by James Grant
“The wisdom of Bernard . . .”: Boston News Bureau, Apr. 4, 1912.
[Baruch] didn’t do the work . . .”: Columbia University Oral History Collection, Meyer interview, pp. 114–115.
“as a knowledge . . .”: Meyer to Baruch, July 27, 1909; Meyer papers.
Meyer’s report: Merlo J. Pusey, Eugene Meyer (New York, 1974), pp. 71–72.
“AFRAID IMPOSSIBLE . . .”: Baruch to Meyer, Aug. 4, 1909; Meyer papers.
Meyer’s bullish wire: Meyer to Baruch, undated; Meyer papers.
“BARUCH LENDS YOU . . .”: Baruch to Meyer, July 30,1909; Meyer papers.
“Under no conditions”: Baruch to Meyer, Aug. 23, 1909; Meyer papers.
One of the most lucrative: Baruch memoir; Baruch papers, Unit XV, Box 272.
Baruch’s letter to Ryan: Nov. 27, 1915.
“Dear Mr. Baruch”: R. Lancaster Williams to Baruch, Mar. 26, 1915.
“unique” demand: Wall Street Journal, Mar. 23 and 25, 1915.
“serious blunder”: T. A. Rickard, A History of American Mining (New York, 1932), pp. 76–77.
“My relation to Juneau”: Meyer to Bradley, Apr. 19, 1920; Meyer papers.
Chapter Six: The Baron of Hobcaw
“You be off . . .”: Appellate Division Reports, New York Supreme Court, V. 103, pp. 577–580.
“If your chauffeur . . .”: New York Times, Dec. 9, 1913.
“ardent convivialist”: Quoted in Alberta M. Lachiotte, Georgetown Rice Plantations (Columbia, SC, 1955), p. 9.
“Sightwood Pitchings . . .”: Grant to John Roberts, Oct. 8, 1736, p. 9; Special Grants (Royal), Vol. 43, p. 114, South Carolina archives.
“of fine address”: The Carolina Field (Georgetown, SC), May 24, 1905.
Details of property transfer: Various deed books from the Office of the Clerk of Court and the Auditor’s Office, Georgetown County, SC.
“How I miss . . .”: Hobcaw guest book, entry dated Feb. 21, 1916; Unit XVIII, Box 287, Baruch papers.
“I love my ducks . . .”: Ibid., entry dated Nov. 22, 1913.
New York Herald report: Dec. 30, 1911.
“I do my hunting . . .”: Bernard M. Baruch, Baruch: My Own Story (New York, 1957), p. 277.
Baruch’s visit to church: Elizabeth Navarro to author, Feb. 21, 1980.
“Jesse, keep quiet . . .”: Ibid., pp. 282–283.
Annie as guest: Baruch to William Glasgow, Jr., June 10, 1926. Baruch wrote: “Mrs. Baruch has written a letter to Mrs. Glasgow, but I want to clear up the diplomatic side of your invitation. Seriously, and as a matter of fact, Mrs. Baruch never issues an invitation either for Hobcaw or Fetteresso [the Scottish castle]. She is only a guest and not the hostess. This is not bragging behind her back; if you want me to, I will say so in front of her.”
“level headed”: Baruch to Herbert Hoover, Aug. 27, 1921.
Not his type: Dorothy Schiff to author, July 14, 1980.
Lousy lover: Helen Lawrenson, Stranger at the Party (New York, 1975), pp. 135–136.
“That really was the bitterest . . .”: Baruch reminiscences, Unit XV, Box 272, pp. 194–195. (Hereafter referred to as Baruch reminiscences.) Brearley wasn’t literally out of bounds to Jews at the turn of the century—Jacob Schiff’s first child, Frieda, was a student there—but to Baruch’s mind, at least, it did apply a quota system. The school can only confirm that Belle applied but did not enroll.
