J. P. Morgan Jr.

J. P. Morgan Jr.
Albert Henry Wiggin and Morgan in 1917 in Manhattan at a war bond parade
Born	John Pierpont Morgan Jr. (1867-09-07)September 7, 1867 Irvington, New York, U.S.
Died	March 13, 1943(1943-03-13) (aged 75) Boca Grande, Florida, U.S.
Cause of death	Stroke
Nationality	American
Occupation	Banker, philanthropist
Religion	Episcopalian
Spouse(s)	Jane Norton Grew (m. 1890–1925)
Children	Junius Spencer Morgan III, Henry Sturgis Morgan, Jane Norton Morgan Nichols, Frances Tracy Pennoyer
Parent(s)	J. P. Morgan Frances Louisa Tracy

John Pierpont "Jack" Morgan Jr., also referred to as J.P. Morgan Jr. (September 7, 1867 – March 13, 1943), was an American banker, finance executive, and philanthropist.^[1] Morgan Jr. inherited the family fortune and took over the business interests including J.P. Morgan & Co. after his father J. P. Morgan died.

A graduate of St. Paul's School and Harvard, he was trained as a finance executive in the business world, having worked for both his father and grandfather, that would serve him well as a banking financier and lending leader, and was a director of several companies. He supported the New York Lying-In Hospital, the Red Cross, the Episcopal Church, and provided an endowment for the creation of a rare books and manuscripts collection at the Morgan Library.

Morgan brokered a deal that positioned his company as the sole munitions and supplies purchaser during World War I for the British and French governments. The results produced a one percent commission on $3,000,000,000 or $30,000,000 to the company. Morgan was also a banking broker for financing to foreign governments both during and after the war.

Biography

Morgan was born on September 7, 1867 in Irvington, New York to J. P. Morgan and Frances Louisa Tracy. He graduated from Harvard College in 1886, where he was a member of the Delphic Club, formerly known as the Delta Phi. In 1890 Jack married Jane Norton Grew (d. 1925), daughter of Boston banker and mill owner Henry Sturgis Grew. She was the aunt of Henry Grew Crosby. The couple raised four children: Junius Spencer Morgan III; Henry Sturgis Morgan, a founding partner of Morgan Stanley; Jane Norton Morgan Nichols, and Frances Tracy Pennoyer.^[2] A fifth child, Alice (d. 1918?), died at a young age of typhoid fever.

Career

Jack Morgan walking alongside his father J. P. Morgan in the last known photograph of the two together (ca. 1913)

The younger Morgan resembled his father in his dislike for publicity and continued his father's philanthropic policy. In 1905, his father acquired the bank Guaranty Trust as part of his efforts to consolidate New York City banking. After his father died in 1913 the bank became Jack's base.

World War I

Morgan played a prominent part in financing World War I. Following its outbreak, he made the first loan of $12,000,000 to Russia.^[3] In 1915, a loan of $500,000,000 was made to France and Britain following negotiations by the Anglo-French Financial Commission.^[4] The firm's involvement with British and French interests fueled charges the bank was conspiring to maneuver the United States into supporting the Allies in order to rescue its loans. By 1915 it became apparent the war was not going to end quickly, the company decided to forge formal relationships with France.^[5] Those dealings became strained over the course of the war as a result of poor personal relations with French emissaries, relationships that were heightened in importance by the unexpected duration of the conflict, its costs, and the complications flowing from American neutrality. Contributing to the tensions was the favoritism displayed by Morgan officials to British interests.^[6] His personal friendship with Cecil Spring Rice ensured that from 1915 until sometime after the United States entered the war, his firm was the official purchasing agent for the British government, buying cotton, steel, chemicals and food, receiving a 1% commission on all purchases.^[7] Morgan organized a syndicate of about 2200 banks and floated a loan of $500,000,000 to the Allies. The British sold off their holdings of American securities and by late 1916 were dependent on unsecured loans for further purchases.^[8]

At the beginning of World War I, US Treasury Secretary William McAdoo and others in the Wilson administration were very suspicious of J. P. Morgan & Co.'s enthusiastic role as British agent for purchasing and banking. When the United States entered the war, this gave way to close collaboration, in the course of which Morgan received financial concessions.^[9] From 1914 to 1919, he was a member of the advisory council for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.^[7]

