Business: Morgan’s Old Gold

Vigilant citizens were alarmed last week. At first, they could not believe their eyes. And yet, there it was in print, in black & white, squarely before them on their own breakfast table, next to the cream pitcher. “Surely,” cried one citizen, “Coolidge will act promptly. This situation cannot go on. Great Scot, this is the beginning of a PANIC. We’ll all be bankrupt. Why, I always thought the house of Morgan was founded on rock.”

“Yes,” cried the citizen’s wife gazing at the cause of the alarm, “and I always thought Mr. Morgan would look out for his sister, no matter what the financial emergency.”

The citizen and his wife were looking at a photograph of Miss Anne Morgan, 55, idolized daughter of the late John Pierpont Morgan and sister of Banker John Pierpont Morgan, 60, in an advertisement in a morning newspaper. Miss Morgan was publicly endorsing Old Gold (“Not a cough in a carload”) cigarets; that is, she had put her signature to a statement alleging that she had taken the blindfold test, smoked four brands of cigarets and found that “the smoothness” of one cigaret was “so obvious.” That cigaret turned out to be Old Gold.

When citizens later found out that the house of Morgan was still solvent, they still wondered: Why had Miss Morgan sold her name for advertising purposes?* Had her brother squandered her money in unwise investments, or, at any rate, neglected to give her prime investment advice?

Investigations revealed that Miss Morgan is, by no means, penniless and that her brother is, by no means, an unwise investor. The answer is that Miss Morgan probably gave the money she received from Old Gold to charity. Citizens did indeed think of that, but were still mystified. If Miss Morgan had been hard-pressed for another $1,000 for her pet charity, would not Banker Morgan, impeccable, gladly have accommodated her? There was only one other explanation: Miss Morgan was upsetting Morgan tradition by positively getting to like publicity.

* It has been reported that blindfolded endorsers of Old Gold cigarets receive $1,000 for their pains.