The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-13
Local Steel and Wire Company Official Has Known Him
 for Many Years
SKETCH OF HIS LIFE
 IS OF INTEREST HERE
Has Been Remarkably Successful in Building Up the Steel Corpora tion's Export Trade-Was
 Reared in Connecticut

James A. Farrell, who succeeds William D. Corey as president of the United States Steel corporation, has never vis- tied Birmingham. at least not since he has been prominent in the industrial world, and comparatively few of the Steel corporation officials here know him personally. President George G. Craw- ford of the Tennessee company has met him, of course, at conferences of the presidents of the subsidiary companies held monthly In New York under the chairmanship of Judge E. H. Gary or MT. Corey; and F. B. Winslow, auditor of the Tennessee company, who was em- ployed by the American Steel and Wire during MT. Farrelrs connection with that concern, has known him for about 10 years.
 But Charles w. Lutz, superintendent of the American Steel and Wire companys plant being constructed at Corey, has been acquainted with MT. Corey's suc- cessor for more than 20 years.
 Practical Steel and Wire Man
 ''Yes, I have known MT. Farrell about B years" said MT. Lutz. He is a prac- tical steel and wire man, having risen from the bottom. I knew him well when he was drawing wire for this company, and I saw a good deal of him afterward when he was in the sales department of the same company. He is a tall, digni- fled man, but is kindly disposed and is singularly unassuming. It goes without saying that he is a man of fine judg- ment and exceptional business capacity"
 MT. Farrell is now president of the United States Steel Products Export com pany, a subsidiary of the Steel corpora ton. It is thought likely that he will make tour of inspection of the prop critics of the principal subsidiary com pany, including those of the Birmingham district shortly after he assumes his new position.
 The New York Sun of Wednesday, in it's sketch of Mr Farrell says in part:
 Work Was Too Heavy
 Prominent among the reasons given few days ago for the belief that the Steel corporation would not soon choose a new president and that perhaps it might not again fill that office was the state- ment. founded on what Judge Gary
 
 ment of the retirement of Mr. Corey, that presidents of the subsidiary companies had been found competent to handle all the details of manufacture in which MT. Corey and MT. Schwab before him had been expert. The purely executive work of the corporation is now and has for some time been very much in the hands of the chairman of the finance committee, Mir Gary. MT. Farrell is not considered to be in the same expert class as either MT. Schwab or Mr. Corey, so far as manufacturing processes go, and in the second place there has been some change of mind in the last few days among the members of the finance committee in regard to the amount of detailed execu- tive work that Mr. Gary can handle alone. It has proved to be too much for one man.
 MT. Farrell was described by another Steel official yesterday as an extraordi- narily able master of the detail of indus trial executive work and man of the highest general commercial ability.
 ''The same authority spoke very highly of MT. Farrell's activities in his present office. in which he has charge of the cor porations export trade. In recent state ments given out by officials of the Steel corporation the state of the company's export trade had come in for particular enthusiasm. That trade has been thriv- ing to very marked degree in the face Of dullness at home, the refusal of the railroads to order rails and generally inferior trade tone. This remarkable strength of exports under apparently unfavorable conditions he attributed to the energy of MT. Farrell In fact that was MT. Farrers distinction and the thing that drew so much favorable attention to him. That the export trade of the company should surpass all rec ords in a period when universal domes- tic stagnation was the rule was regarded as of sufficient weight to explain the selection of the head of that department of the corporations business for presi- dent of the whole.
 When asked if the selection of Mr. Farrell had any special significance with regard to the corporations policy toward foreign and domestic trade he said that 1t did not mean that so large an institution was going in for a speciality, but that it did signify desire on the part of the lead ing men in the company to develop as quickly as possible a more extensive de- mand abroad. Foreign trade will con- tinue to be pushed,' he said, just as it has been pushed by MT. Farrell in the past
 'sIn Chairman Gary's recent statement tnere was conspicuous mention of the probability of the selection in the near future of two new vice presidents to aid in the executive work. According to the informant who explained yester- days decision in regard to new pres- ident that question still remains open
 Is . Family Man
 When the report of friction between MT. Corey and other officers of the cor poration on the matter of a price hold ing or price shading policy and other reports of disagreement between MT. Corey and his associates based on more personal things was mentioned to this man the reply seemed to cover a nut titude of relief: MT. Farrell is a fam fly man. He lives in Brooklyn
 MT Farrell was born about 49 years ago in a family native to South Nor walk, Cam. His early life was passed in New Haven. It was there and as a boy that he first went Into the steel business, working up from the bottom of the ranks to an important super visory position. The company with which he began was obscure and has long since been forgotten. After cer- tain novitiate in the New Haven con- aor,, M, Eorran want In pittch,,ror