The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-09
Inside Facts Concerning the Business
of the Great Pennsylvania
Steel
BOOK BY JAMES H. BRIDGE
COSTLY EDITION THAT WAS PRINT
ED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.
Secrets of the Prick QuarreI-Curfous
Ideas of Business Morality as
Seen by the Author.

the Herald this morning uses the following
excerpt from the work and gives this intro
duction. in the style of a book review, of
what is considered a most remarkable ex-
pose of the mammoth steel concern and the
methods of the man whose name the COM
pany bears:
NO great business has yet been built
upon the beatitudes, and 1t is not all
cynicism that condenses a negative
decalogue into a positive exhortation to be
successful-somehow."
The above is from the introduction for
the History of the Carnegie Steel Com
pany," by it's author, James Howard
Bridge. The work, in most elaborate style,
has just been brought out for private cir
culation. If it is a labor of love. 1t is made
certain that Mr.. Andrew Carnegie is not the
sole object of Mr.. Bridges affections.
Through some $40 octave pages the theme
runs along without variation. ''be success
ful-somehow,' and in its application to
Mr.. Carnegie some very unpleasant ma
terial is presented. The action of the Iron
master toward his associates, particularly
II. c. Prick. through whom, as the work
says. success was achieved. somehow"
discloses some curious ideas Of business
morality.
SENSATION OF THE STREET.
Wall street has experienced a veritable
sensation in the appearance of Mr.. Bridges
book. Copies of it have appeared on the
tables of banks and bankers offices, from
quarters unknown. 1t is a book which must
have cost thousands of dollars to prepare,
full levant morocco bound, made of beauti-
full japanese paper, copiously illustrated
with photogravure plates. and in the high
est style of the printers art. The first edi-
ton is said to lave been limited to fifty
copies at 500 each, and a second edition de
luxe to $50 copies, at a cost of about $25.
To find such rare and beautiful books, in
some cases donations to him. has surprised
even Wall-street bankers. Surprise has
given way to amazement, as in turning its
pages the readers lave found all sorts Of
sensations staring them in the face. The
innermost secrets of the Carnegie Steel Com
pany stand revealed to the light Of day.
Every detail Of the bitter quarrel between
Mr.. Carnegie on one side and Henry Phipps
and II. c. Prick on the other are spread out
for public view, backed by documentary
evidence. copies of confidential documents,
trade secrets, cost Of production and the
like.
MT. Bridge, the autnor OF the DOCK, was
once private secretary of Mr.. Carnegie. That
he writes with a strong bias Is evident from
the very introduction. In the beginning Of
his search for material he says:
WHERE HE IGNORES CARNEGIE.
81 found Andrew C~arnegie's narrative the
least trustworthy of ALL"
He follows this up with a dedication: ITO
recall their forgotten services. This history
of a great business is dedicated to the
memory of the men who founded it, saved
it from utter disaster and won it's first sue
cesses."
Andrew Carnegie's name is not included
in the list. Mr.. Bridges history Of the Car
negie company dates back to 1855. when An
drew Kloman started a small forge at Cir
tvs run, in Millvale. He traces the COM
pany step by step down to the time that it
passed to the United States Steel Corpora
ton.
The work lone by Mr.. Frick during the
Homestead strike forms In important part
Of the work. The author draws a strong
battle of the company, beset by assassins,
harrassed by political influence and the
like, and Mr.. Carnegie fishing for salmon
or playing golf at Skibo Castle. AS a result
OF the strike, the credit of winning which
is given to Mr.. Prick. the work says:
1T is believed by the Carnegie officials,
and with some show Of reason, that this
AAAho AOSOA WeS a&
made possible by the company's victory at
Homestead. From that time on the firm
profited by the heavy investments 1t had
made in labor-saving machinery, and costs
got so low that one year when the Car
negies made over 100000 their chief COM
petitor, the Illinois Steel Company, had up
ward of 81, 100000 loss. The following year
the Carnegies made over 100000. while the
Chicago company made only $500 900. BY
1897 the cost of steel rails on cars at the
Braddock mill was only So. IL a gross ton"
Gaming down tn the affamrfG nada from
time to time to sell the Carnegie works.
Mr.. Bridge says:
'Ten years have elapsed since the failure
Of the attempt to sell the works to English
investors; new schemes of a like character
were made in 1899. For a long time past
Mr.. Carnegie had lived principally abroad
and Mr.. Phipps had withdrawn from active
participation in the affairs of the company.
Mr.. Tricks had been the guiding hand that
had led the concern to a prosperity sur
passing the dreams of the most %sanguine
future his continued leadership seemed a
necessity
NEITHER WISHED TO RESIGN.
But Carnegie was loath to resign in
favor of one whose prominence threatened
to overshadow his own. and the plans he
made for his final withdrawal invariably in
cluded the simultaneous resignation of
Frick. And Prick, full of energy and not
yet fifty years of age, had no thought of
resigning. So that the plans never got be-
You'd the nebulous stage until the shock
of litigation forced them into some degree
Of definiteness-"
Chapter Xxx of the history Of the Car
negie Steel Company is headed 'Carnegie's
Attempt to Depose Prick" 1t starts as fol-
lows:
I'm chemical experiments it often hap
pens that before the process of crystalliza-
ton can be started In a saturated solution
a blow must be given to the vessel con-
tanning ii. This was evidently the condition
of the ideas that had long been floating in
and out of the minds of the partners con-
corning consolidation and reorganization
II required the shock of a rupture between
Carnegie and Frick to jar the fluid schemes
into solidity and. In conformity with the
run of forty years of uninterrupted Car
negie luck. this shock, which threatened
at first to have a shattering effect. further
welded the corporate interests, doubled the
already enormous wealth of the principal
partners and made the little ones all mil
lionaires.
1.-THE cause of the disagreement between
Carnegie and Frick that had most in
fuence in producing final rupture was a
diversion of views they hold concerning
the price the steel company should pay for
coke. While Carnegie controlled the ma
jority of the coke company's stock, through
his personal holdings and those of the firm.
there were a few outside shareholders
whose intent Ii was that the steel company
should pay the full market price for its
fuel; and to protect these minority stock
holders. Prick always made as good a con-
tract as he could with the steel company.
FRICK WAS BITTER.