THE COUNTRY OF GREAT SALARIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9142, 18 July 1908, Page 4

THE COUNTRY OF GREAT SALARIES.

America is the country of G;ro;;t saiar • ief. The world gasped whoti it heard that Mr Schwab, when selected to manage the Steei Trust, was t > receive £40,000 a year. Now Mr Schwab has been eciip-ed by Mr J. Hays Hammond, an American mining engineer, who has been erurago-i lor five years by the Guggenheim Exploration Syndicate at a yearly sahry of £IOO,OOO. , To persons of s;n ill'ideas it must seem impossible for a professional man to earn £lou,oou a year. But a consideration of MiHammond's record, and of the work he is required to do, explains his enormous salary. He was ttie great est of the pioneers of gold-mining on the Rand, generalising accurately as future of the field. He acquired skill in yvhat Wall street calls .the art of high finance, and when he went

to New York he stood out as the j possessor of qualities which command immense prices in that centre of contending financial interests. Half a dozen market coups within the five years of Mr Hammond's engagement, and the amount of his salary would be insignificant compared with the wealth that would flow to his employers through his action. Conversely, half a dozen accurate decisions respecting the true character of poor mining properties offered as good ones to the syndicate and the savings through avoidance of loss, would justify his salary. To a firm like the Guggenheim Exploration Syndicate, which has to work with an eye on the "bull" or the "bear" side of the market, a nian with the judgment and knowledge of Mr Hammond iis worth £IOO,OOO a year, or more. Brilliant talent is attracted where the reward is greatest, and while the prizes of the French nation used to go to the army, the prizes n Amarica now go to the captains of finance and commerce.