Show TALK WITH PHILIP D ARMOUS copyrighted 1696 by bv frank G carpenter CHICAGO may irth 1896 MET MR P D armour the riches est t man in chicago and the m most 0 s t powerful capitalist of the west on sunday afternoon I 1 had gone out to the armour mission to attend the services with the rev dr frank W gunsaulus the pastor of the plymouth congregational chuch and was waiting for the opening when a big broad shouldered full formed man of about sixty came in and took a seat at my side this man had bad an enormous head which was very bald at the top his face was long his forehead was high and full and his jaw was a as s strong as that of prince B bismarck is marck he had a clear blue eye a c complexion fair to and his bushy side whiskers were of a bright red he wore black clothes and was well but simply dressed there was nothing in his attire in fact to distinguish him from the rest of the people eople present and it was only from baving having seen his photographs that I 1 was able to recognize in him the noted philip D armour he pu his overcoat on the bark back of the seat sat down and looked with what seemed to me to be decided pleasure upon the crowd which was last fast packing the hall there were at least 1500 people in the house bouse boys and girls young men and women were moving rapidly about getting their seats the ushers were making places for the strangers the most of the people seemed to know one another and a general air of good fellowship prevailed phil armours presence was by no means an unusual thing he comes to the mission services every afternoon and from his retired seat in the back of the hall he seemed to attract no attention whatever twice an usher rapidly passed him and each time I 1 heard him speak out in a low metallic voice the words hello boy get me a singing book but the boy did not hear him and weft went on I 1 noticed that mr armour seemed to know many of the young people present boys and girls came up and shook hands with him and no one appeared to be afraid of him before becore I 1 give my talk with mr armour I 1 would like to say one word about the armour mission and the ar mour institute the mission mission was founded several years ago by his bis brother but has been added to by him and upon it and the institute he has already spent more than 3 oo oooo it takes about xo oooo a year to keep the institute running and it is is giving out what is perhaps the best system of education in the united states about seven hundred boys and girls young men and young women are being educated in it and it is in fact a large college taught by the best of professors and equipped equipped with some of the finest me c chanilal ch anical and other laboratories that you will find in the world the plan of the institution was outlined one sunday in in a sermon by dr gunsaulus and at its close mr armour came to the doctor and said that he believed in his scheme and that he would supply the money for such an institution it he be would take charge of it as its president I 1 mi might lit make a letter on the institute alone but ut I 1 can only say that its system of education is so fine that the rich cannot afford not to send their boys to it while the charges are so low that the poorer classes of children are able to come by it armour is aiding in bringing the people of the avenue and the alley together and in this school the rich and the poor are treated alike he does not believe in socialism and this is his means of aiding in counteracting the theories advocated by governor altgeld and the anarchists the school is thoroughly practical in addition to giving all the advantages of a first class college it has a cooking school a millner nery y and department blo blacky won and woodworking shops and such other branches as will enable a young boy or 01 girl ra to learn almost any trade within it A large number of young men and 1 women are making money out of the training w which hi ac h they have gotten there I 1 reme remember M er one black eyed girl of about eighteen who stopped and shook hands with mr armour as she passed by As left he turned to me and said that girl is the daughter of the cook of one of our chicago hotels she is now getting 15 a week in a millinery mili nery establishment when she came to the institute she left a place where she was working for 3 a week but she learned a new trade there and she is now getting a good salary mr armour then pointed out some boys in the mission who were doing equally well and as he did so I 1 said 1 I should think mr armour that you would receive much pleasure from the work that is going on here it must be a great satisfaction to you to know that you can do some good this must be a good thing to think about when you want to sing at n night ht yes replied mr r armour 1 I think I 1 am getting a good profit out of this institution ution I 1 consider this a good lo 10 per cent investment I 1 know that I 1 get the worth of my money out