Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-06-19
Aaisfellaneous 8saaiug.
LEADING WAeE.EARNER.
John Hayes Hammond and His Inter
estina Salary.
NO.49.

"Only for minute or two"
His time Is worth IS a minute. sir"
Whats that? didn't know it was
so expensive"
Eyes, sir, he figures 1t at that rate,
and it costs him about 16 cents to say
| Good morning. so he Is rather care
full about receiving visitors. The other
day he lost 81 listening to joke,
and the laughter amounted to nine
teen cents
"Well, we'll | wouldn't care to rob
Mr.. Hammond of his time at that
rate, although 1 would like to shake
him by the hand ten cents worth. It's
worth while to shake hands with the
leading proletarian Of the country.
He is a wage-earner, 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 $1,666, and in
an hour and a half he earns as much
as the majority of his fellow-Ameri-
can workingmen earn In a year. Is
that rlght?"
"Yes, sir. They say he gets $10,-
900 bill every Saturday night when he
quits. That's good weeks wages to
take home to the wife and kids, for
fact, and 1t makes $500,000 in a year.
The boss thinks lot Of Mr.. Ham,
mond. He's just hired him again on
five-year contract" -
This conversation is one that might
have occurred between visitor and
office attendant at shop in the EN-
pire building, No. II Broadway, where
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. Mr..
Hammond, the wage-earner, draws
this amount in five weeks Of toll. A
few railroad and insurance presidents
find 100000 I'm their annual pay en-
velopes. The horny-handed Hammond
realizes as much In the labor OF two
a
Of Europe are supposed to earn more
than the champion breadwinner Of
America, but Mr.. Hammond evens 1t
up with the receipt Of Christmas boxes
and returns from the investment Of
his modest savings which altogether
net him as much as his regular pay.
Mr.. Hammond Is distinctly In the
| class Of skilled labor. He Is 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-engaged him on a five-year
contract at 100000 a year. He agrees
to continue to officiate as expert at
this wage, and not to buy or exploit
any mines on his own behalf, except
the few trifling 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 hun
dred dollars worth of glances at a
pay streak. He leaves most Of that to
| graded army Of assistants, who en-
ter the bowels Of the earth, assay, re-
port and again report. The last and
highest report goes to Mr.. Hammond.
who studies it and briefly says to his
employers "yes" or no." The en-
ployers implicitly trust Mr.. Ham,
mond's affirmative to mean fortune
and his negative to spell failure. All
mines are said to be CANDLES. Few
Of Mr.. Hammond's forecasts have
proved wrong. The sensational Nipiss-
ing deal, in which the Guggenheims,
withdrawing from the enterprise,
coolly pocketed losses Of perhaps $3,-
100000, was an exceptional case
where something or other failed to
connect.
This leading member Of the Amer
lean working class has had pictur-
esque career Born in San Francisco
in 1856, he was graduated from the
Sheffield Scientific school at Yale In
1876 and continued metallurgical stu
dies at a school of mines in FreiburS.
Germany. He came home and became
special expert Of the United States
on the Geological survey and Mineral
census, examining the gold fields OF
his native state. The appetite for larg-
CHI ApQf nj
/ tested itself when he took JOB as
superintendent of silver mines in So
nora, Mexico. Back again in CalifoP-
MIA, he was consulting engineer for
large railroads and iron works. Ia
1893 Mr. Hammond went to South Af-
rica as consulting engineer for Barna-
| to Brothers.
| 1t is evident that his wages were
not yet satisfactory, for when he met
Cecil Rhodes at Cape Town and the
gold empire builder said abruptly.
"Mr. Hammond, I should like to
have you make me proposition"
the expert said he would be willing to
work for $1,000 a month or $4,000
year, and chuck the other job up. Mr..
Rhodes told him to take off his coat
and begin right away. The work was
to map out all the gold in Africa south
of the equator. Rhodes guessed that
he and his fellow empire-builders
| would get it IL it was only mapped,
regardless of a grouchy individual
named Dom Paul.
Mr.. Hammond slightly overstepped
the bounds of wage-earning when he
went to Johannesburg. and with four
other men signed a letter asking DR..
Jameson to invade Boer territory
and "come to our aid should a dis
turbance arise here" The Beers were
| vexed by the Jameson raid and Mr.
Hammond was sentenced to death on
the charge Of high treason. His friends
in this country made such fuss that
| the sentence was commuted to Is
years Imprisonment. Later Mr.. Ham
mond was fined $125, 900 Of his wages
and released. He complained that it
was high price to pay for "a little
conspiracy
After representing big syndicates In
this country and England Mr.. Ham
mond at last found a steady job with
the Guggenheim interests. 1t is said
that he is employing his spare time
Sundays and half holidays writing
book on the order of Dr. Smiles Self
/ LII, ,l fhnf hn YiT11G