Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1921-03-24
SAVING THE WASTE HAS
MADE MACNUS SWENSON
BOTH FAME AND FORTUNE

The name of Magnus Swenson of
Madison is familiar in Sank county,
because he was the leader IN develop
ing the great water powers at Kilbourn
and Prairie du Sac. The following is
from the Literary Digest:
A dream, an undaunted spirit, and a
little wooden chest with a few person
al belongings constituted all the re-
sources of Magnus Swenson, Wiscon-
sin millionaire and Industrial magnate,
when he began life in America upon
his arrival from Norway fifty years
ago as a boy of thirteen. Not only was
the lad destitute of this worlds goods,
but he was halfstarved besides. The
storm-beaten sailing vessel in which
he had crossed the ocean had been
twelve weeks on the way and twenty
two of the sixty passengers had died
of starvation on the voyage. When
he landed, young Swenson weighed
only forty-eight pounds. There were
no friends to welcome him. But he
had come here to make his fortune
and he lost no time being sorry for
himself. First he set out to acquire
an education. Struggling with the new
language and other studies at night,
he prepared to enter the University
of Wisconsin. 1t is said he went to
Madison to take the entrance examin-
alton in June and was amazed to learn
that the Commencement" announ-
ced in the catalog meant the end and
not the beginning Of the school year.
In his sophomore year, while working
during the vacation with the Chicago
& Northwestern crew in the Dakotas,
he became the fast friend of one
Dick" fellow workman, the latter
being Richard H. Ashton, now presi-
dent of the Chicago & Northwestern
Graduating in 1880, only some ten
years after his inauspicious entry into
the country, young Swenson entered
upon that remarkable career which
was to make him one of the outstanding
figures of industrial Aerica. His chief
rule in life, we are told, has been,
Save the waste" and this has been
the key to his success. 1t was because
of the ability he had shown and the
results he had achieved in putting
this rule to practical tests that Mr..
Swenson was made Federal food adj
ministrator for Wisconsin during the
war and later was called by Herbert
Hoover to act as director of food re-
lief for northern Europe A brief
sketch of Mr.. Swenson's career is gil
ven by Walter A. O'Meara in Peoples
Favorite Magazine New York;, from
which we quote:
For three year after graduation
Swenson taught chemistry at he's al
ma mater, helping to organize the
faous Wisconsin College of Agricul-
ture. Then he started right in to plug
some of the leaks through which for
tunes were escaping annually.
First he tackled the sugar industry,
at that time a rather wabDly business
in America.
Number two: the packing plants at
Chicago, at that time not the models of
economy that they are to-day. When
Swenson had finished there was little
left but the proverb al "squeal''
Next he went into the Proctor &
Gamble plant at Ivorydale, home of a
famous soap that floats. Here he de-
vised and installed machinery for max
ing glycerin from wasted by-products,
and, incidentally, helped adjust the
famous percentage to ninety-nine
and forty-four one hundredths.
Following long series of similar
achievements. On every hand he eff
fected economies-in the manufacture
of sugar, of milk, caustic soda, paper
pulp, CLUES, fertilizers and many 9TH
er chemical products. He began manu-
Featuring labor-saving machinery, and
until 1900 conducted large-scale bus
mess in this line.
In 1900, however, he decided to re-
tire, and returned to Wisconsin. The
sight of enormous Water-power going
to waste in the Wisconsin river soon
made him restless, and he financed
and built the two largest hydroelectric
plants in the State, saving two hun
dred thousand tons of coal a year.
Last year, as director of food relief
for northern Europe, he supervised
the distribution and sale of millions
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