The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-13

Desert bing the city of Essen, Ger many, and the great industrial or ga.nization that has made it famous, the National Geographic Society says:
 'NThe town of Essen might just as well have been named sKrupp. Of course, Essen was founded centuries before the House of Krupps but it's importance and industrial fame is of very recent growth It is, in fact a. product of the famous firm. Almost for his livelihood upon the firm of Krupp, and Essen is a town of 300,-s GOO population. It might also be pointed out that while the horizon of Essen is about limited by Krupp steel, the firm extends far beyond the limits iron ore miness coal mines, smeIters, an industrial village bearing it's name, foundYieS in Berlin and other cities and a shipyard at KieL
 ssEssen is situated in the heart of a rich coal and iron country and upon a network Of railways that reach to all of the chief mining and industrial centers of the RhfneIand. It is 1o- cated in the Prussian Rhine province, twenty miles northeast of Dusseldorf. The streets of the town are clean and well laid out The houses, for the belong to the firm of Krupp. There is, however, thick atmosphere of industrial gloom over the city. It looks drab in spite of paint, and cheerless in spite of the vast wealth that its labor earns.
 s'The firm of Krupp, about which numerous notices have been printed since the wars outbreak, is little more than 1e3 years old. However, it is some years since a. prominent French man wrote a. thick volume about the Dynasty of Krupp. in which he com siders this famiiy's fortune as large enough to be c1assed among the Seven World Wonders.
 tgrhe foundation of the Krupp firm at Essen on the Ruhr occurred in the year 1s12. It was in the first days of cast steel, and. at that time the English steel Industry led the world almost to a degree Of monopoly. All fred Krupp's works were established for the manufacture of cast steel. The early days of the firm were days of bitter and. apparently, fruitless strug- gle. As late as 1848, thirty-six years after their foundation, the Krupp works employed only seventy work men But then the age of railways dawned, and cast steel became an Important article of commerce. About this time, too. the owner went into the work Of developing guns, and his fac tory forged the cast steel guns amid whose thunder the empire was forged i and welded.
 ! before realizing the success of his life's venture, and his 14-year-old son ltook up the burden, continuing the establishments slow progress After 1648, the struggle was finally success ful, the Krupp works sold their goods throughout Germany, and numbered customers in more than half of the countries of Europe. By 1873, 12,0O0 l workrnen were employed, and the firm had begun to purchase iron and coal mines and blast furnaces. Long before their triumph, however, the Krupp's had put into operation those social service reforms that were destined to find echo around the world. Tn the early 5O's the firm had established foh it's workmen a sick-aid and pension fund, from which the German empire was to l draw the inspiration that led to the establishment of a state insurance 1 system.
 s"rhe firm has always remained the 1 personal property of, the Kupp family. It is owned today by Bertha | Krupp, who, In 19O6, married the Prussian diplomat, formerly attached l to the embassy at Washington, pr. Gustav von Bohlen and Halbach- Just before Bertha Krupp took over the | works, they were organized for ad- kstock company. All but four shares 1 of $250 each were taken over by Miss Krupp- The firms capital was placed at $S5, 5000. .0OO.
 @The Krupp steel works now eIn- ploy more than 45,000 men in Essen alone. The firm has one of the most 1 highly developed social service sys- tems in operation in existence any 1 where. It maintains clubs, coopera- Itive stores; hospitals, general and
 maternity; boarding houses, pension,
 accident, and sick benefit funds, be- l heinz ifez aTa0 F1In
 in a number of other social under
 takings. The Krupp's make all man.
 ner of things of steel, but-and this ! mainly constitutes their world re-
 nown-the Krupp gun shops have a
 unique support from its organization
 They have made and unmade maps
 and empires. Bertha. Krupp is known Lin aher Fatherland as the Cannon