The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-05-15

ANDY. THE TRUST sMAsHER.

On the whole Andrew Carnegie is not
an admirable character. That is not
saying that he is not a man of re-
markable ability in many directions.
Nature was lavish in her gifts. He
has that power that administers sue
cessfully great enterprises. He has the
sense that perceives opportunities, and
with it the will and energy to seize
and utilize them. With the shrewd-
ness of the business man he unites
the impulses Of the philanthropist. He
holds it to be true that no man should
die rich, while holding that it is a le-
ultimate function Of government to SO
use it's powers as to enable men to
fluential in the past than he in per-
Suading congresses that this is what
governments are mainly for, and none
has been more successful than he in
gathering in the wealth drawn from
the natural channels of distribution by
that use. He has ben the ideal pro-
tectionist, buying his labor in a free
trade market and selling it's product
in a generously protected one.
But Mr.. Carnegie knows when the
molasses is all drawn out Of the jug.
He is too keen business man to waste
his time in squeezing an orange after
the juice is all out. He knows good
thing and enjoys it while it lasts, but
knows when it is played out. He cod
died congress and the Republican par
ty and its policy as long as conditions
made protection profitable, and he be-
came Indifferent when he saw that
there was no longer anything of profit
In it, in fact, nothing but injury. From
being the ideal of the faithful he be-
came the object of their reviling when,
in 1894, he advised the Republicans to
accept without opposition the Wilson
bill. He saw that the election of 1890
and 1892 signified the end of a protec-
tive policy in this country. He still
rightly interprets the reaction of "a
and '96. He began putting his affairs
countenanced any movement to obtain
from the Dingley committee any in
crease of rates on rails or billets or
structural steel He foresaw that in
the coming contest the railmakers who
owned or controlled the deposits of raw
material would be masters of the mar
kets. He quietly secured footing in the
Mesaba ore region AID advantageous
mills. Then he smashed the ore pool
of '95 by simply refusing to join it
again, and ore dropped from $3.50 to
$3.50. He demolished the steel rail pool
he had helped form and sustain, and
rails dropped from s2S to $1S His pool
associates woke then to the fact that
Carnegie had put himself in position
where he was master Of the situation.
He had the mills, the ore and the trans
portation. The Illinois Steel company
bestirred itself and secured a foothold
with the Minnesota Iron company SIM
liar to that obtained by Carnegie with
TIE INOChelelieT interest. Ihe rest are
in the cold.
The steel billet pool Of which he was
member, succumbed to his onslaught,
and the price dropped from S24 to $1S.
Now the pool that had held the price
Of structural steel, so essential a fac
tor in building of late years, is demol-
ished by the bid of the Carnegie COM
pany for the 10000 tons of steel for the
Victoria bridge at 81 cents a hundred
instead of the pool rate of $1.55. He
sells rails to Japan in competition with
every manufacturer in the world, and
even the Welsh tinplate makers have
been getting their steel billets in large
quantities from the mills Of this build
er and smasher of pools. Mr.. Carnegie
has not changed his disposition, if he
has his tactics. He simply recognizes
that the day is past when it was true
as he told his English friend, that SO
many millionaires were possible in
America because majority of it's peo-
pie were economic fools. He knows
that protection is played out and has
simply adjusted himself to coming per-
manent conditions We doubt not Mr.
Carnegie will become as radical q free