inherent necessities of trade and commerce. He does not disapprove of combinations that are properly organized, and managed with justice; and he believes in publicity as to all corporations in whose securities the people are asked to invest. He is a western man with broad views of the country's needs. He has had an exceptionally wide experience in dealing with affairs on a large scale. The kind of business life he has led has obliged him to travel more than fifty thousand miles a year, on an average, during the last ten years, and his contact with men and affairs has given him a comprehensive knowledge of the methods of carrying on business, and of the laws which govern commercial relations.
He was born in Detroit, May 22, 1857. His father, J. Sterling Morton, and his mother, Caroline French Joy, were married in Michigan in the fall of 1854, and at once went to Nebraska City to reside, where they established the present Morton homestead, "Arbor Lodge." J. Sterling Morton took a prominent part in the development and upbuilding of the country west of the Missouri River. His authorship of the legislation establishing the anniversary of "Arbor Day," and his successful administration of the duties of secretary of agriculture under President Cleveland, have made him well known to the public.
Paul Morton is one of four brothers, Joy, Paul, Mark and Carl. The death of his youngest brother, Carl, in January, 1901, was a severe blow to their father, who survived him little more than a year.
In May, 1873, Mr. Morton, who had been in its land office for a year, was transferred to the General Freight Office of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, at Plattsmouth, Nebraska, receiving a salary of twenty-five dollars per month. He remained in this office about two years, when he removed to Chicago and became a clerk in the General Freight Office of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. He remained in the service of the latter corporation seventeen years, and when he resigned from it he had been successively chief clerk, assistant general freight agent, general passenger agent, and general freight agent. He left the C, B. & Q., in 1890, to become vice-president of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, and connected himself with other coal properties in the West, remaining in the coal business six years.
Mr. Morton became vice-president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad System, January 1, 1896, and was in charge of the
