The Indianapolis journal., 1904-02-28
CONTROL OF THE STEEL
COMBINE BACK TO FRICK
Along with Henry Phipps the In
dustry Goes Back to Original
Owners.
TRICKS STIRRING LIFE.

PITTSBURG, Feb. 27.-Control of the
steel combine seems to be going back
TO first hands. The past week brought
us the news that ]. p. Morgan has
retired from the directorate. to be sue
ceeded by Henry Phipps. and that back of
Mr.. Phipps is II. c. Frick. So two Pitts
burgers are virtually the heads of the
most powerful Industrial combination
earth.
Henry Phipps was not only Andrew Car
negie's first partner, but Carnegie came in
to his firm. not he into Carnegies. Indeed,
Andrews elder brother, Thomas, preceded
the giver of libraries in the steel busi-
ness, he also associating himself with
Phipps
Phipps is no longer exclusively a Pitts
burger. since he has built a million-dollar
mansion for himself and family in New
York. but we continue to claim him our
own all the same, just as we still claim
Andrew Carnegie. Phipps's entry into the
steel corporations directory may be
sdered at least a partial re-entry into bus-
ness. from which he retired a few years ago.
Phippss benefactions have been many and
munifcent, but he has been so modest in his
giving that his name is not widely known
ers of the parks of Pittsburg and Allegheny
know him best as the man who gave them
the beautiful palaces of flowers that are
the pride of the two cities. Philadelphia is
grateful to him as the donor of a million
and half to the Free Hospital for Con-
sumptives. and the beaten Beers have rea-
son to thank him for the 100000 he gave to
their relief fund.
Phipps has also followed the example of
his former partner by leasing a Scottish cas-
tle-Beaufort
WHEN TRICKS SHIP CAME IN.
1t was financial panic that made Henry
Clay Frick money power. With several
partners he was conducting a small coke
manufacturing business. The panic of 1873
left his associates I'm financial straits. Frick
himself was almost as badly off as they, but
seeing his opportunity he applied to power
full friends in Pittsburg, among them
Thomas Mellon, for backing, and with the
money they lent him bought out at a bar
gain his discouraged partners. He was only
twenty-four years old then. The coke busi-
ness soon began to boom again, and Frick
awoke one morning to find himself rich.
1t was natural that Frick chose the coke
business. The industry was pulling infant
when he took hold of il, but he was born in
the very heart of the coke region, at the
WestmOreland county village of Overton.
He was Swiss on his fathers side, German
on his mothers. His father was a farm
er, but as soon as Henry became old
enough to work for himself he became a
clerk in Mount Pleasant drug store. Next
he went to his grandfather's mill al Broad
ford as a bookkeeper, and spent his leisure
studying the coke business He formed a
partnership of which he became manager,
and which bought land and built fifty ovens.
That in 1873
The business which he founded became,
after he bought out his partners, the largest
producers of coke in the world. 1t was
not strange that Andrew Carnegie, the larg-
est producer of iron and steel, in his quest
for cheap fuel, should seek to unite the
fortunes OF the II. c. Frick Coke Company
with those of Carnegie Bros. & Co, Limited
afterward the Carnegie Steel Company, by
inviting Frick into the steel firm. Frick ac-
cepted, to become chairman Of the steel
company, which position he held during the
trying times of the Homestead strike.
TARGET OF ANARCHY.
OF course, the most exciting episode in
Fricks life was when Alexander Berkman
attacked him with knife and revolver in the
Hussey building, on Fifth avenue this city.
during the Homestead strike of 1892 II
was during the afternoon of July %. Frick
was in his private apartment talking with
John c. A. Leishman then his associate i'm
the steel business, now United States minis
ter to Turkey. The office boy entered with
message that employment agent from
New York was waiting outside to see him
and to offer him men to work in the mills
Frick told the boy TO direct the agent
to w. S. Lindsay at Homestead, who had
charge of the employment end of the bust
ness.
The lurking Anarchist was not thus TO he
foiled from his errand of murder. Brush
ing the Office boy aside and bounding
through the door, he drew revolver and
shot his victim twice in the back of the
neck, one bullet infiicting a flesh wound and
the other dropping Mr.. Frick to the floor
1t had grazed the top of his spine moment
ariy paralyzing him.
Mr. Leishman grappled with the mad
dened man as he was in the act of firing a
third shot, the bullet embedding itself in
the wall at a safe distance from any hu-
man target. Just then Frick recovered suf-
ficiently to spring to the aid of his partner
Berkman instantly whipped out a knife
with which he inflicted two terrible wounds
upon Frick, both above his hips Attracted
by the noise of the struggle, Lawrence
Phipps and +. 7. +. LovejOy rushed into
the room, and the Anarchist was soon
handed over to the police. a German car
penter had hatchet raised, ready to crash
it into the skull of the would-be murderer
but, desperately wounded as he was Frick
cried out not to hurt the man. and Berk-
called, who dressed the chairmans wounds
house in Homewood.
THE USE OF BRIOUETTE.S.