At the same time he attracted the attention
of Joseph Pulitzer who appointed him managing editor of the World
before he was thirty.
While directing the World's policy during the second Cleveland
campaign, Harvey met Thomas F. Ryan and William C. Whitney, the
financial backers of the Democratic party. This prepared the way
for his step from Park Row to Wall Street after his break with
Pulitzer.
But the ways of Wall Street were not for Harvey. Nevertheless he
was cautious enough to help himself to some of the profits that
were forthcoming in those days of great amalgamations. With
commendable foresight, however much he might have despised the
methods then prevalent in the fields of high finance, he acquired
enough to make him independent, to follow his own bent, and
strangely enough, in the acquiring he came to the conclusion that
the Republic could not survive if the plundering of the people by
the "interests" continued as it was proceeding at that time.
He withdrew from the Street and eventually purchased The North
American Review. In the meantime J. P. Morgan and Company had
underwritten the bonds of the Harper publishing house and the elder
Morgan asked Harvey to take charge of the institution. This he
agreed to do with the understanding that he should be permitted to
direct the policy of Harper's Weekly, one of the assets of the
firm, without interference from the bankers.
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