STORY OF ONE THOUSAND MIL LIONAIRES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 136, 30 May 1908, Page 4

STORY OF ONE THOUSAND MIL LIONAIRES

A BUSINESS i'uii .M.mui MILLION rOI'MXS.. Mr. Herbert N. Casson, in describing hi,, new book, the " Romance ot Steel' iio being "the story oi tin.* JUUO millionaires, nas not been guilty of nuich exaggeration. Ivw people realise what tremendous fortunes have been built, up iu America and elsewhere since tile advent of the Bessemer process. .Mr. Casson's is the Ur.st popular history of what is now the greatest. American industry. Il i ri an American story of self-help—a story of the miraculous expansion ot a business from bankruptcy to billions of dollars. Fitly years ago the most proving nee.l of the civilised world was a new metal—something as strong as steel and as cheap a* iron. The railroads then were *' urging iron rails which wore out in loss than two years." At this juncture an answer to the universal demand was voiced by the inventive genius ol two men—William Kelly, a Pittsburg Irish-American, and Sir Henry Be.v-c mer, ot England. They deviled a new way to refine iron, which lias since been known as the Bessemer proce.--. 'their discovery an entirely new idea, ami one which at liil seemed ab.-urd to every other steel-maker. K,dly was an ironmakcr, and needed charcoal. In time all the wood near his fnruace- wa.- burned, and the n.'ares t available some* o! *upply was seven miles distant. To can, his charcoal seven miles meant bankruptcy, miles-, he could invent a way to save fuel. One day he was fitting in front of the ••finery lire" when lie suddenly sprang to his feet with a shout, and rushed to the furnace. At one edge he >aw a white-hot spot in the yellow mass ol molten metal. The iron at th's spot was incandescent. It was almost gaseous. Yet there was no charcoal—lioth- I ing but the steady blast of air. Why didn't the air chill the metal? Every iron-maker since Tubal Cain had believed that hot air would chill hot iron. But Kelly was more than an iron-maker. Jle was a student of metallurgy, and he knew that carbon and oxygen had an allinity for each other, lie know what air was and what iron was. an.l like a Hash the idea leaped into his excited brain—there is no need of charcoal. Air alone is fuel. Like nearly al! great inventors, he was derided at first, in s pite of public experiments that showed his idea practical. Surely the thing was too absurd. Seeing was not believing. "Some crank 1 will be burning ice next/' said one spectator. The world outside would not believe. Kelly's father-in-law. who had advanced hiin capital for the iron business, told him to "quit this foolishness or repay my money.'' He had to surrender. Outwardly he became once more a practical iron-maker, but alone in the depths of the woods lie went on with his experiments. . As a matter of history, the uam<-.- "i Re>-eincr ami Kelly >houid Ik* linked together in the invention ot cheap steel. The original idea first came Irom the brain of Kelly, but the commercial :-uv cess of the new process wiv due to U*ssemer's machinery, perteeted for him b\ Gallowav &■ o>. ; ol' Sbellield. was one of England's greatest inventors, having one hundred ami twenty patents to his credit. He was the son of an inventor—a Fiviivbiiian, who had been driven to London l>y_ a social explosion in Paris. Jlis first invention. a method 01 stamping public document*, was. so he considered, stolen from him by the British Government. He was very pf>or at the time, and this real or supposed injustice made an indelible mark upon his character. Henceforward he was bitterly aggressive in the protection of hi* rights. Seven voars after Kelly'* success at Eddyville. Bessemer invented the lie*seiner process, as the result of a conversation with Napoleon 111., who wanted 1 letter metal for his cannon. The m»w process was perfected bv a third inventor, Robert l\ Musliet. a Scotsman. He solved a problem which had battled both Kelly and Bowemer— ho .v to leave just enough carbon in the molten metal to harden it into the required quality of steel. Instead of frantically endeavouring to -top the process at the right moment, Mushet asked: "Why not lirst burn out all the carbon, an 1 then pour back tin- exact quantity tint yon ii"ed lleiirv l'e--enn r. who wa,, second m the race, received tJti.MIM.niM. wol ldwitle lame, and knighihood as his reward; William Kelly. Ll'llijiou and comparative oblivion. .Mushet tare.l even wor-e than Kelly. I*<»r him there was neither fame nor money, lie hut his patent by failing to pay the necessary fee«. In his later year- he received a pension of three hundred pounds annually from l!o->emer. To-day there are more than a hundred Bessemer converters in the United States breathing iron into steel at the rate of eighteen hundred billion pounds a year. To describe it in a few words, a converter is a huge iron pot twice as high as a man. Although it weighs as nun-l-as a battalion of live hundred men, i! can be handled by a boy. About thirty thousand pounds of molten iron are poured into il. and then, from two hundred little hob's 'n the bottom, a strong blast of air is turned on, rushing like a tornado through the metal. .Millions of red and yellow sparks Jly u hundred feet into the air. The coiivertor roars like a volcano in eruption. It is the fiercest and most strunuons invention of man. The impurities of the. iron—the phosphorus, sulphur, silicon, aud carbon— are being burned out of the metal iu this paioxysm of fury. The sparks change from red to yellow; then suddenly they become white. "All right." shouts the grimy workman in charge. . The great pot is tilted sideways, gasping and coughing like a monster in paia. A workman feeds it with several hundred pounds of a carbon mixture to restore a necessary element that has been blown out. Tlmn it is tilted still iarther; it L a lake of white lire, and i.-' poured into a Mvinging ladle and flopped from the ladle into a train of hug-' clay pot-, pushed into place hy a little locomotive. The converter then swings up and receives another tittceii of inuli"ii no-la!. lh" whole proc having taken oiilv a quarter of an Imur. When Mr. Canrgie " went into stceP he wa- an iron maker. Mr. Carnegie Vtl ,„ iif*i. a piadiciil steelmaker. The man that gave the Carnegie company ii> tir-t uplift from a mob of competitors in the steel industry was Captain William R. Jones Hill" doner,-who took the invention of Kelly and .Bessemer into his strong hands and developi'il it into one of the wonders of the world. ' Among all the partner* and employes of the Carnegie Company, Jones earned the most and received the leant. This was largely his own fault, as refused to Ik* a rdiarcholder. "No. Mr. Carnegie. I'm much obliged." -aid he when he was ulleied a partner-hip. "I don't want to be bothered with il. I've got trouble enough here in the-e wok-, 1 H tell vou what you can do thr.«e were hi-> exact words —"you can give me a h of a big salary." •'Alter this, captain/' replied Carnegie. " vou shall have the salary ot the President of the States—-twenty-live thousand dollars." This sounded well, but in a short time the President's salary was scarcely pinmonev compared to the amounts thai were'yearly .shovelled into the -hareholders' pocket-. 'Tin l fainoii'S scrap-heap policy was originated bv Jones. ||e did not beli''\e in waiting unti, his machinery was dragged to the scrap-heap, and the lat-e-1 put in it- place. He made the shareholders gasp on -everal occasions by a-king permission to sma-h up Cloo.uiKi worth of machinery that was as good as new. bul outgrown. .lone* died, as he had lived,, iu Hie

