The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-10
(New York Tribune.)

(NeW York Tribune.)
Il would like to see Mr. Hammond"
His time is valuable, sir"
"Only for a minute or two"
His time is worth So minute, sir"
What's that? l didn't know it was
so expensive"
Yes, sir, he figures it at that rate,
and it costs him about 16 cents to say
Good morning, so he is rather careful
about receiving visitors. The other day
We lost 81 listening to a joke and the
laughter amounted TO 70 cents"
well, well, l wouldn't care to rob
Mr.. Hammond of his time at that rate,
although I would like to shake him by
the hand 10 cents worth. It's worth
While to shake hands with the leading
proletarian of the country. He is a
wage Garner, isn't he?"
That's what they say, sir. He makes
$500 an hour"
"Ah! I fancy that his employers give
him half an hour for luncheon? No
doubt they do. His days wages must
amount to about 81, sec, and in an hour
and a half he earns as much as the
majority of his fellow American work
ingmen earn in a year. Is that right?''
Yes, sir They say he gets a $4,000
bill every Saturday night when he
quits. That's a good weeks wages to
take home to the wife and kids, for a
fact, and it makes 100000 in a year,
The boss thinks lot of Mr.. Hammond.
He's just hired him again on five
year contract"
This conversation is one that might
have occurred between visitor and Of
fee attendant at a shop in the Empire
building. Il Broadway. where John
Hays Hammond, the most expensive
hired man in the United States, works
for a living. The president of the
United States gets $4,000 a year.
Hammond, the wage-earner, draws this
amount i'm five weeks Of toll. A few
railroad and insurance presidents find
500, 900 in their annual pay envelopes.
The horny-handed Hammond realizes
as much in the labor of two months
and a half Some monarchs of Europe
are supposed TO earn more than the
champion breadwinner of America, but
Mr.. Hammond evens it up with the re-
ceipt of Christmas boxes and returns
from the investment of his modest saw
ings, which altogether net him as much
as his regular pay.
John Hays Hammond does not be-
long to any union. He has never been
on a strike, and has never lost his head.
though he came near losing it in the
Transvaal Hard times do not bother
n.
umn or worry about being unemployed.
In order to make himself efficient and
worth to his employers the price that
he gets, Mr.. Hammond takes care of
himself in a way that is an example
to other WOrkmen. He recuperateS his
strength at his country estate at GlOu-
cester, Mass, and goes and comes from
there in his 200-fOOt yacht manned by
crew of thirty men. He is extremely
punctual and the boss never catches
him watching the clock toward the
close of a five or six-hour day.
The census Office has failed to pub
| fish, as II has published in the case of
other American laborers, what proper
/ tions of Mr.. Hammonds wages go for
rent, meat, vegetables, clothes, recrea-
| lions and charities. so that these inter
| esting sociological details cannot be
known with accuracy.
Mr.. Hammond is distinctly in the
class of skilled labor. He is a mining
engineer, supposedly the best in the
world. His employers, the Guggen-
| helms, who own most of the mines and
smelters on this continent have lately
/ re-ergaged him on a five-year contract
at $500. 900 a year. He agrees to con-
tinue to officiate as expert at this
wage. and not TO buy or exploit any
]
/ trifing properties he already owns and
which net him annually as much as his
salary. The kind of work he does is
not calculated to raise any special
sweat beads on his brow. 1t is rarely
| that he leaves his shop to enter his
private car, travel to gold mine in the
Rockies and take 500 worth of
! glances at a pay streak. He leaves
most of that to a graded army of as
sistauts, who enter the bowels of the
earth, assay, report and again report.
The last and highest report goes TO Mr..
Hammond who studies it and briefly
saws to his employers Yes" or NO"
The employers implicitly trust MIR.
Hammonds affirmative to mean for
tune, and his negative to spell failure.
/ All mines are said to be CANDLES. Few
of Mr.. Hammond's forecasts have
proved wrong. The sensational Nipis-
sing deal, in which the Guggenheims,
withdrawing from the enterprise, cool
| ly pocketed losses of perhaps $1,000, 600,
was an exceptional case where some
thing or other failed to connect.
This leading member of the American
working class. has had a picturesque
career Born in San Francisco In 1850,