So strong was the faith of all men in Mr. Morgan in those critical
times that Thomas didn’t wait for further details but rushed back
to the floor of the Exchange to announce the reprieve to his
death-sentenced fellow members.
Then, before half past two in the afternoon, J. P. Morgan sent John
T. Atterbury, of Van Emburgh & Atterbury, who was known to have close
relations with J. P. Morgan & Co., into the money crowd. My friend said
that the old broker walked quickly to the Money Post. He raised his
hand like an exhorter at a revival meeting. The crowd, that at first
had been calmed down somewhat by President Thomas’ announcement, was
beginning to fear that the relief plans had miscarried and the worst
was still to come. But when they looked at Mr. Atterbury’s face and saw
him raise his hand they promptly petrified themselves.
In the dead silence that followed, Mr. Atterbury said, “I am authorized
to lend ten million dollars. Take it easy! There will be enough for
everybody!”
Then he began. Instead of giving to each borrower the name of the
lender he simply jotted down the name of the borrower and the amount
of the loan and told the borrower, “You will be told where your money
is.” He meant the name of the bank from which the borrower would get
the money later.
I heard a day or two later that Mr. Morgan simply sent word to the
frightened bankers of New York that they must provide the money the
Stock Exchange needed.
“But we haven’t got any. We’re loaned up to the hilt,” the banks
protested.
“You’ve got your reserves,” snapped J. P.
“But we’re already below the legal limit,” they howled.
“Use them! That’s what reserves are for!” And the banks obeyed and
invaded the reserves to the extent of about twenty million dollars. It
saved the stock market. The bank panic didn’t come until the following
week. He was a man, J. P. Morgan was. They don’t come much bigger.
That was the day I remember most vividly of all the days of my life as
a stock operator. It was the day when my winnings exceeded one million
dollars. It marked the successful ending of my first deliberately
planned trading campaign. What I had foreseen had come to pass. But
more than all these things was this: a wild dream of mine had been
realised. I had been king for a day!
I’ll explain, of course. After I had been in New York a couple of years
I used to cudgel my brains trying to determine the exact reason why I
couldn’t beat in a Stock Exchange house in New York the game that I
had beaten as a kid of fifteen in a bucket shop in Boston. I knew that
some day I would find out what was wrong and I would stop being wrong.
I would then have not alone the will to be right but the knowledge to
insure my being right. And that would mean power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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