midst, of an industrial battle at I Ik; head of lii- ln.-ii. lie was killed in an at tin' company'.- wnrk«. . • • ■'Carnegie. looking u|«>u |»'or -lone* 1,,, hiv in tin' lm-|iitiil. sobbed 1 iU<■ ;i child." A friend of t.ln- partner- at tlic tmn--01 their lir.-t -ilcrl-makiivf: exploit*. •!<— - linn, said: " Sliinii bo-sed tlic show : Mil anilless li'iil il dignity mid standing: I'hipps took in the pennies at tin' gale mill kryi Hi'' l'''.v-r<<s! down: 'loin t.";irni'jtie kept everybody in oiKjd humor; iiinl Amly looked after the advertising and drove the band waggon. •'Andrew- ('arncgie',. speaking part in the fleel drama did not cull for modest v and self-obi it era * ion. To climb . liijlii in the -Orial scale. In ki'ep always lie pulilie eye. to seen re the I'riendship of statc-ine and financiers-all tlii.s was l.nt the means to an cud. . . Aluav, and everywhere lie was a man s ot bu-iucss. His purpose was to si'll „t eel 1 til lei' and ,-t e-l rail-." ••{';iri"'L'ic o\V<» ;l to IIN liabit of travelling," iaiil Uci-rgu Lauder, j

