The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-22

In the best sense of the term MT. Hew- itt was a materialist He believed that men had to do in the conditions and op- portunities which they found at hand. For that reason MT. Hewitt was the most reasonable. as well as the most en- thusiastic, in his understanding of and admiration for the opportunities, both national and individual, which exist side by side throughout the United States and of the relation which, if our country pro- ceeds along the orderly and healthful ways which the very spirit of our institu- tons as well as the body of our organic law provides Is to be, that of supremacy among the nations. By reason of his many-sded intellect MT. Hewitt was able to foresee as a closet philosopher and to demonstrate as a practical man of affairs a dual capacity, of which he was possibly the exceptional owner. At all events, as he had the gift of verbal expression, he was able to tell to others better than any man of affairs or any philosopher was able to do all that he saw and the meaning of the vision.
 This quality was revealed early in life.
 It Is nearly fifty years since MT. Hewitt first indulged in a phophecy so astound- ing, so far beyond the understanding or appreciation of men of that day that he was looked upon as a visionary. In an address delivered before an association of men engaged in the iron and steel in- dustry. MT. Hewitt not only predicted in general terms but fortified that predic- ton by an array of statistics that in due course the United States would be su- preme among the world nations as pro- ducer of iron and steel. It was all faith with him then, exactly as at the same time his father-in-law, Peter Cooper, had such abundant faith in the ability or me- chanics and engineers to provide appa- ratus by which intelligence could be flashed under the ocean so that Europe and America, instead of being apart by a weeks time, would be in instant com munication that he gave of his time and of his capital literally, enthusiastically to that venture which so many pro- nounced the vision of a disordered brain
 About the time that MT. Hewitt made this prediction Bessemer perfected his process, which was a revolutionary and as wealth. producing as the employment of steam or electricity, by which steam could be produced at low cost And when the Bessemer process was shown to be practical they turned to MT. Hewitt and offered 1t at a refutation of his prophecy. Instead of accepting the taunt. MT. Hew- it replied that the Bessemer process would not only hasten the day of the su- premacy of the United States, but that 1t would marvelously increase within the years of a generation the wealth of the world.
 Later the encyclopaedia learning of MT. Hewitt and the instant availability of his stores of facts and figures carried in his mind was demonstrated to the amaze ment of Sir Henry Bessemer, who spoke of this demonstration as one of the marvels of the human intellecct MT. Hewitt was a guest at MT. Bessemer's 8 house. and one day asked him what his share of the wealth which the Bessemer process had created had been. At a rough estimate, Sir Henry fixed 1t at
 
 of paper, and spent a few moments in computation, relying wholly upon his memory for his figures. At last he passed to Sir Henry these computations, and they showed that, while Sir Henry had received $20,000 900, the wealth of the world had been increased by means of this invention by a sum equivalent to the entire capital of the civilized nations of 100 years before. Sir Henry afterward verified the figures, and 1t was this veri- fication that justified him in expressing his amazement at the intellectual power displayed through the instant command through memory of these complicated statistics.
 It was from reasoning somewhat simi- lar, althrough partially hypothetical and partially theoretical. that MT. Hewitt re- gently based his prophecy that there Is to come one supreme test showing whether the social fabric of our govern ment Is to endure, or whether, through the domination of the new principle of socialism, that fabric Is to be destroyed and therein demonstrated the accuracy of the prediction many have made that a republicans democratic form of govern ment cannot endure.
 MT. Hewitt had no doubt of the demon- stration which would follow that test He believed that the great body of the Amer ican people was uncorrupted, undemor- alized, and had as intutitive and abiding conviction in the perfection of the sys-