City College trustee: Sherry Gorelick, City College and the Jewish Poor: Education in New York, 1880–1924 (New Brunswick, N.J., 1981), p. 137.
Perkins’ perceptions: Frances Perkins interview, Columbia University Oral History Collection, Book 5, p. 118 and p. 131.
Oakland Golf Club affair: Baruch reminiscences, pp. 192–193.
“above the turf: Baruch reminiscences, pp. 631–632.
“The belief prevailed . . .”: Boston News Bureau, June 23, 1911.
“One of the things . . .”: Dow Jones ticker, Mar. 6, 1912.
“The Stock Exchange . . .”: Charleston Post, Sept. 24, 1912.
“The good features . . .”: Boston News Bureau, Oct. 8, 1912.
“Barney” Baruch has gone . . .”: Morning Telegraph, Aug. 8, 1913.
Jacob Schiff’s suspicion: Dorothy Schiff to author, July 14, 1980.
chronically short: James P. Warburg interview, Columbia University Oral History Collection, p. 41.
“It doesn’t affect me . . .”: Garet Garrett, “The Wall Street Boys,” Collier’s (Jan. 27,1912), p. 22.
“Baruch is something . . .”: Boston News Bureau, May 30, 1911.
Laimbeer gift: New York Sun, Sept. 7, 1913.
Baruch’s book: Short Sales and Manipulation of Securities (New York, 1913), 67 pages, privately printed.
“by far the ablest . . .”: Quoted in Mortimer Smith, William Jay Gaynor: Mayor of New York (Chicago, 1951), p. 157.
Baruch’s voting: Bernard M. Baruch, Baruch: The Public Years (New York, 1960), p. 5; and Jordan A. Schwarz, The Speculator: Bernard M. Baruch in Washington, 1917–1965 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1981), p. 35.
“Resolved. . .”: Frank R. Kent, The Democratic Party: A History (New York, 1928), p. 399.
“. . . Bernard Baruch ought to have . . .”: Boston News Bureau, Aug. 13, 1912.
“three wealthy Democrats”: Arthur S. Link, Wilson, The Road to the White House (Princeton, NJ, 1947), p. 484.
“Baruch interests”: For example, New York Globe, Dec. 14, 1911; the Globe also reported, under a story plainly headed “Gossip,” that Baruch was making a market in US Steel for none other than J. P. Morgan.
Reports of a Baruch pool: E.g., Boston News Bureau, June 20, 1911.
“Some of the keenest . . .”: Ibid., July 18, 1911.
“Both B. M. Baruch . . .”: Ibid., May 14, 1912.
“Conservative Wall Street . . .”: Wall Street Journal, Jan. 4, 1913.
“It’s always been a great relief . . .”: quoted in Jacob Alexis Friedman, Impeachment of Governor William Sulzer (New York, 1939), pp. 17–19.
Baruch’s attitude toward Stock Exchange incorporation: Autobiographical typescript by Marquis James, Unit XV, Box 273, pp. 163–164.
“Bernard M. Baruch, who now . . .”: New York World, Aug. 8, 1913.
Baruch’s contribution to Sulzer defense: Baruch, The Public Years, p. 3.
“It is not true . . .”: New York World, Aug. 8, 1913.
Chapter Seven: Striking It Rich Reluctantly
“president of various railroad corporations”: Translation of an article from Der Angriff (Aug. 15, 1935); General Correspondence.
Besides the standard reference sources (Moody’s, Poor’s, Commercial & Financial Chronicle, etc.), the following were especially helpful on the history of the Terminal Co.: Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives; Investigation of the Wabash-Pittsburgh Terminal Co., Washington, 1914; Albro Martin, Enterprise Denied: Origins of the Decline of American Railroads, 1897–1917 (New York, 1971); William Z. Ripley, Railroads: Finance & Organization (New York, 1915).
Hope and bafflement: See, for instance, New York Sun and Financial America, Mar. 31, 1911.
