The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-17
ARMY OF $4,000.
Ruled Absolutely By
Kings Carnegie
and Prick,
MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS.
Great Steel Interests of
Men Whose viii
Is Law.
MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS.
(From the New York Tribune.l

/
required in the operation of the multi
tudinous interests which are known as
| the Carnegie properties. This great
| force of toilers is marshaled as an army
| on the field. 1t is commanded by cap
| tainS and lieutenants and their subor-
dinates. They all go to make up a
| perfect mechanism which works with
| the eXactitude of clock and the I'M
| firing energy of perpetual motion. Men
die or become disabled, but the ma
chine goes on, and doubtless will go
| on, for many years.
| This is one reason why the Carnegie
Steel Company is able to accept such
contracts as it did recently, when it
| agreed to furnish another concern with
| 1000 tons of steel every day. The sig
| nificance of the contract does not lie in
| the size of the daily delivery but in
the fact that the company agrees to
| furnish the steel at this rate for ten
years. 1t shows the stability of Ameri-
can manufactures.
| Andrew Carnegie began early in the
sixties to build up the business which
bears his name. He had been lucky
| in the early days of oil speculation, and
put every cent Of the. proceeds into
iron, whose future he foresaw as no
man has since. AT the same time
there was poor boy working on a
! Fayette farm in western Pennsylvania.
| Henry Clay Frick went into the office
| OF relative at Mount Pleasant who
was then experimenting with the in
| FAINT coke industry. This boy saw the
relation OF iron and coke, and with his
foresight and genius he laid the found
ations of that kindred interest the coke
industry.
When Carnegie grew in years and
wealth it was natural that he turned
to II. G. Prick, who was younger in
years, but as old in experience, to find
in him an associate with whose aid the
Carnegie interests were to be carried
forward and greatly increased.
Ten years ago the two men finally
pooled their issues, and Andrew Carne-
gle retired from the routine of his af-
fairs, which were placed entirely in the
hands of Mr.. Frick. 1t was then the
Carnegie Steel Company was organized
embracing the individual interests of
| Carnegie in the iron business.
| Another great change came about this
time. The discovery of the cheapness
and general value of Bessemer steel
| forced itself to the front. Iron mas
tiers who had plants adapted by reason
| of their installed machinery to the
| handling of iron at first set themselves
against the idea that iron could ever
be displaced in the commercial forms
! OF those days. Later they discovered
their mistake. Again it was Carnegie
and Prick who were the pioneers in a
new field, as they had been in their
earlier days. They took up Bessemer
steel. That they were right has been
shown amply in the past ten years, DUR
| ing which time Bessemer has almost
entirely displaced the old forms of iron.
| The recent announcement that the
| Carnegie Steel Company would be
| merged INTO great corporation, with
/ ten times is present capital is anoth-
| er natural development which was
| bound TO come sooner or later. The
| Carnegie Steel Company today controls
and owns its ore mines in the lake re-
| gions, Its lines of steamers to carry it's
] ore across the lakes, its docks where the
ore is stored, its railroad line from the
lakes to Pittsburg, terminal railroad
lines to carry the ore to the blast fur
naces, and a network of railways con-
Meeting its establishments in the Allie
| gheny and Monongahela valleys. From
the ore in the ground to the finished
product, the company controls it's out
put absolutely. Herein lies its strength
and its ability to sell steel in all parts
| of the world in open competition with
the manufacturers of the world.
AT it's mills and furnaces the COM
pany employees $4,000 men, and the pay
| roll for these every month amounts 10
81, 900; at its Connellsville coke
works the F'rick Company employs an
other l5,0CO men; on the Carnegie ore
ranges another 5000 men find employ
ment while the Pittsburg, Bessemer &
Lake Erie railroad (the ore llne) en-
ploys 5000 men.
The company has six ore steamers.
which brlng the product of the ranges
across the lakes, and in addition L has
a permanent arrangement with The
Rockefeller line Of steamships, thus Sc
curing to itself complete Transportation
across the lake for the entire ore sur
ply. II owns in addition independent
coke plants, operated under sepalAte
corporate names, water plants and sew
eral natural gas corporations.
Multifarious interests such as these
are necessarily at disadvantage when
| operated as separate corporations. and
for this reason the plan of reorganiza-
ton was decided upon. BY this plan
every Carnegie interest will come un-
der the corporate wings Of the Carnegie
Steel Company 1t win he the greatest
computation of the kind in the world.
ii. {. Prick will be at the head
here are some figures showing the
immensely of the operations involved.
AT the Edgar Thomson works, at Brad
| dock. 100000 tons of steel ingots are
turned out every year, $50, 900 tons or
| steel rails and bi1lets and 51000 TONS
/
| the annual output of rails and bIlIets
is 100000 gross tons.
Hoillestead is the largest plant of the
concern. Here are acres upon acres GOV
cred BY workshops, which are connected
py miies OF railway tracks, on which tha
material is transported from one part ~
Ine works to another. Among the de-
partments Of the Homestead worlTs
there Is scarcely one which ID NOT q
plant OF size, were 1t to stand by itself
That the Carnegie Steel company win
| ever become nucleus for a great iron
and steel trust embracing this country
Is SO extremely improbable as to be all
most visionary. This will not come to
pass as long as Andrew Carnegie lives
at any rate 1t is known to be Mr. Car
negies desire that the company shall
stand as monument to him The COM
pany is today the strongest of its kind.
IL would have little to gain in a general
merger Of the sort that has been sug
gested within the last few months.
To increase output and tonnage is the
fervent desire of every mill manager
ana foreman IN the employ of the con-
| Germ, which is constantly straining
every nerve to increase and better its
records What this policy means is
| clear at time like the present, when
| the demand for iron and steel is far
ahead of the capacity of the mills to
| supply and when every additional ton
means an increased margin of certain
profit. But the keynote OF this policy
| is the fact that Increased tonnage
means lower average expenses, and in
| this lies the success of Carnegie. Every
| additional ton turned out means al
lower average cost and lower possible
selling price. This policy was inaugu-
rated by Mr. Carnegie In his early years.
when he had personal charge, and the
great corporation which he has built up
toa A..A AZ.