The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1912-02-15
GOOL TRUST MAGNAIE
LIVES WITHIN CRIES OF
NEEDY BUT HEtDS NOT
William M. Wood Says 81 to 80
a Week Is Enough For
Textile Workers
HAS MILLIONS HIMSELF
Banquets Standpat Senator, But
Rejects Request That He
Pay Living Wages
BY MARTsN e. PEW.


,b r.AvRENCE. Mass. Feb. 1.-THE
story of the career of VIM. M. WOOD
president of the American WOODEN
Co.. proyides a curious paradox.
81 This man is the oppressor OF l5V,-
400 miserable New England texule
workers; a few years ago he was one
Of them. He is pitiless in his nght
AGAINST the 10000 strikers OF Law
renee: in his youth he felt the sting
Of hunger that these strikers now
rebel against Fortune has smiied
upon him and he has grown enor-
mousiy rich: he declares that ~ 10
SIS per week is enough for the men
and women who spin the product OF
4 his mills
IL is said of George F. Baer, the
anthracite baron, that he sincerely
S believes in his famous theory OF the
divine right OF wealth. j. Pierpont
Morgan was born 10 large fortune
and has never even seen the poverty
az the steel workers OF Pittsburg.
though IL is uncomfortable that he
y does not know that IL exists.
Not SO with Wood He knows.
These strikers are his neighbors.
Their distress he sees. Their cries
ne hears.
Woods father was a Portuguese
/. lew immigrant. He labored in cot
ton mill and died OF tuberculosis. a
disease common 60 cotton and wool
spinners. The fathers name is be-
iieved to have been Alphonse Lehalr.
or Leyair. He changed mis- name TO
) Mood by orders of the mill bosses.
who. In those, days. listed their en-
!. pioyes by, name instead OF number,
and bookkeepers didn't like to fuss
with strange. foreign names.
William quit grammar school when
This father died. His mother and sis
tiers faced poverty. II IL said that the
Efamily was often In sad want Will
liam got a job in the Wamsutta mills,
New Bedford. He gave his salary to
Ibis mother while she lived and has
tnever ceased to provide for his sis
tiers. One of them said the other day
that each sister now gets $50 month
from william.
The boy was quick 10 learn. After
"a while he entered bank and learn
led finance. Then he became treas
.urer OF a Fall River cotton mill He
.finally came here and in the Wash
Ztpgton mill mastered The art OF man
tufacturing and assisted in the in
.troduction OF shoddy cloth.
he met and married the daughter
tof Frederick Ayre who had made a
fgreat fortune out OF patent medicines.
particularly sarsaparilla
Ayre had been buying mill stock and
1.-THE mills had not been prospecting. He
TDacked his son-in-law with his mil
lions, however, and By a combination
tndroitly managed tactics, including
tshoddy. schedule X and labor crushing
wood made Ayre's fortune swell 10
proportions that made even the patent
kmedicine game seem tame.
The son OF the poor mill worker be-
.came a millionaire and formed the
Npresent wool trust.
"A few weeks ago he was in Wasll-
FingtOn banqueting the standpat SEN
Eators and representatives and Taft's
stariff board, and pleading for tariff
protection for his employees.
4 Today he Is In Boston giving out
statements that trade conditions do
not warrant" meeting the demands OF
the strikers who left their looms
rather than accept a cut in wages
averaging only % cents per week
Wood claims that no dividends are
paid I'm the common stock OF his CON-
spany and only per cent in the pre-
ferred."
The fact is that the common stock
IS treasury stock and the company has
been slowing away an enormous sur
plus, while the tariff sailing was good
Wood is dark-eyed, black-haired
nervous little man with vain concep-
ton of his power To control men-his
workers, stockholders. politicians.
editors, anyone and every one who
comes between him and the desired
result, He works desperately hard
ut his business game in and out OF
season. IL is said here that he keeps
ut such high nervous tension that he
cannot compose himself to sleep at
night until Swede massagist has
operated upon him.