Evening star., 1953-01-16

was Mrs. William Mather of C
Mines OF Canada. The latter is
not a Hanna company. but it
was Mr.. Timmins. whose COM
pany had the mineral rights to a
great area in northeast Canada,
who got him started on one of
the great industrial adventures
of our day-the development of
the iron ore in Labrador.
He talked about that a bit.
"They were after gold" he
said scornfully. II said to them,
What if you found 500 million
worth of gold up here? Would
anybody build a railroad to get
it out?'"
$500 Million Railroad.
The Hanna subsidiary organ
lied by Mr.. Humphrey, the Iron
Ore Co. of Canada, is building
a railroad, spending 5000 million
to make the ore available to
American steel plants.
The interviewer suggested that
his company's performance in
this belied the generally &C
cepted idea that present-day
taxes have taken away most of
the incentive that encourages
individuals and business to risk
capital.
He would have none of it.
1--WE have to keep our mills
going" he said. The situation
of the great steel companies. he
feels, is different. They have to
have ore. (Hanna controls one
of them. National Steel.) But
for most enterprises. taxation
has ended incentive to do great
things.
There is a lot Of prior lien
money" he said, "but brave
money is short because there is
no return for it.
There has to be real return
when there is real risk. because
the losses of the ventures that
don't work out are so great. We
have them. If we hit something
good once in 10 times-once in
20 times, we consider that we are
doing well. We write off millions
in ventures that didn't pan out.
There are two ways of doing
things. I've used this illustration
100 times, if I've used it once. We
have a pie, and we have to divide
it among more and more people.
One way of doing it is to cut the
slices thinner and thinner. That's
the way they are doing it in Eng
land. But that's not the Ameri-
can way. It's not my way. I say
let's bake another pie. Let's have
two pies; then there will be
enough to go around"
There is nothing very impress
sive about that homily; Mr..
Humphrey is not at his best as a
theoretical economist. But give
him an opportunity to get at the
economic facts of a situation,
and he will amass them all in
his head. And given the oppor-
tunity to do something about it,
he has, on several occasions,
doubled and tripled the pies to
be divided.
Early Life in Michigan.
He talked about his early life
in Michigan but he is not the
story telling type who just nat
urally embellishes a tale with
anecdote and human interest.
His father was a lawyer, con-
siderably his senior because he
had married twice. There were
three children by the first mar
riage, and he was the oldest of
four by the second.
His fathers family came from
the Genessee Valley in western
New York, not far from Roches-
ter which is on the Genesee
River. The elder Humphrey was
one of the early graduates of the
University of Michigan Law
School.
George Humphrey was born at
Sheboygan on the northern tip
of the Lower Peninsula on
March 8, 1890. A year later, the
family moved to Saginaw on
Saginaw Bay. 1t was a city OF
$4,000.
"Just big enough to be a city
and for you to feel that you
knew every one" he said.
George was a good looking
blond youngster. and he played
football on the high school team
Il was a substitute halfback," !"
he said.
Historical research bellies this
When the high school paid Mr.
Humphrey an honor some years
ago-he was given the Distin-
guished Alumnus Award-the
history teacher, with some dis
cernment. told the class that
here was a great man who would
make history. He made research
into Mr.. Humphreys boyhood for
future biographers a project OF
the class.
Student researchers found that
young Humphrey was one Of the
most dependable ground gamers
in 1908. the year in which Sagi-
nav High School won the State
Championship. They also found