“Thoroughly disgusted . . .”: House Investigation, p. 36.
“Speaking in general terms . . .”: Twenty-second Annual Report of the Directors of the Wabash Railroad Co. for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1911, p. 4, p. 6.
Hearst prediction: New York American, May 4, 1912.
“Those who know . . .”: New York Herald, May 18, 1912.
“The announcement . . .”: Wall Street Journal, Apr. 5, 1912.
“Though we have . . .”: Cyrus Adler, Jacob H. Schiff: His Life and Letters (New York, 1928), pp. 128–129.
“The reorganization plan . . .”: New York Times, Apr. 22, 1914.
“Passenger rates have been broken . . .”: Commercial & Financial Chronicle, Vol. XCIX, p. 1132, 1914.
“You know I am with you . . .”: Baruch reminiscences, Unit XV, Box 272, p. 100.
“gross misrepr
esentation”: Quoted in Jordan Schwarz, The Speculator: Bernard M. Baruch in Washington, 1917–1965 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1981), p. 31.
“no one was able”: Baruch to Frank Kent, Mar. 18, 1936. Different men saw Baruch as a different animal. Both James P. Warburg and Henry Morgenthau unflatteringly likened him to a fox, and Drew Pearson, another detractor, wrote that he had an elephant’s memory for people who crossed him. Hamilton Fish, in praise, compared him to an owl, and on Wall Street he was sometimes heroically called a “Lone Eagle.” Baruch himself, remarking on his fondness for the sun, used the analogy of a lizard.
“the Asiatic elephant . . .”: E. J. Kahn, Jr., The World of Swope (New York, 1965), p. 206.
At length, the Baruch party: Texas Gulf history is based on the following: Dr. Charles F. Fogarty, The Story of Texasgulf: A Story of Natural Resources Essential to a Higher Standard of Living for Everyone, The Newcomen Society of North America, 1976; Williams Haynes, The Stone That Burns: The Story of the American Sulphur Industry (New York, 1942); David Lavender, The Story of Cyprus Mines Corporation (San Marino, Cal., 1962).
“gamble”: Bernard M. Baruch, Baruch: My Own Story (New York, 1957), p. 235.
“at or near . . .”: Application for charter of Gulf Sulphur Co., Dec. 23, 1909. This and other documents and correspondence that follow, unless otherwise noted, are drawn from the archives of Texasgulf Inc., Stamford, Conn.
“worthy of further work”: Baruch to Alfred C. Einstein, Mar. 24, 1911.
“entirely out of the question”: Baruch to Einstein, June 23, 1911.
“Personally and frankly . . .”: Einstein to Baruch, Jan. 6 and 15, 1912.
“The man supposed . . .”: Baruch to Einstein, Jan. 9, 1913.
“All these men . . .”: Baruch to Einstein, Apr. 11, 1912.
“I am willing . . .”: Baruch to Einstein, May 27, 1913.
“I am becoming . . .”: Einstein to Baruch, June 28, 1913.
“I don’t believe . . .”: J. M. Allen to Einstein, Feb. 9, 1914.
“Mr. Baruch said to me . . .”: Einstein to Harrison, Mar. 10, 1915.
“squeeze them out”: Einstein to Baruch, June 1, 1915.
“I wish . . .”: Baruch to Einstein, Jan. 26, 1916.
“NO MORE OPTIONS . . .”: Allen to Einstein, Feb. 7, 1916.
“ALL CASH IMPOSSIBLE . . .”: Einstein to Allen, Feb. 8, 1916.
“IN VIEW OF . . .”: Baruch to Einstein, Mar. 2, 1916.
Baruch turning to Morgan: Baruch, My Own Story, p. 238.
“Three and one half . . .”: Arthur Pound and Samuel Taylor Moore, eds., They Told Barron: Conversations and Revelations of an American Pepys in Wall Street (New York, 1930), p. 238.
