The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-15

worked out. MT. Ream, in association
 with Marshall Field of Chicago, H. H. Porter of that city, Henry H. Rogers of New York and Judge E. H. Gary. labored for many weeks over the solution of the problem which the new economic eondi- ticns had raised especially in the steel industry of the United States. They had already established some of the factors needed for the solution when they were brought into association with Henry C. Prick and J. P. Morgan, ST. As these | men labored with intense concentration of mind upon this problem in the hope that it would reveal the principle upon which the Federal Steel company could
 be thoroughly perfected, they gradually began to realize that the problem in- volved much larger questions than any which related to the Federal Steel com pany alone. It involved very great CO., oi dination of various organizations en- gagged in different departments of the steel industry. It involved great capital izstion and financing, especially that foreign trade might be advanced ulti- maj ately so to match that of Germany and England in iron and steel products and herein was the germ of the idea which led to the organization of the United States Steel corporation. Every factor in this problem represented mod ern invention, modern mastery of science and the wonderfully close and intimate in- ter relation financially of the great com n,ercial nations of the world.
 Referred to Science
 Then, again, MT. Ream was the first to work out a problem whose happy solu- tion led to tine establishment of an or sanitation whose yearly sales now amount to about $60.000,000. For it was MT. Ream who insisted that science as accurate in detail as that which is followed in any successful laboratory should be called in so as to perfect the baking in- dustry of the United States. It was at his suggestion that $5O000 was ap- propriated for the purpose of paying 'fof the work done by men of science in and corn, standar rdizing the use of these materials in baking and pointing the way by which the perfected product could be instantly distributed to consumers. Again. one of the achievements of MT Ream a great constructive force is now illustrated by the operation of the Clinchfield railroad system. The his- | tory of this achievement is long, but it is | very romantic. Mir. Ream worked out the plan and also the methods by which the plan could be put into execution l which at last opened the great Clinch- | field coal district and created new gateway to the sea from the Appalachian regions These three illustrations are suf- ficient, perhaps. to make clear the order of his intellect. There are many other | achievements, all of them constructive and every one of them of a greater ben eft to the American people than to MT Ream's wealth. but as he always felt | that in material undertakings of any kind there could be no success unless there were reasonable pecuniary returns it was vital that propositions of that kind should be considered from the money return l point of view.
 Those who are in close association with
 the United States Steel corporation have | long regarded MT. Ream as one of the master minds of that organization. II was due in great measure to his advice when the corporation was created that 6 l surplus fund of $75,000OO0 was provided | for, although he would have been glad
 | had the amount been $15O.O0O.O00. Person.
 l ally. Mr. Ream was singularly compan-
 ionable man, and he was one of those
 who avoided suspicion of any sinister
 or malicious quality by refraining from
 spea king unkindly of any one. If he
 l could not speak well he spoke not al l all. He possessed in a high degree the | gift of anecdotal reminiscence. and hls entire career could have been set forth
 historically by his anecdotal narrations
 some of which went back to the days oi
 his childhood.