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Alexander. When Julius Csesar made his famed remark about preferring to be first in a little Iberian village rather than second in Rome, he of course left the obvious answer that to be first in Rome was the really desirable position. In the case of Banker James Strange Alexander, the little Iberian village was Tarrytown, N. Y., where his parents had settled after their arrival from Scotland. And had Banker Alexander remained in Tarrytown he would undoubtedly have become its first banker, as even at the age of 20 he was well along the road to advancement in a Tarrytown bank. But to become a Tarrytown bank president seemed to him a meagre goal for the long years of waiting it required, so to Manhattan's National Bank of Commerce he wrote, and in 1885 he became a Commerce employe. His job was copying letters; his salary $520 per annum. But while many a bank clerk was copying letters perfunctorily, wearily, Copyist Alexander was studying and understanding the letters that flowed from his pen. If Manhattan was Alexander's Rome, then the letters he copied were his Epistles to the Romans.
In spite of day and night study, however, he advanced slowly. After 23 years he was only assistant cashier. Then, however, came a brief absence, a marked advancement. Mr. Alexander left Bank of Commerce, spent nine months as American Express treasurer, was called back as vice president (1908). In 1911 he was made president, in 1923 became board chairman.
It is said that Mr. Alexander considers that his greatest responsibilities lie not in the management of the banking business but in the guidance of the bank's employes. With proper help, the souls and minds of his hundreds of workers would be stimulated, developed, perfected. But thoughtless, untactful employers resulted in employes with ambitions thwarted and stunted. Mr. Alexander's first concern lay not with the fortunes of the bank but with its souls.
*But Myron C. Taylor, U. S. Steel man, and Mr. Sabin are also said to have been the merger master-minds.