Chapter Eight: Poison-Pen Letter
Favors from and for Murphy: Baruch reminiscences, Unit XV, Box 272, p. 910.
“on Mezes’ account.”: Quoted in Jordan A. Schwarz, The Speculator: Bernard M. Baruch in Washington, 1917–1965 (Chapel Hall, NC, 1981), p. 43.
“He had been . . .”: S. Willis Rudy, The College of the City of New York A History (1847–1947) (New York, 1949), p. 342.
“The only thing . . .”: Journal of Commerce, July 8, 1915.
“Boiled down . . .”: New York Call, July 9, 1915.
Baruch accident: Ibid., Dec. 1, 1914.
White House visit: New York Herald, Sept. 9, 1915.
“Mr. Baruch happens . . .”: Einstein to Allen, Sept. 18, 1916 (Texasgulf archives, Stamford, Conn.).
“Mr. House has handed . . .”: Bernard M. Baruch, Baruch: The Public Years (New York, 1960), p. 24.
“somewhat vain”: E. David Cronon, ed., The Cabinet Diaries of Josephus Daniels, 1913–1921 (Lincoln, Neb., 1963), p. 131.
“the New York banker”: New York Times, Oct. 12, 1916.
“I doubt his sorrow . . .”: Quoted in Schwarz, p. 46.
“All the women . . .”: House of Representatives, 64th Cong., 2nd Sess., Committee on Rules, Investigation Relating to Alleged Advance Knowledge of the President’s Note of December 20, 1916, Washington, DC, 1917, p. 1495. (Hereafter cited as Investigation.)
“Prices melted away . . .”: Wall Street Journal, Dec. 22, 1916.
“The good old . . .”: Investigation, p. 274; Lawson tarred a number of prominent people in connection with the alleged leak but he testified that “Bernie Baruch is a reputable character” (p. 303).
“I will state . . .”: New York Times, Jan. 4, 1917.
Curtis letter: Ibid., Jan. 6, 1917.
“Tell them . . .”: Eugene Meyer, Jr., interview, Columbia University Oral History Collection, p. 217.
Abandonment of Baruch by his friends: Ibid., p. 220.
“Bernard M. Baruch; my business . . .”: Investigation, p. 187.
“Our party . . .”: Ibid., p. 194.
“a great many years”: Ibid., p. 198.
“They are licensed . . .”: Ibid., p. 206.
“On the contrary . . .”: Ibid., p. 212.
“perhaps you may be right . . .”: Ibid., p. 213.
“Did you have . . .”: Ibid., p. 553.
“I know I bought . . .” and ff.: Ibid., pp. 556–557.
He owned no munitions stocks: Boston News Bureau, Jan. 9, 1917.
“I am speaking . . .”: Investigation, p. 557.
Canadian Pacific understanding: Boston News Bureau, Jan. 31, 1917.
“But then . . .”: Investigation, p. 558.
“Because, I wanted . . . ” and ff.: Ibid., pp. 563–564.
“It was a very unfortunate . . .”: Ibid., p. 564.
“I never get . . . ” and ff.: Ibid., pp. 565–566.
“Was this a large . . . ” and ff.: Ibid., pp. 564–565.
“I do not know . . .”: Ibid., p. 569. Suspicion about the affair lingered long afterward. In 1953 one Arthur Mefford, who claimed to have been a Wall Street telegrapher at the time of the leak, wrote the columnist Westbrook Pegler with what he said was the true inside story of Baruch’s culpability. Mefford wrote that he had personally “handled” the leak on the wires of S. B. Chapin & Company, that the information had been given to Baruch and that the speculator had made at least $3 million and undoubtedly more. Furthermore, Mefford was paid $15,000 in “hush money” by a man whom he (Mefford) presumed to be Baruch. But (and here the story came unraveled) by the time the congressional investigation got under way, Mefford had been called up from the reserves to active service in France. Pegler, who had no use for Baruch, evidently doubted his informant—for one thing the investigation was finished months before the United States entered the war—but if nothing else the charge is revealing of the kind of myth that clung to Baruch (Mefford to Pegler, Aug. 5, 1953; Westbrook Pegler Papers, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library).
