St. Paul daily globe., 1892-04-14
A VERY GREAT MAN.
President Porter Would Like
TO Be Thought~a Second
Vanderbilt.
What He Is Doing Is "None OF
the Business Of the Pub
lie, Sir"
st. Paul g. Duluth Magnates
Consider Proposed EX-
tensions.
The Two Big Iron Companies
Are Interested in the
Deal.


Ream. the well known Chicago grain
operator, WHO has recently had some
experience with the great Chicago bear.
to a GLOBE man In answer TO a question.
Mr.. Keam was one of party OF wealthy
Chicagoans who are stockholders and
officers OF the Duluth IL Iron Range rail-
road who were In the city the greater
pait Of yesterday. In the party were:
II IL. Porter. chairman Of The board
of directors; Marshall Field, {. w. Cof-
III. Lazarus SilYerman. Norman b.
Keam. President II. ). Carpenter, Gen
eral Solicitor j. II. Chandler and Secre-
tary G. w. llilliard, of Chicago, and
General Manager GreatZlnger, Chief
Engineer Richard Angst and General
Freight and Passenger Agent A. III.
Eiele. Of Duluth.
Although the usual policy OF secrecy
was attempted 10 be followed by Presi-
dent Porter and his assistants, the OBJ
jects OF Yesterdays visit 10 ST. Paul
were not to look for home for Mr.
Partridge. nor yet 10 consider a
proposition to establish big dry goods
store in st. Paul, as one OF the evening
papers brilliantly remarked. The Du-
luth & Iron Range, after having had
a monopoly Of the iron mining and
carrying business IN This state eyer
since the discovery Of ore IN the Yer
million district, al last behOlds the entry
Of several railroads into that district
which il can neither bulld0ze nor buy
out, aud 50 al last President Porter and
his associates find themselves under
the necessity Of building a nitDber OF
branches from the Iron l;angp; and 1t
was 10 consider matters preliminary 10
. t.f ft4t4 fg.N
branches that this distinguished array
spent yesterday in st. Paul consulting
with General Manager Greatzinger aud
Chief Engineer Angst. These branches
are as follows:
First-From Mesab0 station west about ilf-
teen miles 10 the Canton mine.
SecOnd-From Mcshba station east TO the
Mailman. Oneota and Otter mines.
Third-The Ely cutoff which viii tap sev-
ernl mines and shorten the distance 10 Ely
from Two llarbOrs
Chairman Porter is a very dlstin-
guished-looking little man, with white
hair and mOustache. at all times fully
conscious OF the full value OF his fifty
milli0n-dolar fortune. For all people
who are not either OF use 70 him or iu-
terested in his projects he has pro-
found contempt, aud. while he does not
use the late ". II. Yanderbilts famons
ceal the fact that he entirely agrees with
the late Mr.. Y aEderbilt. Tie party
arrived in st. Paul in Mir. Porter's
private car yesterday morning, aud,
after meeting the Duluth 6 Iron Range
officials from Duluth. returned to Chi
cago, leaving at 80 O'Clock. Early in
the afternoon GLOBE reporter sent up
a card to President Porter in his Room
at the Ryan, to which the answer was
made that Mr.. Porter was out. The
same response was made 10 cards sent
Messrs. Field and Greatzlnger. Finally
Il card was sent TO Dir. keam. on which
the following question was written:
What do you think or Ed Pard-
rdge?"
Mr. Ream who is a handsome. jovial
man some six feet three in height, re-
sponded to this appeal and came down
to the lobby. Despite the fact that a
halt-doZen kilograms were handed him,
Mr.. Ream declared that he had not been
operating on The board for some time.
'As for Mr.. Partridge" he said
laughingly, al think some of the boys
consider him pretty husky sort OF fell
low. He has been making things lively
for several days"
Tie members of the party repaired
to the special car at the union depot
u L
and GreatZinger, who had been to Min
neapolis, joined them. Just before the
train started the GLOBE man boarded
the ear and asked Mr.. Porter TO tell the
people OF Minnesota something about
the plans of the Duluth i Iron Range.
Il am here with party OF friends on
private business he said, in an angry
tone, "and do not recognize the right
of any man TO seek to question me as TO
my plans. 1t is a rule OF mine never to
talk 10 any one on my business plans,
and | do not want TO be questioned by
you, and | will not be-"
but, Mr.. Porter, an evening paper
states that you are here to secure a l0ca-
ton for a mammoth dry goods store
said the GLOBE man. "IS this true?'
The entire party were amused at this;
and even the fierce Chairman Porter
was in measure appeased. While he
was heSitating whether to laugh or fire
the newspaper man, Mr.. SilVerman
said:
call Field; he ought TO answer that
question"
The great dry goods man entered and
took his seat at this time, and Joined in
the merriment. He thought Mr.. Porter
would be good man TO manage the pro-
posed dry goods establishment. But Dir.
Porter did not think SO, and, after the
| members of The party had said good-by
to General Manager Greatzinger and
Chief Engineer Angst, the return Jour
ney to Chicago was commenced.
While this trip was made primarily in
| the interests of the Duluth Il Iron
Range railroad, there is little doubt
that Mr.. Porter was also investigating
several matters in relation to the inter-
| eStS of the Minnesota Iron company
and the Illinois Steel company, of both
of which corporations he is one of the
| principal stockholders, as well as an
officer in each. All of these three
companies depend primarily for their
prosperity on the ore mined at Tower
and Ely and vicinity. The capitaliza-
| ton of the Minnesota Iron company is
! S2l, ,000, 900, and dividends of 6 per cent
| per annum are paid, while the capitali-
| Zation of the Illinois Steel company is
! SO. 200. GOO, and good-SiZed dividends
are paid. The policy of the Duluth
x Iron Range has beeu to keep control
| of all the mining done in Northern Min
nesota, and, although they have long
| known of the possibilities of that sec.
ton, they were not disposed to do any
thing in the way of building branch
lines TO develop the country until the
| Duluth Il Winnipeg and Duluth, Me-
saba IL Northern commenced work.
Since then the Duluth & Iron Range
| has caused surveys to be made and the
| construction of at least the three lines
! mentioned will be commenced in the
course of the next two month. In the
meantime Chairman Porter will not
discuss his private business with any
one-nOt even the newspaper men.
Write or wire Frank [. Tedford. mem
| Der Duluth Stock Exchange, what iron
stocks to invest in on the Mesaba range.