his cousin. '• While other men were wallowing iu details, lie was ablj to take a wilier view.'' The most brilliant of ail the Carnegie partners was UiarJe* M. Schwab. His was tin; most meteoric career ever known to the steel business, lie has iisen H tep by stop—but- such step.*! Step No. 1-J)nviiig stakes for a dollar a day aL the Kdgar Thomson works. Step No. '2, six months later—superintendent of the Kdgar Thomson works, the foremost plant in the 1 world. Step No. 3—At thirty years of age superintendent of both the Edgar llionison and Homestead plants, managing workmen. 'rUis was the only instance iu which Mr. Carnegie permitted one man to operate two plants. Step No. i—President of the Carnegie Steel Company, with a White House salary and per cent, stock. Step No. f>—President of the Cniied Slates Steel Corporation, with .Co,ooo, 4, W worth (par value) of its stock, and a salary ot U2O.UIH) a year, In l!)l)i he .sit on tlie apex of the towering steel pyramid—the victor among £IIO,OOO comat Ihirty-nine years of age. I lu* lir.st time I saw S.-hwab."' said Mr. Long, a former president of the Pihsliurg St(K-k Kxchange. "he was a harelooted toy at Loretto. a mountain hamlet near Altoonn. The next time I s.twjimi .he was in his C 20.00!) prival" car." I he Carnegie Companv at the end ol 1000 hid LS.UOO.IIU!) to divide .Mr. Carnegie taking f.l.nuo.ooil and the otherthe balance. l-'roni 18811 onwards the company, wc are told, had never cleared less than a million a year. It wa* a harvest of gold in which other American millionaires wanted to participate. Various oilers were made lor the Carnegie business. Every day Mr. Carnegie's vision of millions grew more radiant. His brain whirled with the details of a selling campaign, the like,of which had never been known before. He set oil foot a series of operations which; if concluded, would have driven his competitors out of business, and made him the absolute dictator of the steel world. To fight Rockefeller, he ordered several eight-thoiisand-ton ore-carrying steam ships. To light the 'Pennsylvania Kailroad he set a corp lS of surveyors at work mapping out a railway from Pittsburg to the ocean. To light iln- National Tube Company he announced that live thousand acres ot land had hecn bought at Conneaut, and that Ite had decided to build a twelve million dollar tube works. He frightened manufacturers and financiers everywhere. "We must get rid of Carnegie," was the cry. "At ail cost Ave must buy him out. . . Where its Morgan? No one but Morgan can get us out of tliis fix!" And Mr. Morgan, after an eight hours' talk with Mr. John W r . Hates and Mr. Schwab, sent

an emissary to Mr. Carnegie to ask, j "How much?" j In the letter sent back to Mr. Morgan were the following — Five jer ceil!. gold bonds. M-i.nwj.WU) dollars; preferred stock, S»S,*J77.ldollars; common stock, dollars. 'l',thing the preferred stock at par aud lit- common at lif'y. this meant 417,-Uli.li-lU dollars. Add to this the foriy million of prolit for the year, and the total was IST. 110, till) dollars—nearly half a billion dollars, or roughly, about coT.mooo. The sale nas put through. The greai Sleel Trusit came into being. "As for Carnegie's forty young partners, many of them were for a time money mad. A few have never recovered. Their good fortune came to them as suddenly as a Hash of beneficent lightning." A few. but only a few, of the selfmi'de ,-teel kings are allowing their children to In- as hardv as themselves. One, howver, is trying to induce his «on to climb tin* railroad ladder by making him a freight clerk in a small town. The boy gets HJIO a month and no allowance. Cp to the time of writing he has lightened up his lmnger-belt ami persevered; but he gets even with his parents by ending every day the menu of his boarding-house. In this review we have dealt ehielly with the Cnjnegie Company, but Mr. Casson's bonk is a history of steel, and touches on the fortunes and misfortunes of m«ny men and many companies. It i> a faseiunting work certain to b'» widely read,