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Mr. Pecora left the District Attorney's office to return to private practice with only $525 in the world. Married, father of one son, he lives on Riverside Drive, likes to play pinocle, does his best work late at night, takes regular sun-lamp treatments. As a prosecutor, he has a remarkable memory for oral evidence. Yet he can be blandly forgetful when out to trip a witness. Persistent, he will ask a witness the same question in 20 different forms until he gets an answer. Because he dogged Mr. Morgan about his income taxes until that witness had to admit that he knew nothing about them, Senator Glass complained bitterly that Counsel Pecora was "badgering" Banker Morgan. Pecora's court manner is quiet, almost casual. Just when a witness least expects it, Lawyer Pecora will drop him into a trap. No loud bulldozer, he can be crisply sarcastic. Last week when one witness grew over-obvious about the 1929 stock crash, he cut him short with: "I've heard of that, too." He was recommended to the committee as a prosecutor who would not "play up publicity." But black and blaring were the headlines he created by his practice of eliciting just enough evidence to put the ugliest possible face on a given set of facts. Thus, once he had brought out the information that Banker Morgan & Partners paid no 1931 and 1932 income tax, he was ready to drop the subject. The firm's witnesses had almost to fight their way to the stand to get published, many editions later, the explanation of why no tax was paid, and how they had paid large taxes in previous years.
Twenty years ago another Manhattan lawyer faced another Morgan at another Congressional show not unlike last week's. Then it was Samuel Untermyer (75 last week) v. John Pierpont Morgan Sr. Minnesota's Representative Charles Augustus Lindbergh, whose son later married the daughter of a Morgan partner, had called for an inquiry into the "Money Trust." Chairman Arsene Pujo of the House Banking & Currency Committee set the stage. The first day the elder Morgan spent 17 minutes on the witness stand and was so upset by Inquisitor Untermyer that he could not name his ten partners. The second and last day he was again master of himself, barking out his answers, defending his deals with Financiers Baker. Rockefeller, Gary and Vanderlip, praising Character as the only basis for credit, revealing little or nothing about the House of Morgan. The "Money Trust" investigation got little from him. No important legislation was forthcoming.*
A Roland for an Untermyer, or a Walsh or a Davis, Inquisitor Pecora did a much better job of establishing substantial information about private banking on which to base legislation. With time to search and prepare, he never dropped a question until he got his answer. Yet it was not Banker Morgan who supplied him with most of his facts but Partner George Whitney, tall, handsome, slick-haired brother of President Richard Whitney of the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Whitney (known on Wall Street as "Icicle") gave the committee the impression that he knew more about the House of Morgan than anyone else.
Principal Developments of last week:
1) Morgan partners paid a total income tax of $51.538.074 during 1917-29.