The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1899-11-03
Rockefeller VS.. Carnegie.

oieW carnegie on Unc great lakes are
engaged in a struggle over freights?
Was it not understood, only few
years ago, that Rockefeller and Car
negie had entered into long term con-
tracts whereby Rockefeller was to be
the carrier Of the ore and Carnegie
the consumer. These questions have
been asked repeatedly during the past
few days. A brief summary of the
relations between these two great in
| terests will explain the situation.
A few years ago Rockefeller had ore
mines, a railroad in Minnesota and a
fleet of ships but was not in any way
and is not now consumer of ore.
Carnegie was great consumer of ore
but had no mines and no transporta-
tlon facilities on the lakes. Through
the efforts of Henry w. Oliver of
Pittsburg, who was himself interested
in the development of ore properties,
certain big mines in Minnesota mot
ably the Mountain Iron owned by
Rockefeller) were leased to Carnegie
TOR rather to the Oliver Mining Co.,
which is controlled by Carnegie and
his associates) for fifty years at a
fixed royalty and with stipulated
minimum production of ore, In MAX
ing this lease it was understood THAI
all ore from the leased property
amounting now to about 100000
tons annually, should be carried over
the Rockefeller railroad to Duluth
and in Rockefeller ships for ten years
to Ohio ports. The railroad freight
and mining royalty were fixed for a
term of years, but the lake freight
was to be agreed upon each year, or if
no agreement could be reached on this
score u settlement was to be made at
the end of the year, based on the av-
erage rate at which the ore of all
other companies was moved There
was no minimum or maximum figure
in the lake freight feature of the
transaction and this is therefore the
one main reason why ROckefeller's
/ representatives, claiming share of
the big profits that are being made in
! iron and steel, were determined to fix
/ the rate for next season at 81. % a ton,
as against the even dollar figure which
the Carnegie company set out to es-
! tablish.
| But it must not be understood that
the interests of either Rockefeller or
i Carnegie in lake ores are confined to
! the one item of about million and
half tons carried by the contracts
above referred to Rockefeller has ore
to sell-great quantities of ito
Carnegie's competitors, and Carnegie
has bought or leased through the
Oliver company since the first deal
with Rockefeller, a dozen or more big
mines that have brought his product
ion up to about four and half nail
lion tons, as against the million and
a half on which he is tied up on Rock
! efeller. Rockefeller has gone on
building more ships and has bought
the whaleback feet of thirty vessels
for marketing his own ore as well as
for the transportation of Carnegie
ore Carnegie with about three mill
lion tons of ore to transport independ-
ent of his contract with Rockefeller,
turns to building and buying ships,
as the other big steel organizations
np ln
weak link in his system. But Carne-
gle is as yet 'short" on ships, to use
a stock exchange phrase. He cannot
get them within year and probably
not enough then. On the other hand,
ROckefeller's interests are heaviest in
ships. He is not pleased to see Car
nege going into the vessel business.
and he is not only using the power of
his own big feet (fiftyseyen steel YES
sels but has concerned the market
by the charter of full 100000 tons
additional capacity for next season
so as to make up in a freight of S1.25
Il ton what he lost at 624 cent a ton
this season.
Of course it is the representatives
of Carnegie and Rockefeller and not
particularly the men themselves that
are referred to in the foregoing para
graph. Henry w. Oliver, represent
ing the Carnegie mining interests
spent several days lately with Edwin
S. Mills of the Carnegie branch office
in Cleveland while these lake freight
negotiations were going on and L. M.
Bowers, the Cleveland representative
of Mr. Rockefeller, was undoubtedly
coached by f. t. Gates of New York,
first lieutenant of the Standard Oil
leader.
Some i'll feeling must necessarily
exist in important business struggles
of this kind. but after all it would
seem that the end will be an amalga-
nation of the two interests. Other
wise, conditions may arise to force
Rockefeller into the manufacture of
iron and steel. Rockefeller has in his
7 i IL l,..