New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-14
MR. FLOWER AND TIE INDUSTRIES.

II js most significant that the sudden death or
n man who WAS not a manufacturer at all has
more influence over the present and prospective
market value of manufacturing stocks than the
death Of any manufacturer in the country would
probably have. Mr.. Flower took very impor-
tant part In the revolution which has placed
many hundred manufacturing establishments i'll
the hands Of few corporations. 1t Is Only just
~ him 10 say that the earliest or them, WHICH
brought together an extraordinary ASSOCIATION
of great capitalists and with which he was most
consp!cuously connected, were by no means so
open 10 censure OH account of excessive cap'ai-
iyatlon rs most of the later organizations nave
been. But he did much TO bring about the asso-
citation Of capital which has made the industriai
revolution possible and TO set the fashion when
has been extended so widely. 1t is stated that
n the end he was steadfastly hostile to those
secret methods which have exposed manufact-
uring combinations to much dsfavor, and, If So
II was TO his credit But he he'd more or less
port In the financing and ownership of great
many companies. so that perhaps no manufact-
urer owned as many kinds Of manufacturing
stocks as Mr. Flower.
His part was that Of an investor. 1t was nor
from his point of view in the least important 10
know anything about the particular industry ID
which his money was invested. Accountants
md appraisers reported what property had
earned under competent management In the
past, and the investor reckoned 1t safe to earn
as much or more with hurtful competition elm
mated Throughout the whole Of this industrial
revolution II has been the characteristic feature
that the personal ability and skill Of the manu-
facturer have been ignored. 1t has been all the
time assumed that bag of money, II large
enough could manage fifty factories as shrewd-
IL and successfully as fifty men could with life
long experience and training in their business.
The money bag could buy the services of the
one man or half-dozen men who had been found
most capable, and the personal interest, the risk
and anxiety which sharpened the wits Of the
owners. the stimulus of necessity in order to
keep ND with rivals, were all reckoned as Of no
account
But IL remains TO be seen whether this new
form of Industrial development is, on the whole,
an Improvement. If the money bag is actually
able to command the most capable, long-headed
and progressive management, If the spur OF indi-
yidual anxiety or rivalry does no good, If II Is
always possible to pick out of fifty trained and
experienced men one or two whose knowledge
and initiative enterprise and judgment of the
future are worth more than the gifts OF all the
fifty acting independently, then, indeed, the new
Industrial revolution will be justified. Econo-
mics may be effected in management, without
Doubt command of q great concentrated capital
gives undeDiable advantages. But the one thing
rcmains-the financial control Is separated from
the skill and experience in manufacture. The
brains and the pocket are not Of the same man.
This may be progress, and it may not; we shall
see.
Mr. Flower exercised great an influence In
bringing together powerful combinations OF cap
ital that 1t may not be possible to determine for
some time how great change his death may
make in the affairs of many companies. In
many he was the cement which held together In
a solid wall stones which except for him would
have fallen apart Whether the same men will
continue TO have confidence In the financial con-
duct OF all these enterprises with Mr. Flower no
longer at the directors table remains TO be
III the important railroad enterprises with which
he was connected no such problem arises. They
involve no industrial experiment. no new de-
parture at issue with the worlds practice based
on centuries OF trial and development. The
management OF scores Of manufacturing works
by syndcates of capital Is new departure, and
the men who were drawn together by faith In
Mr. Flower have now to consider in each IN
stance what the syndicate will be without him.