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MEN OF THE MAYORALTY CAMPAIGN George H. Earle, Jr., Has Rehabilitated So Many Bankrupt Enterprises That His Friends Are Saying He Is the Kind of "Business Doctor" the City Needs at This Time. By HERBERT S. WEBER crowds in their own downtown, denouncing This is the seventh in a series of the brothers as contract grabbers and false sketches of men who may figure in the friends of the poor, buying proxies with mayoralty campaign, intended to let the buckets of coal and baskets of food. voters know something about who they If McNichol ran Earle again, in the event are and what they have done. of a factional war to the knife, it would be N THE gathering twilight of the evening as a "business doctor," and as such the I of August 10, 1911, an elderly gentleman banker has an enviable reputation. Here hurried along Spring Garden street to the you have a city (it would be said) which corner at which the great mansion of the has plunged into some big financial underMayor sent forth upon the dusk the mystakings, a great transit enterprise, particuterious gleam of many larly. What could be more needed than a It softened lights. financial expert, who has pulled a dozen or was high time for Mr. two companies out of the jaws of perdition, Dave Lane to be goand who can handle millions as deftly as a ing somewhere. For a shrewd housewife handles pennies? The great streamer had trouble would probably be that Earle has been stretched across not taken any part in the political world Chestnut street, from since his defeat, except for brief service on which beamed down the Mayor's vice investigating commission. upon the hurrying He has stuck very persistently to business, world the cherubic with his usual success, and only the other and successful face day received a silver loving cup from the f a ambitious employes of a department store, whose Vare, a candidate for positions he had made tenable by rescuing executive officein dethe concern from its difficulties. fiance of the wishes of the overlords of Succeeds Where Others Fail Pennsylvania. There His first feat in business doctoring was GEORGE. H. EARLE, JR. was hard work beperformed when he was a young lawyer. fore the harmonizing Nestor of the OrganHis family owned a considerable amount of ization. stock in the Pennsylvania Warehousing Soon the others came-Penrose, McNichol, and Safe Deposit Company. They had Clay, Wolf, Seger, Scott, Devlin, Martinbought it at 50 and it hung around 5. Then and Reyburn, who had permitted the use of Earle told the directors they had better his house for this historic conference, was make him president. He cut deadwood out there. Historic, because they were about to of the concern and bought a lot of dock elect Rudolph Blankenburg Mayor of Philaproperty. People said he was a visionary, delphia, as events proved. But, even if they but later the railroads were scrambling for had known the outcome, two of the conwater terminals and he had his turn. The ferees would probably not have acted difcompany sold some of its land at a price ferently: Penrose and McNichol. Blankenwhich put it permanently on its feet. One burg was not their supreme enemy at that after another he took the Guarantee Trust moment. That enemy was the emblazoned and Safe Deposit Company, the Finance Vare, who was threatening to wipe Penrose Company of Philadelphia, the Tradesmen's and McNichol off the map of this State. Bank and the Market Street National, and Who should be Mayor mattered little in made them flourishing institutions. When comparison with that issue. It was war the Chestnut Street National Bank and the to the club, and Reyburn held the club. Chestnut Street Trust Company went to Clay held it, too, as Director of Public the wall, Earle became receiver. Both Safety. Would Reyburn hand over the banks were full of the paper of the Philapolice club to beat down the Vares and delphia Record. The Comptroller could not wreck the first real primary Phladelphia was allow the receiver to protect these loans to enjoy? No, he said, he would not. with the cash assets that were left, so Anything to Beat Vare Earle, and Richard Y. Cook, after securing the Record's equity with their own money, "Then let Clay run for Mayor," said Mcgot control of the paper, ran it successfully Nichol, finally, and the worried Penrose for four years and sold it at a big profit. nodded. Instead of pocketing the profit they paid Anything to beat Vare! And surely Clay the bank's creditors 100 cents on the dollar, could do it, holding the club. Then let with back interest, and nearly as much to Blankenburg swamp him; the prestige of the creditors of the trust company. This is the Penrose machine would be preserved. the achievement of which Mr. Earle is most But Reyburn clung to the Vares, and the proud. fight was on. His next success was with the Real Incidentally, after the meeting, when the Estate Trust Company. Frank Hipple, the reporters, who had been held back at the president, shot himself in 1906 when he doors by policemen so they would not disfound that Adolph Segal had made a tool turb the leaders, were allowed to see the of him. The big building and an empty Mayor, he remarked that several comsafe in it were all Earle had to go on. He promise candidates had been mentioned, asked the directors to give him the use of among them George H. Earle, Jr. That was $2,500,000. With this he offered the deposithe first hint the public had that the tors, who at one time would have taken 50 banker might be a candidate. Possibly it cents on the dollar, one-third of their dewas the first hint he had himself. The posits in cash and two-thirds in cumulative choice showed how sore beset was Penrose. preferred stock. In 60 days the doors were Earle was a self-willed man. As he said reopened for business, and on the first day himself later, he had defied the most denew deposits of nearly $1,000,000 were taken termined man in the United States, Roosein. His war on the Sugar Trust followed. velt. There was no reason to believe that and the trust surrendered in the middle of he would blot his business career with political subservience. a savage lawsuit, and gave several millions back to the Real Estate Trust Company. So here was the Penrose answer to the A Rapid Transit Vare deflance: "You won't compromise? Very well, thenswe'll give you a rival whom In 1904 Earle was made a director of the the highbrows can vote for; yes, and the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. He independents, too." It is an interesting not only represented 30,000 shares of stock, study of the psychology of the "god from rhe machine." but he became one of the most influential street railway men in the country through Earle as a McNichol "Club" his various holdings. In 1906 when the comAgain, this year, when the Vares are pany faced severe criticism he resigned threatening another ordeal for the Penrosethat he might state his opinion as a citizen. He returned to the directorate in June, 1909, McNichol prestige, the name of Earle appears as a MeNichol "club" over names and urged an investigation to discover that bear too much of the South Philadelwhether the six-for-a-quarter strip tickets phia flavor. He polled some 130,000 votes to could be restored. He succeeded in getting Blankenburg's 134,000, and considering the under way the consideration of a profitsharing plan for the carmen. unity of the reform ranks, the personal popularity of their leader and the sulking It was natural that two years later, when of the Vares, that was doing pretty well. Penrose brought him forward for Mayor, He would not be up against a Blankenburg he was heralded as "the champion of labor in 1915, and he would make a bid for the and the defender of the rights of the people labor vote, as he did in 1911, and for certain for cheap transportation." The announcesections of the business men's vote. But It ment of his candidacy followed a long 8 hard to imagine the Vares forgiving him ference with Penrose at Earle's cottage con- at those cruel words Mr. Earle spoke to the delphis Atlantic City, the summer capital of Phila