Chapter Nine: Captain of Industry
Chronicle Magazine episode: New York Times, Oct. 1, 1917.
“There’s not a drop . . .”: Virginia Epstein to author, Feb. 6, 1981.
President Wilson’s flowers: New York Times, Nov. 28, 1917. The ballroom at Sherry’s was filled with chrysanthemums and with more than a thousand people, including Dr. and Mrs. Baruch’s four sons, their wives and eight of their nine grandchildren. For his founding of the Rivington Street public baths, the doctor was presented with a gold tablet; and for his gift of the Charity Hospital to the city of Camden, SC (which our Baruch financed), with a gold loving cup. Mrs. Baruch, the Times reported, wore “a trailing gown of white and gold brocaded satin and chiffon, with diamond ornaments.” Her clubs deluged her with flowers.
“the man who spreads . . .”: Quoted in David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (New York, 1980), p. 62.
Wartime financial details: Baruch to Senator Gerald P. Nye, Mar. 22, 1935; quoted in the report of the Special Committee to Investigate the Munitions Industry, US Senate, 73rd-74th Cong., Washington, 1935, pp. 6260–6262. (Hereafter cited as Nye hearings.)
“involuntary voluntary” method: Merlo J. Pusey, Eugene Meyer (New York, 1974), p. 143.
Austrian ships affair: Bernard M. Baruch, Baruch: The Public Years (New York, 1960), pp. 40–41.
“He is always ready . . .”: Quoted in Collier’s (Jan. 31, 1920).
Corcoran story: Eugene Meyer, Jr., Columbia University Oral History Collection, p. 256.
Buying the building: Collier’s (Jan. 31, 1920).
“was just a cluster . . .”: Hugh S. Johnson, The Blue Eagle from Egg to Earth (Garden City, NY, 1935), p. 93.
“Whereas the high cost . . .”: Quoted in Nye hearings, p. 392.
“Anybody who declines . . .”: Quoted in Sidney Homer, A History of Interest Rates: 2000 BC to the Present (New Brunswick, NJ, 1977), p. 346.
“Easy money . . .”: Alexander D. Noyes, The War Period of American Finance, 1908–1925 (New York, 1926), p. 225.
Von Mises’ ideas: Ludwig von Mises, Human Action (New Haven, Conn., 1949).
Du Pont story: Unless otherwise noted, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., and Stephen Salsbury, Pierre S. du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation (New York, 1971), chapters 14–15.
“Many was the night . . .”: Baruch, The Public Years, p. 57.
“I do not know . . .”: Bernard M. Baruch, Baruch: My Own Story (New York, 1957), p. 228.
“This gave me something . . .”: Baruch, The Public Years, p. 45.
“Fiddle while Rome burns”: Ibid., p. 46.
“Walked with my . . .”: Baruch diary, Feb. 24, 1918; War Industries Board Papers.
“The entire war machine . . .”: Robert D. Cuff, The War Industries Board: Business-Government Relations During World War I (Baltimore, 1973), p. 135.
“By the time . . .”: Ibid., p. 136.
Baker’s dislike of Baruch’s Wall Street past: Daniel R. Beaver, Newton D. Baker and the American War Effort, 1917–1919 (Lincoln, Neb., 1966), p. 106.
“good, honest, simpleminded . . .”: Quoted in Jordan A. Schwarz, The Speculator: Bernard M. Baruch in Washington, 1917–1965 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1981), p. 70.
“ablest man . . .”: Theodore Roosevelt to Moe Gunst, Aug. 14, 1917, General Correspondence.
“My dear Mac . . .”: Quoted in Baruch, The Public Years, p. 50.
“Now when you . . .”: Ibid., p. 52.
