however, there is a low, massive building with no label at all. Over its door one sees " 23 Wall Street"—that is all. Not to know it, however, argues yourself unknown, for this is the office of J.P. Morgan & Co.”
“The business of J.P. Morgan & Co. is mainly in securities. The firm is a leader in the underwriting and syndicate business. Its largest issue was the half-billion Anglo-French loan floated in 1915, but it has handled successfully many issues of $100,000,000. Apart from acting as financial agents and bankers for such railroads as the New York Central and such industrial companies as U.S. Steel, the firm is the fiscal agent in this country for Great Britain and France. The Hearst newspapers recently howled because a "smiling portrait of King George" hangs in Mr. Morgan's office; it is equally likely that a picture of Mr. Morgan hangs in King George's office—if he has one.”
Time Magazine. “23 Wall Street”. Sept. 24, 1923
Yes. J.S. Morgan & Co. had undergone another name change.
History is quick to tell us about Owen Young, but it is more reticent to tell us about the dealings of J. P. Morgan, Jr. Indeed, both Owen Young and Jack Morgan had profited handsomely from the war, and there was still much more “money” to be made.
In liberty, or not at all,
Roddy A. Stegemann, First Hill, Seattle 98104
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