| Show written for this paper NAPOLEON OF CHICAGO capitalists copyrighted 1896 1696 by bv frank 0 carpenter CHICAGO may fth 1896 1 HE WORLD IS his field and the united states is his workshop his emp e m p loyes 1 0 y es in number u m b e r thousands J his army of workmen is greater than was that of xenophen and it is an army never in retreat he pays out in wages alone half a million dollars every month his business directly gives support to more than fifty thousand people and it amounts to one hundred million dollars every year four thousand railway cars are now speeding over their iron tracks loaded down with his merchandise he has his establishments in every city of the united states and his agents are at work for him in every part of the globe the cable and telegraph wires which come into his office are daily loaded with private news for him as to the wants and supplies of the nations of the world and by telegraph he sends forth the orders which are to make or lose mil millions Hons from the wheat fields of russia from the grain bearing plains of north india and from the markets market ot australia and europe come the reports of his men an and devery every morning he has as it were a map of the actual condition of the world before him and ana can tell from whence his products will be in demand and where and why prices will rise or fall I 1 refer to philip D armour the napoleon of the chicago capitalists the baron of the butchers and the king of the pork packing and grain shipping products ot the united states I 1 have heard much ot of him during my stay here in chicago and I 1 had an interesting chat with him in his cage like room where he manages his immense business but first let me tell you something of the man he is is you know made born bom in new york state about sixty years ago he started west to make his fortune he was I 1 think still in his teens when the gold lever caught him and he worked his bis way across the plains and over the mountains to ca california li fornia his jou journey aney was full of hardships and hetelle he tells many interesting stories concerning it at one time his shoes had worn out the sage brush and the cacti cut into his feet and wild to obtain some kind of conveyance to carry him onward at last upon nearing hearing a town in the he met a man riding a very fine mule he stopped him and asked him if he would sell the animal the man replied that he did not care to sell but it armour really wanted it he could have it for this however was more than young armour could spare and a trade was finally made by which mr armour got the mule for forino 1 I 60 which was just about all the money he had in telling the story phil armour describes the delights of riding the mule and how light his heart was as he trotted onward he rode gaily into the town and was passing through the main street when he was met by a man who in fierce tones asked him where he had bad gotten that mule mr armour told him the man then said why man that mule belongs to dennis hanks it has been stolen and I 1 advise you to give it up at once and get out of town or you will be in the hands bands of the vigilance committee the man succeeded in thoroughly frightening armour who gave up the mule and sick at heart hurried on his way A day or two later he came to a miners camp in the mountains and there spent the night he was asked now he had come and he told of his adventures including the swindle of the mule As he did so the miners burst out laughing and one of them said why man I 1 bought that d n mule myself it has bas been sold over and over again and fully one hundred men have been taken in by it the man in the town is a confederate of the seller of the mule and they are making their living by taking in the tenderfeet tender feet it did not take long however for phil armour to get his eye teeth cut he finally got to california and there made the little money which formed the foundation of his fortune mr armour is a farsighted far sighted man he looks ahead and is not afraid to trust his bis own judgment he is broad in in his ideas there is nothing of the pessimist i about him he is always a bull in the market and never a bear his great fortune has been made largely through his faith in the united states and its prospects his first big strike was in in fact a bold bet on the successful outcome of the war he had made his little pile in california and had gone into the pork packing business with old john of milwaukee one day he came into the office and said mr I 1 am going to new york at once the war is over grant has practically beaten the rebels and we will have peace in a few weeks 1 I am going on to new york to buy all the pork I 1 can get it mr at first questioned the plan but he finally consented and armour went east he bought right and left the new yorkers were despondent they had lost faith in the union and prices were away down the news from the field however soon changed matters it soon became apparent that the war was really over and the result came as armour bad predicted prices went away up and out of that deal mr armour cleared something like a million dollars there are several other stories of a like nature which I 1 hive have heard con berning mr armour ile he thinks quickly and acts on his own judgment armour is not afraid