The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-12

revealed when IL was reorgantzed into
Carnegie Bros. & Co That company
was capitalized at $5,000.00o and $2,737.-
900 stood In Andrew Carnegie's name.
His original quarter million had In
creased eleven fold. Up to 1883 the
company had paid dividends varying
from 26 to SO per cent. and Carnegies
original investment had increased sixty
times over. In those days a million dol
lars was still a gigantic figure
The men associated with him In those
DAYS were the pioneers of the steel in
dustry, most of them. like Carnegie, hav-
ing risen from shirtsleeve Jobs. Henry
Phipps remained steadily with his chief.
And in 1889 Henry c. Prick came In to
stay until the great Frick-Carnegie war
of ten years later.
In that year Carnegie acquired the
Homestead Works with which his name
will always be associated. Under his
management It paid for It's acquisition
in two years. The Duquesne plant, ac-
quired a year later paid Its cost In a
single twelvemonth.
In 1899 the capital Of the firm was
increased to $4,000, 900. 1t had become
a national figure. It's business was the
cause OF bitter battles among the rail-
roads entering Pittsburg. So Prick
threw them all out and built the Union
Railroad. But the business was fast
outgrowing the Pittsburg district. It
reached out to the fertile Mesaba ore
fields. Frick engineered their acquisi-
ton. They were owned by a man named
Henry w. Oliver. and Oliver lacked the
money to develop them. Oliver gave the
Carnegie interests five-sixths Of his stock
and the Carnegie people loaned him a
half million to develop them.
But between Lake Superior and the
mills stretched miles OF lake and land.
Carnegie himself bought the Bessemer
and Lake Erie Railroad, and in 1899 he
bought the tirst Of his own feet Of ore
vessels. the fleet of towering ships that
now form the greatest single item Of
great lakes transport This was the
chain. the first and biggest example OF
modern efficient organization. that made
1t true that ore which lay In the Mime
sofa hills on Monday was steel rails in
Pittsburg on Saturday night
In selling Carnegie killed competition.
In manufacturing he stimulated 1t. That
was the secret of his great success
without. the merciless cutting OF prices
and rail pool of brutal strength gave
him clear field. Within. every boss,
sub-boss and workman was pitted against
every other In his class. Success led to
promotion. pay, partnership. Failure
meant dismissal from the highest to the
lowest Even for the partners there was
sort OF human scrap heap, They were
shunted into politics when they couldn't
make and sell steel.
But nercely as the men were driven,
bitter as was the competition among
them, implacable as was the face of their
chief as he cried daily for the pesting Of
yesterdays record. each man felt that
MS reward was there when he earned 1t.
Men died like flies before the blazing
hearth doors Men dropped from exhaus-
ton In the ferocious race. But the win
ners won reward. And after the great
change Carnegie turned to the consola-
tion or the losers with a generosity as
free as had been the competition which
caused their loss Even before the great
change. however. there are many stories
to show that beneath his stole mask OF
Napoleonio ambition there beat q tender
Scotch heart
Frfck and Carnegie Break.
Out OF this blazing cauldor in more
senses than one came the fire tried men
who have formed the steel kings of to-
oay-Charles Schwab. William e. Corey,
George Lauder. Dinkey, Lovejoy and
Leishman. Among them worked Berg
and Boenthrager. whose processes in
creased the wealth of all. In 1889 the
company's profits were $4,000, 900, and
OF that s25.ooo,ooO went to Carnegie
alone. IL was more than the total cap-
italization OF the firm.
Then came the Frick-Carnegie quar-
rel, which estranged not only Frick but
Phipps' II was never wholly made up.
FLICK charged that Carnegie threw him
out OF ONCE at the acme of the COM
panys success and demanded that he
sell his interests at half what they were
worth. He called Carnegie q thief and
Carnegie replied in kind
Finally there came a conference at At
lantic City, arranged by that shrewd cor
poration lawyer. James B. Dill A new
company was organized in New Jersey
with 316o,0o0,o00 in stock and a like
amount In bonds. or the common stock
Carnegie held sS6,000.000 and Prick
100000 par value. But Prick failed
of election to the directorate and though
DIN got fee'of - o0o 900 for his work
Frick was never satisfied Phipps, too,
fell out with the ironmaster.
But Carnegie had tasted blood. In
1900 he declared war. He said he would
drive every competitor out Of the busi-
ness and make himself the dictator in
steel. He refused to return two million
dollar option when II was forfeited by
Nioidtion OF It's technical terms. He
mercilessly undercut every other Arm in
steel. He plunged into every phase OF
the business from the transportation of
the raw material to the sale OF the An
ished product In the market.
Where he couldn't buy the plants OF
competitors he built his own near by and
killed them. He threw $4,000, 900 into
a tube plant In Ohio. He set a corps
of surveyors to work to plan a road
rivalling the Pennsylvania from Pitts
burg to the sea. He declared war on
the Rockefeller interests, building his
own seagoing ore carriers. When a
small rival withdrew its trade from him
he smothered II with his own plant In
the rival territory. He foamed with a
perfect Berserl rage of commercial bat
tie. He announced that millions would
be spent to make his own plants beyond
the reach Of competition in prices and
the world knew he had the millions, the
energy and the will to do II.
And then. at 60, he lay down. With
his rivals fully cognizant OF the terror
OF his thirty-hve years OF experience
when brought to the battlefield. with his
single glance enough to set an enemy
tremble. with the world OF steel domi-
nation before him, he took his price and
quit grick Aud schEsb had always