The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-09
rom the New York Evening Post.

From the New York Evening Post.
 The defeat of John W. Gates and his associates by James c. Osgood com paratively unknown man outside of Wall street, in the contest for control of the Colorado Fuel and Iron company has called attention to the fact that several other aggressive capitalists have recently been forging to the front unnoticed by the public. Besides Osgood there have lately appeared with comprehensive schemes F. Augustus Heinze, who has for some time been a serious stumbling block to the Amalgamated Copper com pany; David H. Moffat of Denver, who projected and raised the capital to build a new road between Denver and Salt Lake in order to break the monopoly of the Hartman and Gould interests be- tween those points; H. Clay Pierce of St. Louis, who is the controlling factor in the growing St. Louis and San Francisco and Mexican Central railroads, and R. c. both with Mr. Pierce and with Senator Clark who is building a railroad from Ogden to Los Angeles. Of these mem tioned, Osgood and Heinze came from New York; Pierce got his start in the Pennsylvania oil regions, and Kerens was St. Louis coal man. Moffat has spent most of his business career in Colorado. Heinze is the youngest of the group, be- ing not far from 40. Pierce and Osgood are of middle age while Morat and Ker- ems are somewhat older. They have had long business experiences. and are both well known in their particular lines.
 James c. Osgoed has been about Wall street over a dozen years. Personally he is short and stocky, about 45 years of age. with black hair and heavy mustache slightly tinged with gray. His face gen. orally carries a smile. even when perus- ing diatribe of the Gates faction. Ac- cording to one well acquainted with his career, osgood wentsyest about 1880 from Brooklyn for the pd5pose of accepting q position as bookkeeper with small coal mining company in Iowa When within fifty miles or so of his destination, it Is said, the young bookkeeper was told to step off and take the place of a book keeper at branch office of the company. The former bookkeeper, it was averred was subject to spells of delirium tremens and was at that time incapacitated for his usual labors, being chained up or an island in the river. Osgood made rapid advancement, and not long arterward he and an associate bought out the busine ness with small outlay of cash and the bal ance in notes. A few years later found him engaged in coal mining operations in Colorado, and his wealth rapidly accumu- lated.
 He and his friends got control of the Colorado Fuel company. and when a scheme was proposed in 1892 for the merger of this with the Colorado Coal and Coke company and several other Colorado concerns Osgood was reputed to be worth several million dollars. Osgood, meanwhile, had established an office in New York. In the first directory of the consolidated company under the present name there were such men as E. J. Ber- wind, Ernst Thalmann. Paul Morton and Henry R. Wolcott. A member of the Stock Exchange, in referring to the first trading in the new stock on the exchange, said today that one of the men mentioned told Osgood that as the head of the com pany he should try to make the stock