of a big thing and he is ready to fight to hold his own an instance ot of this occurred not long ago for some time the grain brokers here had bad hoped to be able to down armour they had bad tried it a number of times and failed at last it was discovered that he had bad bought three million bushels of wheat to be delivered in may the market was in such a state that he be had bad to take it the chicago elevators were full and the brokers laughed in their sleeves when they thought of armours having all that wheat dumped down upon him and no place to put it they expected be would have to sell it that they could buy it at their own prices and that he would lose a fortune by it this was the sit situation pation about theist the of april on that day mr armour called in his architect and builder saidee said he 1 I must have within thirty days elevators built large enough to store three million bushels of wheat it cant be done said the it must be done replied mr armour it is a physic physician ial impossibility was the reply we might do it in a year we cant do it in a month 1 I tell you it must be done was armours reply call in some of the other men at this others of the employed emp loyes connected with building matters were admitted they all joined in with the architect and pronounced the putting up of the structure in that time an impossibility mr armour listened to them but his iron jaw at the close came together more firmly than ever and he said 1 I tell you it must be done and it will be donel done he then gave his orders he bought a little island known as gooseneck Is landin the mouth of the chicago river on which to build the elevators he had advertisements posted over chicago that any man who could handle a pick or drive a nail could find work b by y calling at P D armours stock yards he put up an electric lighting system and worked three gangs ot of men eight hours at a stretch putting so many men on the work that they covered it like auts ants he went out every day and took a look at the work himself and the result was he had his elevators built three days before the wheat began to come this work had bad been done quietly and few of the brokers knew of it he took care ot of his three million bushels and made a big thing off on of their sale this was like armour he is napoleonic in his makeup make up he is one ot of the few men who can do more than one thing at a time while he was talking with me messenger boys would bring him telegrams showing the condition of the stocks he would answer them giving his orders to buy or sell at such times it seemed to me that tie he was not listening to my questions and to what I 1 was saying but I 1 soon discovered that he was carrying both our conversations and the markets in his mind at the same time I 1 have been told he has this ability in a marked degree dr frank gunsaulus the head of the armour technical institute says he does not doubt but that mr armour could dictate letters on different subjects to three or four secretaries at the same time holding the thought of each separately and carrying on the three or four threads of thought without confusion another instance of mr armours napoleonic character was seen here in the panic of 1893 he was one of the few men prepared ared for the panic he saw it coming months before it was a possibility in the minds of other great capitalists of the united states he began to prepare lor for it in 1892 he had not been feeling well and be went to europe for his health while loafing about carlsbad he came into contact with scores of the moneyed men of europe and from the way they talked he be learned that a storm was bir brewing ewing all at once he decided to come home the day he landed at new york he tel telegraphed e graphed phed the leading managers ot of his different departments to come there to meet him they came they told him that business had never been better that all of his bis enterprises were paying and that they were making money hand over fist mr armour heard their reports and then threw a thunderbolt into their midst by telling them that ne he wanted them to cut down the business to the closest margin said he there is a storm brewing and we must draw in we must draw in we must have money to prepare for it and I 1 want you to get all the cash you can and put it away in the vaults I 1 want you to go out in the street and stretch the name of P D armour to its utmost tension borrow every dollar you can and then let me know the result some of the men rather thought that the old man as they sometimes call him was crazy but they did as he directed at last they came to him and told old him that they had about in in cash oh said he not halt e enough go out and borrow more dont be afraid get all you can and get it as quick as you can this was done and they finally told him that they had secured in cash in addition to this he also had in hand about in negotiable securities witti with a capital of what was practically on hand band mr armour then sat back in his chair and said to himself well if the crash must come I 1 at any rate am ready for it 1 I it was not long after this that the crash did come money was not to be got for love work or high rates of interest prices dropped to the bottom armour was practically the only man who was perfectly prepared