The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-05-04
THE ICE TRUST.
Development Of Charles ". Morse's
Gigantic Scheme.
OPPORTUNITY TO FORM TRUST
CAME IN 1880

| Jam II IN 1881
When No Ice Was Cuton the Hudson
| Morse & Co. Disposed of Their Product
and Then Bottom Dropped Out of
Market-sketch of Bath Man Who Has
| Made Himself Famous.
According to yesterdays New York
Herald the Ice Trust, otherwise Morse &
| Co. are likely to be bothered with
strike.
meeting of the employees to the num-
Der OF 200 was to have occurred In
New York yesterday afternoon to see how
best they can induce the ice barons to
give them money enough in return for
| their labor to enable them to support
themselves and their families
The effect of the trust is already felt in
Maine though what the result will be it
| is hard TO see.
The trust has already control of most Of
| the Ice ON the Kennebeo and Penopscot.
| These two rivers should be a forest of
schooners masts engaged in removing the
winters harvest but none has been taken
from the houses of the Penohscot, and
yesterday there were just eight sohooners
on the Kennebec. Morse & Co. have a
Dig neet OF their own but not enough to
handle the product at all points con-
trolled by them simultaneously. The rates
offered Maine schooners are such that they
can make more money elsewhere and they
have gone but OF course that doesn't help
Bangor and the other towns which are
enlivened somewhat when the ice BUSH
ness begins.
| The dale of Morse's control of the ice
business runs back to 1890 when little Or
no leo was cut on the Hudson and
fabulous prices ruled. Morse & Co.
| housed that year an immense quantity on
the Penobscot and Kennebec and the con-
Germs which had depended upon the Hud-
son were obliged to buy of the Maine
concern and pay what they asked.
They bought b ig quantities, but
along in August or the last of July the
bottom dropped clean out of the market
and the New York people couldn't pay
for what they had bought. The result
was that the Maine man got control of
the capaoityof the product on the hudson.
| 1t is said by conservative men that
Morse & Go. may have made a 81, 900, 0OO
that year. Since then, so it is said, Mr..
Morse has associated with him Pierre
Lorrillard and soma of the Standard Oil
1 10 in, t7a rri,r or,+i t.
has been managed with wonderful
shrewdness and in way that has excited
| the admiration of even those who are
losers by 1T.
The New York Herald has this interest
ing sketch of Mr.. Morse:
Charles Wyman Morse, the leading
spirit of the trust, is native of Bath
Me-, and in his native town he is called
the 'smartest' man who ever left that
part of the state. At any rate that is the
estimate of Gen. Thomas ". Hyde, presi-
dent of the Bath Iron Works Company.
He was born October q, 1856, and after
attending the public schools in Bath was
graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877.
He paid his own way through college and
made at least $1,000 year while in the in
stitution clear of all expenses.
His father gave him absolute freedom
in small business ventures. When he left
Bowdoin College he went to England
and, after studying there for some time,
made an extended tour of the continent.
When he returned home he entered bust
mass with his father, Capt. Benjamin W.
Morse, in the towb0at and ice business.
In 1894 he became treasurer of the
Knickerbooker Steal Towage Company
and in 1883 its president. He became a
director of the Lincoln National Bank of
| p,%h To- nd "a 10 NOV hno an
g. Co.. which builds barges and towboats
in Bath y =.
When engaged in the steamboat husi-
ness on the Kennebeo river the company
met with heavy loss at Boston where a
large steamer and three barges were
lost Mr.. Morse was on hoard of the
steamer and narrowly escaped with his
life. He has had several other narrow
escapes. A boiler exploded on one of his
tupboats, killed the man who was
standing alongside of him but Mr.. Morse
did not receive scratch
He was in business some years ago
with "Jef" Southland of Richmond,
Me-, grandfather of his wife, and we'll
known among shipping men of this city.
In one business transaction Mr. Morse
got the better of Mr.. Southland and the
former wrote to the present head of the
ice trust telling him in very forcibIe
language what he thought of him.
The Consolidated Ice Company was in
corporated in Maine in 1895, the state re.
ceiving $1,000 for it's charter. 1t controls
companies in this city and most of those
in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington
and southern cities along the Atlantic
coast. The employees of the company in
Maine are discontinued with their treat
ment and it is said would be prompt te
ioin any NOV ement started in this CITY &c
better their con dition.
| Pythian Sisterh ood