The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-08-15
MIR. cooper's Mastery Of Men.

Throughout the entire trip over the
dam he was constantly In touch with
swarms Of them. hurrying to close up
their big task. He knows the faces
of nearly every one of the fifteen hum
dred workmen on the plant, but he
admits that some of the names give
him pause. He exhibited some hand
/ some silver medals which he is Civ
| ing to the workmen Of all classes
who have been with him for year.
Each bears an inscription and the
name OF the man to whom it is award
led. Hundreds of these medals silver
for the common workmen and gold
| for the bosses and superintendent
are provided by Mr.. Cooper as his
personal gift. A sample of the in
scription which these keepsakess bear
| is as follows: Presented by Hugh L.
| Cooper, chief engineer of the Missis-
sippi River Power company, to Jan
Oberfennjkith, in appreciation of his
faithful and efficient service of one
year These medals are highly priced
by the men. and the presentation OF
them in new field of labor always
assures employment.
Mr.. Cooper is kindness personified
to his men, and at the s4me time he
exerts that indefinable authority and
command over them which made Ma
poleon master OF a fighting world. SO
attached have many of the men be-
come to Mr.. Cooper that they would
follow him to the ends of the earth
as employe. Many Of his workmen
j have been called away by the Balkan
war and Mr.. Cooper knows not the
address of any of them. But when
their fighting is finished they will
! find their way back to him. Many
of them have worked for him for over
! ten years, some Of them assisting him
in the building of the power plant at
| Niagara Falls.
The Niagara Falls Wonder.
1t MAJ be that few ofthe newspa-
| per readers know that Hugh L. Coop
er built that important power plant.
| 1t was the successful accomplishment
Of that task which really enabled him
to finally finance the Keokuk under
| taking. The building Of that power
plant was picturesque as well as
notable achievement In order to ac-
complish his work, Mr.. Cooper had to
| build Golfer dam in sixty-five feet
of rushing water above the falls. BY
means of this Golfer dam he con-
structed tail race in the shape of
! tunnel opening out under the middle
of the falls. 1t was wonderful
achievement Lord Kelvin, the high
est scientific authority, declared
Coopers plant would not work. but it
I, is the only installment at Niagara
Falls which did not stop operations
the falls a few years ago.
In the building OF the Golfer dam
! it was necessary for Mr.. Cooper to ex-
4 tend some wooded false work out
I into the river The torrent was furi-
Gus and the workmen became alarmed
for fear the entire structure was go
| ing to be swept over the falls. Cooper
| himself tried to assure them by go
| ing out or the Golfer DAM but they
were not satisfied and refused to go
on with the work Then cooper filled
i a dranking glass level with water,
and placed 1t on one of the project
/ ing timbers of the crib work. He then
/ called his workmen's attention to the
4 fact that there was not the least
ripple in the water in the glass,
showing that the structure was per-
fectly rigid and that it was the dash
ing water which made the frame ap-
pear to tremble. The men all return
ed to work and finished the remark
able job without further hesitation
Many of those men are now working
for Mr.. Cooper on the Mississippi
River Power company's dam at Keo
kuk.