lor for it it he turned his 8 over and over and realized a furtune fortune while the masses of less farsighted business men were on the edge of bankruptcy you would not think that a man who made such big strokes and who is so wealthy would be a hard worker this however is the case there is no man in chicago who watches his business more closely and who puts in more hours than P D armour he has all his life been an early riser he is at his bis office winter and surn summer mer at every morning and he remains there usually until 6 he goes to bed regularly at 9 every night nigh eats simply dresses well but not extravagantly and gets his chief pleasure L judge out oi of his work lie he has great power of organization and as we walked together through his bis big offices he told me that the machine practically ras raa itself he took me through the great gea office room in chichin which chin in cages surround ed by wire screens something like one h hundred men were working away keeping accounts figuring up columns to find the percentage of profits and losa loo and answering the enormous correspondence which is connected with a great business like this at the back of the room we stopped at the post office and mr armour asked the clerk within it how many letters they had received that day the man replied that letters had come in and that already about had bad been mailed the man who writes a letter or so a day can get some idea of armours business by com comparing r his work with the answering of from eight to ten thousand letters a day leaving this part of the room we next went orr off to the left where in a sort of an L is the telegraph office of the establishment there were I 1 judge a dozen operators at work and the inspru merits dents which were clicking away were enough to do the business of a city of twenty thousand people mr armour has his own private operator apart from these men this operator has an instrument ment just outside the little cage which aich is mr armours pr private i vate office it is his business to take the messages direct from the chief and he is at his office as early in the morning as mr armour ready to give him the reports which have been received by telegraph and cable from all parts of the world these are first disposed of and by 8 or 9 mr armour thoroughly knows just what he wants his men to do in all parts of the world by io 10 he has practically settled the business problems of the day and by ii he is at leisure to meet his friends or to go about among his employed emp loyes and chat with them about their work he is thoroughly demo cratic in his ways and he knows personally every man in his office As we wal walked through the room he spoke to many of the men by name and he told me that many of his men had been with him for years mr armour believes in young men and young brains he has said at times that he was a buyer of youth and brains he is a good judge of men and he usually puts ats the right man in the right place r I 1 am told that he never discharges a man if he can help it if the man is not efficient he gives instructions to have him put in some other department but to keep him it possible there are certain things however which he will not tolerate and among these are laziness intemperance and getting into debt As to the last he says he believes in good wages and that he pays the best he tells his men that if they are not able to live on the wages he pays them he does not want them to work for him not long ago he met a policeman in his office what are you doing here sir he asked tl 1 I am here to serve a paper was the reply what kind of a paper asked mr armour 1 I want to garnishee one of your mens wages for debt said the police man 4 indeed replied mr armour and who is the man he thereupon asked the policeman into his private office and ordered that the debtor come in he then asked the clerk how long he had been in debt the man replied that for twenty years he had been behind and that he could not catch up but you get a good salary 0 said mr armour dont you yes said the clerk but I 1 can cant it get out of debt my lile life is such that somehow or other I 1 cant get out but you must get out said mr armour mour or you must leave here how much do you owe the clerk then gave the amount it was less than idoo 1000 mr armour took his check book and wrote outa out a check tor for the amount there said he as he be handed the clerk the check there vis is enough to pay all your debts now I 1 want you to keep out of debt and if I 1 x hear of of your again getting into debt you will have to leave the man took the check he did pay r his debts and remodeled his life lie on a eash cash basis about a year after the above incident happened he came to mr armour and told him that he had had a place offered him at a higher salary and that he was going to leave he thanked mr armour and told him that his last year had been the happiest of his life and that getting out of debt had made a new man of him I 1 could give a number of similar stories concerning mr armour which I 1 have heard through his friends here at chicago the above incidents came from them and not from mr armour himself during my visit to his office I 1 had a chat with him covering a wide range of subjects this I 1 will publish in a future letter v |
