Bisbee daily review., 1906-02-18

i srai small iron mines on the MenomI . n ee range. He wanted man to , rianage them, and, despite the pro tests of his friends that Tom Cole l was merely boy. made him superin- ltendent. How well this confidence ] vas justified was shown by the sur.
 prising manner in hich the schlesIn. . ger iron ore interests grew. The
 most was made of the old mines, new
 mines were added. small mines be-
 came big mines. and within a few years Ferdinand Schiesinger, with
 Thomas F. Cole as his manager, de-
 spite his less than thirty years, be-
 came the largest miner of iron ore
 In the United States. and the older
 mining men ceased to speak of Cole
 as a boy.
 In 1893 the panic was felt with
 blighting severity on the Lake Su.
 perior iron ore ranges Cole was then
 al Negannee, with general charge Of
 the Schlesinger interests on the va.
 rious ranges. His end of the work
 had been well done, but Schlesinger,
 though shrewd man and of prophetic
 vision, took chance at the wrong
 time. He had expanded beyond hia
 capital. and when the panic came was
 In no condition to withstand the storm.
 1t was then that the whole burden devolyed upon Cole. Money for men
 and material 'was lacking, railway freight bills were unpaid. suspicion
 was rife and when the railroad com. ranies attached the stock piles of the Queen mines. at NeEaunee. for un. paid freight bills of large amount it
 vas believed that the end had come. 1t was then that Cole showed two oth-
 CT attrlbutes-coGrage and loyalty of 1 the highest order His efforts to save | the situation were incessant. Twenty ] hours daily work were his usual hours for some weeks. Eeyery effort was
 made by him to keep the ship afloat.
 Personal appeals to the men at the
 mines were met with a steady re- sponse. for the men who worked with him and under him knew the man. and believed in him. No general fighting rear-guard action to permit the drawing off of defeated army. ever displayed more courage or lac ticak ability than did Cole in fighting a brave but hopeless battle for his employer. For six weeks he kept the Queen mines going, though bank Irupt. His own small savings were thrown into the fight without hesita- ton. Urgent demands for cash were met with his personal checks. until his own funds were exhausted-and then the inevitable happened-the mines closed down. and Cole began work instantly to see that the work men. who had trusted him and fol lowed him, were paid in full, and promptly. which was done.
 The modern employe who combines great ability with the loyalty that stops at no personal sacrifice is not so common that he Is likely to be over looked, and since the panic of 1899 Thomas F. Cole has been a marked man, as there are instances where a defeat is more glorious than vic tory. Schlesinger fled from his de feat to Mexico, where he succeeded in partially recouping his fortunes with in few years, and Cole was left with out a job-but not for long. Such men do not go begging for work, and congenial employment as a mine su- perintendent was offered him quick ly. on the neighboring Gogebic range. where the same qualities that he had displayed before speedily brought rec ognition. Within few years he was at the head of the great Norrie and other mines. and mining more ore than he had ever secured for Schles- finger.
 The Steel Trust was organized. and the position of vice president of the | Oliver Iron Mining Company, which ! is the greatest metal mining corpora | ton in the world, and which employed nearly twenty thousand men and ship ped twenty million gross tons of iron ore during the year l9o5-enough iron ore to load a fleet of one-thousand-ton | steamers reaching, if connected by | 'he ordinary G0o-foot tow-iine. from solid railroad train reaching from New York to San Francisco. with enough ore left over 10 load another railroad train reaching from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico.
 Most men. mot yet turned forty | years of age, arrived at the head of the greatest metal mining corporation Of the world. would have been satis- fled to rest upon their laurels. but rot so with Cole. Endowed with wonderful physique and superabund- ant and neverfailing supply of energy, there always stretched before him new things to do. The task set him az president of the Oliver company would have occupied an ordinary man ta the exclusion of all other matters. The Oliver was. when Cole took charge. merely a collection of mines and companies. without coherence. method or solidarity. Suspicion was lnore common than enthusiasm, and from superintendents down to miners the feeling was one of fear, rather than of confidence. How thoroughly a'i this has been changed in five years s known to those conversant with the
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