The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-08-18
From the New York Sun.

saratoga.-John W. Gates left this af-
ternoon for Colorado to attend the an
nual meeting Of the stockholders of the
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Mr..
Gates has had fine holiday here and he
started for the west In the best of health
and in the best Of spirits. This morning
In the branch office Of Harris, Gates &c
Co. (the Gates of the firm being young
Charles Gates, son of the man who is
said to have made something like $685.
100000 in less than twenty years. he
talked for an hour or more with the cor
respondent of the Sun on topics of gen.
eral interest
I'm sorry to have to pack up and get
out of here" said Mr.. Gates. IT have
visited all the great resorts of the world
and not one of them is patch to Sara
toga- You get health and fun here wheth-
er you're asleep or awake, and Mr.. Whit
ney is deserving of the greatest possible
credit for rehabilitating this place and
bringing it back to what it ought to be.
Not one person in a hundred in this coun-
try appreciates the value of these wa
IT never felt so we'll in my life as I
have since I have been here, and I've had
a lot of fun. I've won some money and
lost some money, and most of the papers
have printed the finest fool stories about
my winnings and losings that you ever
heard But now I've got to attend to
business. I'm going out to Colorado to
find out who's who in the Colorado Fuel
and Iron company. President Mitchell
of the Illinois Trust company and James
A. Blair meet me at Albany and we will
go ON together. There may be some fun,
but I have no doubt about the result
According to my figures, our set of direc-
tors will win by a vote of four-fifths of
all the stockholders. The properties of
the company are most valuable, and
when we are in control the company will
be run in the interest of all me stock
holders instead of in the interest of this
faction Or that clique. We shall win be-
cause we deserve to win and because our
victory will be for the best interests of
the company"
What about the general financial sit
uatlon?' asked the Sun reporter.
1T could hardly be better" was the
answer I'm a great bull, but with GER
tain qualifications. Good stocks are going
higher. They can't help going up; but
cats and dogs will go down where they
belong. The American people want the
best, in stocks as well as in everything
else, and they're going to have it..
And what of the Industrial situation?'
Even better than the financial situa-
ton. The era of combination will prove
the golden era for the United States, not
only for capital but for labor; not only
for the man established in business, but
for the young man about to start out.
The young men are the fellows who ex-
cite my interest and sympathy, and
tell you there is practically everything
in the future for the young men of the
United States
ut has been urged by the so-called pol
iticians that the trust has put out the
light of the star Of hope that used to
shine over every young American. OF
course that is all rot. I'm not one of
those who think that every feature of
every trust is a good feature; but that
community of interest plan is bound to
make this country greater even than it
Is today. And In the greater America
what a chance there will be for the
young men. But those who deserve to
succeed will be the ones who will pick
the plums In this age of combination
there Is not and will not be for the
young men so great a chance for sue
cess per man as there was under the
old conditions, but for the young men of
ability, ability of head or of hand, the
percentage of profit will be much great
/ er.
Let me explain. The profits of COM
mercial life. or rather the profits of
production, will not be so widely dis
tributed, but those who get them will get
more per man than anybody ever got
before. From all this it follows that
the bright young men, the Industrious
ones, the steady and level-headed ones,
will win the prizes Of the future. The
mediocre and the complaining and the
drones will have to struggle along on
salaries the best way they can.
For the labor, industrial combination
/
reasonable hours and steady employ
ment which last is the most important
thing of all. 1t may be urged that where
a line of industry is controlled by set
of men they can also control the price
of labor My answer to that Is that no
matter how hard and fast a set of men
may control a certain industry they can
not afford and will not attempt to make
the hire unworthy of the labor. In this
country that greater arbiter called public
opinion settles all great disputes, and it
settles them right. No corporation hav-
ing something to sell to the people can
afford to pay unreasonable wages.
At have had some experience as an
employer of labor. My payrolls have had
on them the names of 10000 or more
men at one time or another, and I have
been obliged to study the labor question
pretty carefully. The result of my study
and my observation has convinced me
that the worst friend of labor is the
walking delegate. He's never the work.
er-he's the talker. he's the politician
of the labor union. He has never stood
in the heat and fame of the furnace, He
has always had a small outside job where
| 1t was cool. 1t is a pretty hard thing
to say, but the majority of labor agita-
tors can be bribed with an office, and
once they get that they give not the
snap of their fingers for the men still