St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-26
Story Of the People Who Own
the Place Of the Bacca-
rat Scandal.
Two Thrifty Brothers Who
g Own a Great Fleet of
Ocean Vessels.
Their Searching Craft VAL
: ued at Over Ten Mill
ion Dollars.
Both Of Them Are Poor Speak
ers, But They Manage to
"Get There"

The baccarat case has recently brought
Arthur Wilson into prominence before
the world, and good deal of photographic
instruction has been given as to the
ancestry and present habits of the
family, says the Pail Mall Gazette.
Many unkind remarks, based on in
sufficient knowledge, have been made
aboutthe social aspirations of the master
of Tranby Croft, and the Prince of
Wales has no doubt profited greatly by
the lectures which have been read to
him on the text that ''evil communica-
tons corrupt good manners" If it
were not so exclusively matter for tine
prince himself to decide with whom he
should conSort one would be tempted to
comment upon the impertinence of those
who thus assume that the son of a small
keel-Owner is necessarily unfit COM
pany for prince. 1t is matter of
common knowledge that the late
Thomas Wilson was man of very
small beginnings. His sons, Arthur
and Charles, who now practically hold
all the business between them, joined
him before he had very much, and it
their fortune. as it made that of many
another enterprlSing man.
Once begun, it is easy enough to con-
ceive how the business accumulated.
Smaller competitors can be run down
and bought up; a large firm can offer
through rates to trades when were for
merly in the habit of consignlng goods
to be tranSShipped and transferred to
other bottoms. A large firm of ship
owners can, moreover, make its own ar
engagements with railway and dock COM
panies. who will compete eagerly for its
business, and it can also undertake its
own insurance. In a recent favOra ble
year the brothers were said probably
with eXaggeration) to have divided 81,
600, 900 between them: shortly after
they formed themselves into a company
with a capital of $4,000, 900, a sum which
certainly does not exceed the value of
the ships themselves. Every third ship
which is registered as due in Hull
this week is a Wilson liner. If you
go to the railway dock at Hull YOU see
it full of splendid vesSelS-the Angelo,
Romeo and the like-with green hullS
and red-marked tunnels, and names
ending in 80" all Wilson liners. dis
charging timber or general cargo or
passengers from Norway. In the Albert
dock are the GOthenberg boats; and in
tine Alexandria dock, at the east end of
the town, the magnificent American
liners, the Buffalo and the rest, dis
charge their cargOes of wheat!
The two brothers who own this won
derful fleet are, so far as their public
appearance goes. reckOned as one. Ar
thur, indeed, calls himself Unionist,
while Charles sits DIS Liberal member
for West Hull; but they never oppose
each other, and always act together.
When they speak it is a per-
petual wonder how men who heed
to achieve strokes of policy which
look exactly like the perfected
models of cold -blooded calculation. Ar
thur Wilson makes no more pretense of
coherent OratOry than country gentle
man presiding at farmers dinner.
Charles Wilson, though very able in his
exposition of all extraordinary knowl-
edge Of business detail, is not a tactful
speaker. Recently at d company meet
ing he rose to make speech which at
tackled the policy of the board in regard
to a certain bill. A gentleman who was
banker to the company rose OH point
of order and suggested that the speech
might more properly be deferred until
the WharDclitfe meeting. The chairman
did not back up the suggestion. and the
gentleman, with courteous bow to
Charles Wilson, SAID: Il must apologize
for interrupting you, sir" Instead of
acknowledging the apology, Charles
Wilson blurted out that if the company
took his advice they would transfer their
banking account elsewhere, and then
proceeded with his speech.
The childish naivete which is mixed
with his shrewdneSS Is extraordinary.
He telegraphed to Mr.. Tenant that he
objected to an arrangement which was
proposed between the Northeastern
railway and the Hull Dock company.
Mr.. Tenant wired back: cit is pity
you do not understand the nature of the
agreement or the position of the COM
pany. Unless they find physician with
a better prescription than yours, they
must remain impecuniOuS to the end of
the chapter" Charles Wilson seemed
excessively pleased with this reply. and
read 1t out in public to the dock di-
rectOrS when he was endeavOring to
turn them from the errors of their
ways. Whatever the idea uppermoSt in
his mind, he blurtS it out. At one
time it was the iniquity of the Norwe-
gian government in SubSidiZng
line of ships to compete with his;
and upon this he dilated, no matter what
the occasion, even at the opening of
Liberal bazaar. AT another time it was
the eXtortiOnate demands of the Seamen
and firemen; at another Mr.. PlimSOlPS
attack on the cattle trade. He got it
into his head that proposed deep-water
entrance would disturb the GOthenberg
boats from their berth, and although the
dock directors and officials assured
him dozens OF times that they were not
coming near his berth and showed him
their plans for making the entrance
without disturbing it, nothing ever
made the least impression upon his
mind, but he came down with a map of
the dock showing where his ships lay,
and said: Here is my berth; here my
ships have been for years, and if you
are going to treat your largest customer
so, all can say is that object and pro-
/ test most strongly"
! There are times when this bluntneSs
looks very like diplomacy. The Wilson's
have been very fortunate in their deal
ings with labor, and this is to be at
stributed, at least in part, to the straight
forwardneSs of their language. The
leaders of the workingmen like
=. to be spoken to in good homely
Saxon; so at least those who know
them report. At any rate, a per-
sonal interview with one of the broth
erS has never yet failed to put an end
to a dispute, and in these days of the
solidarity of labor, when the decker
blocks a ship because his brother, the
laborer. has squabble with the engi
neer. 1t is no easy matter for the ship
owner to keep things smooth. Arthur
Wilson can even claim the unique dis
.tinction of having acted as the peace
maker when he was sent as the bearer
+, of an ultimatum. 1t happened in this
wise: The prospects of labor war
were looking very black, the men hav-
ing put forward manifesto against the
federation. Many ship-oWners also
were painting for war-the truth being
that it was slack time of the year and