The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-04-19


and had the courage of their eonvic-
tions, they went out behind the pri-
ory of the dungeon keep or some 9TH
er popular meeting place and had 1t
out with rapiers or swords. generally
until one was translated to another
sphere of activity through the medium
of quicker thrust or stronger
wrist.
When Eleuthere du Pont. who
founded the greatest powder making
business the world has ever seen, was
young man the latter method of
settling disagreements. coffee and
pistols for two in the morning" had
already begun to pass out and the
safer if less romantic plan of resort
ing to the courts was coming in. Still
Eeuthere du Pont was high spirit
ed man and in all probability he
would have been willing to waive le-
gal remedies to oblige any one who
tried to get his business or his prop
erty away from him.
That, however, was hundred years
ago and more, when the original AM
erican munition maker was starting
in, and times have changed. Today
he would surely do just as his de-
scendants are dong-start suit If
the circumstances warranted and
stick to it until decision was reach
ed. Which is also what his descend
ants propose to do in the tremendous
battle that has just gone through it's
first phase in the United States dis
trict court down in Wilmington, Del,
and that is to be fought right up to
the supreme court if necessary and
seems likely to become as famous in
the judicial annals of this country as
the proceedings in Jarndyce VS.. Jarn-
dyce in Dickens BLEAK House" are in
fiction.
A Family Feud.
The thing that would distress Eleu
there du Point is not the mere fact of
the fight or that the giant which has
arisen from his original effort is in
litigation, but that the trouble is
family feud "Du Pont VS.. du Pont'
is the way it Is recorded in the court
brother, cousin against cousin, almost
father against son, and like every
family row, it bids fair to be what
the gentlemen of the squared circle
would term a humdinger. They give
no quarter in such affairs and the du
Points, being members of a fighting
race, appear determined that this en-
counter shall be to finish.
To revert again to the great grand
ancestor Eeuthere, the powder mill
that he started on the banks of the
Brandywine in 1902 was a very mod
est affair. 1t supplied powder for the
war Of 1872. and again in 1861 it was
the resource of the Union armies, and
T. continued to furnish the explosives
for our armies right along But its
growth was normal and its prosperity
while considerable was not of the,
mushroom, fly-by- might variety, but
rather the result of careful business
methods combined with q reasonable
OcBTct VI COlllIlleICidl CSSlNcICo'
The du Points gradually became known
as rich men and finally as million
aires and the e. !. du Pont de Mem
ours company-Samuel, the father Of
Eleuthere, was du Pont de Nemours
AS an exceedingly prosperous and
well conducted organization.
The Serbian Shot.
This was the state of affairs in
June, 1914. Then previously obscure
Serbian shot and killed an archduke
in a previously obscure Austrian town
called Sarajevo and by the act the du
Points, although they didn't appreciate
the fact right away nor for some time
afterward, from being plain, ordinary
millionaires became multi million
aires and then Observation-Disclosures
and on up the scale. For the
business of powder making, from that
moment on, was one of the most lu-
crative Of all callings and the de-
scendants of Eleuthere, being on the
job and having the energy and the
facilities, We're in a position to turn
about as much of the destructive ele-
ment into gold as any one on the face
of the earth. Almost over night down
in Wilmington huts became palaces
dross became pure metal, cotton be-
came rarest silk, everything became
something more expensive and valu-
able than it had ever been before.
Control of the du Pont company
prior to these golden days had been
passed around in the family in friend
ly fashion, and although there had
been some bitter quarrels among the
different branches over social prece-
dence and honors and situations had
even arisen In which the skeleton had
been taken out of the cupboard and
ratified little in court 1t was not
thought that a rift would ever come
in the business relations. No one
realized then that the apparently in
consequential squabbles had engend-
cred jealousies and hatred which
breathed into flame by the desire for
control of the rich prize that the pow
der concern had become. were to
cause the greatest private lawsuit