, 1891-02-25

seuO Dy MN 20 Une OnlIeo STATES, aAo
sold for money that swelled his individual
= fortune. 1t was a monopoly greater han has
often been grasped by a single individual, aud
Claus Spreckels was working Tor Claus
Spreckels alone.
It was during this period of his life that he
accumulated the enormous wealth that ena-
bled him, after he was eighty years old, to
BERN such a Warfare as NJ other individual
on earth could have carried on. Nobody
knows, excepting Mr.. Spreckels himself, or,
it may be some very intimately confidential
employe. just how much he owns, but it
is known that for many years-perhaps
twenty-his income was not less than two
million dollars q year, independent OF the
ttunearned increment" accrulng from relnvest-
ments and outside interests. He controlled
absolutely the sugar trade OF the Pacific
coast. and that was known to be not less than
ten millions of dollars a year. His planta-
lions and refneries were producing at that
time at least six hundred barrels of sugar a
dav, and the profit on each barrel, handled
and sold as he handled and sold it, was not
less than ten dollars.
Such an income in the hands OF such a man
meant simply additional capital with which
to prosecute other enterprises. In what other
channels he has employed this capital cannot
be told fully. for Mr.. Spreckels IS alive to the
Importance OF keeping his business TO himself.
One enterprise, however, is known to be
owned principally, it not entirely, BY hum, and
serves as a means OF employing many millions
of capital. 1t is known as the Hawaiian
Commercial Company, and has for its object
the control of all traffic with the Sandwich
Islands, not only in sugar, but IN all other
commodities. The profits of such a company
controlled by q man who stands IN the rela-
tlon that Mr.. Spreckels does with the govern
ment of the country, can only be imagined.
No outsider can estimate them.
1t was impossible that any man should
reach such a point in q business career with
out making exceedingly bitter enemies, and
Mr.. Spreckels had and still has many such.
Neither business rivalry nor newspaper op-
position, however, served to hinder MIR.
Spreckels in his business success. and he went
on growing richer and richer, plttlng himself
AGAINST the combined interests of all the other
heaviest sugar re6ners In America. The
Sugar Trust, concerning which so much has
been published, was formed, and for q time
threatened to carry out the usual procedures
of great trusts. No doubt Mr.. Spreckels
could nave joined this combination, and if he
had done SO the result might very probably
have been vastly different from what 1t has
been, but be was not willing to depart from
his methods of more than half a century. He
had always worked alone, and he resolved to
continue working alone. An opportunity for
combination wa, not an opportunity for
him.
To remain out of the trust, however, meant
TO break the trust or be crushed by 1t, and he
resolved to try the former. 1t was character
istic of the man that he was not content to
remain at his end of the continent and strive
to maintain the underground he occupied.
In his old age he determined to cross the
country again, and to intrench himself in the
.enemy'e country. Selecting Philadelphia as
his point of intrenchment, he made large pur-
chases of property, and prepared to begin the
refining Of sugar there on a large scale.
It is not of public record that MI. Spreckels
has ever displayed any Of the softer emotions
of humanity on more than one occasion. That
was when he left San Francisco to establish
himself in Philadelphia. On the eve of his
departure a meeting of his employees was held
for the purpose of bidding him farewell, and
when he rose to make response to the friendly
words that were spoken to him, the tears fell
over his rugged features.
Mr.. Spreckels married early in life, his wife
being Of extraction as humble as his own.
He has always been known as a man of do
mestic tastes, preferring his own home to the
attractions of clubs or of society, 80 called.
He is, however, of social disposition outside
OF business hours, and since removing to
Philadelphia has formed friendships with