On 3 July 1915, an intruder, Eric Muenter, entered Morgan's Long Island mansion and shot him twice in an attempt to assassinate him. This was ostensibly to bring about an embargo on arms, and in protest of his profiteering from war. Morgan, however, quickly recovered from his wounds.^[7][10][11]

Postwar

After World War I and the Versailles Treaty, Morgan Guaranty managed Germany's reparation payments. After the war, Morgan made several trips to Europe to investigate and report on financial conditions there. In 1919 he was for a time chairman of the international committee, composed of American, British and French bankers, for the protection of the holders of Mexican securities. In November 1919, he was made a director of the Foreign Finance Corporation, which was organized to engage in the investment of funds chiefly in foreign enterprises. By the 1920s, Morgan Guaranty had become one of the world's most important banking institutions, as a leading lender to Germany and Europe.^[7][12] He attempted to defeat Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan for the New Deal during the Great Depression, and secured about US$100 million in loans to Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini prior to World War II.^[10] Morgan triggered discussion about banking and tax law in at least two areas. First, the fact that he paid no taxes in 1931 and 1932 raised questions about tax law. Second, his activities as a banker raised questions about the responsibility to act for, rather than against, the best interest of depositors.^[13][14][15]

He was a director in numerous corporations, including the U.S. Steel Corp., the Pullman Co., the Aetna Insurance Co., and the Northern Pacific Railway Co.^[7]

A yachtsman, like his father, Morgan served as commodore of the New York Yacht Club from 1919 to 1921.

In 1930 he built the turbo electric driven yacht Corsair IV at Bath Iron Works in Maine. Corsair IV, launched April 10, 1930, was one of the most opulent yachts of its day and the largest built in the United States with an overall length of 343 feet (104.5 m), 42 feet (12.8 m) beam and 2,142 GRT.^[16][17] Legend at the shipyard credits the phrase "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" to Morgan, when asked what the yacht cost. However, this quote is most often attributed to his father in connection with the yacht Corsair, launched in 1891. Morgan sold the Corsair IV to the British Admiralty in 1940 for one dollar to assist with Britain's war effort.^[18] After the war the Corsair IV was sold to Pacific Cruise Lines and, on September 29, 1947, began service as a luxury cruise ship operating between Long Beach, California and Acapulco, Mexico. On November 12, 1949 the yacht struck a rock near the beach in Acapulco and, although all passengers and crew were rescued, was deemed a total loss.^[19]

Philanthropy

Jack's brownstone, now part of the Morgan Library

In 1920 Morgan gave his London residence, 14 Princes Gate (near Imperial College London), to the U.S. government for use as its embassy.

Later Morgan created the Pierpont Morgan Library as a public institution in 1924 as a memorial to his father. Belle da Costa Greene, Morgan's personal librarian, became the first director and continued the aggressive acquisition and expansion of the collections of illuminated manuscripts, authors' original manuscripts, incunabula, prints, and drawings, early printed Bibles, and many examples of fine bookbinding. Today the library is a complex of buildings which serve as a museum and scholarly research center.

Donations

J. P. Morgan^[20] donated many valuable works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Social

Morgan was a member of the Jekyll Island Club (aka The Millionaires Club) on Jekyll Island, Georgia, as had been his father J. P. Morgan Sr.

References

Further reading

• Forbes, John Douglas (1981). J. P. Morgan Jr. 1867–1943. U. Press of Virginia. ISBN 0-8139-0889-2. 
• Chernow, Ron (2001). The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance. ISBN 0-8021-3829-2. 
• Dayer, Roberta Allbert (1976). "Strange Bedfellows: J. P. Morgan & Co., Whitehall and the Wilson Administration During World War I". Business History. 18 (2): 127–151. doi:10.1080/00076797600000014. 
• Horn, Martin (2000). "A Private Bank At War: J. P. Morgan & Co. and France, 1914–1918". Business History Review. 74 (1): 85–112. JSTOR 3116353.