of it every sunday yes I 1 am sure the investment nets me in satisfaction alone more than to 10 per cent most rich men leave such investments until they are dead said I 1 L yes I 1 know that replied mr armour but they make a mistake such action is bad business As for me I 1 prefer to do the work now it is cheaper you know it saves the commissions and it gives a man a chance to kick it if his plans are not carried out oui as they should be at this moment the services began and our conversation stopped I 1 continued it however the next day at mr armours office I 1 had noticed that the majority of the people at the mission services were children I 1 referred to this fact during my talk and with mr armour replied yes the chief object of the armour mission assion M is to do good for the children I 1 dont care much for the old men and the hardened sinners I 1 dont think you can do much with the one legged one eyed drunkard who lies in the gutter and I 1 tell the preachers they ought to step over him and let him go and save the young child who is playing on the street you can cant it make much out of the old drunkard there is some mar gin in the child the most important time in life is before the age of twelve and the impressions gotten before that time are the most lasting how about religion Mr armour you dont seem to believe much in the churches yes I 1 do was the reply 1 I believe i in them but there are many peo pie whom you can reach best outside of the churches I 1 dont think much of the cast iron kinds of religion amean I 1 mean the hellfire hell fire and the brimstone kind when the mission was first started I 1 put pui it in charge ot of a preacher of this kind he was a scotchman when I 1 engaged him 1 I was about to leave here to take a tour of some months the first thing I 1 asked him was as to whether he could s sing in he straightened himself up in fiat gid his chest and said just wt try me had bd apparently hit bit upon ho hi stronghold hold and I 1 saw that he thought he was good at singing if he was good for anything I 1 wanted a good singer as well as a good preacher and I 1 engaged him I 1 left the mission in his charge when I 1 returned I 1 went out to attend ithe he services I 1 entered the hall when the preacher was bras in the midst of his sermon he was charging up and down the platform and aad you could see the lurid flames of hell and smell the brimstone in his every sentence it was a fine piece of word painting but it did not create the impression sion I 1 thought we needed when egression gres he e had closed I 1 asked him to call upon me at the office the next day as I 1 wanted to have a talk with him he came and I 1 said now mr blank I 1 heard your sermon yesterday it was a very good sermon lor for some places but it is not just what I 1 want for the mission I 1 want yuu you to drop the hellfire hell fire business I 1 want you to get some little children onto that platform I 1 want them to sing hymns and speak pieces the exercises can be religious ones but I 1 want the children to make up tha greater part pan of the service As I 1 said this the preacher looked at me in a rather angry way after a moment he be said now mr armour there is no doubt in my mind that you know all about pork but I 1 dont think you know very much about religion religion 1 I laughed but ut I 1 answered well welk mr blank I 1 think I 1 know what I 1 want and I 1 want to know whether you will do what I 1 want done th the ie preacher freacher thought a moment and then rep replied ed that he would the next sunday afternoon I 1 went again to the mission mission I 1 found that he had accepted my suggestion and that he had at least one hundred children on the platform he increased the number every sunday and in a short time he had the thing running in good shape he stayed with us for some time lime just before he left he called in to say good bye and at this time he be said 1 I 1 want to thank you mr armour for what you have done for roe me in connection with the mission you have given me a new knowledge of human nature I 1 can see that my theory IF was wrong and that there are arc other ways of at doing good than my own on you have no church organization at the mission said 1 I N no was the reply the chief trouble I 1 have had is to keep out the churches dr milne who is at the head of the mission would like to have a church organization but I 1 don dont donit it want it t our people can join other churches if they wish to but I 1 think such an organization would hurt our usefulness besides we dont make any great pretensions we dont offer to give everything in the way of salvation all that we aim aim to do is to give sixteen ounces to the pound and one hundred cents on the dollar when we baptize we led feel that we can use a finger bowl or a dish pan just as well as a cut glass jar or an immersion vat it is the tact and not the he means that we want now mr armour said it I 1 1 I am going to ask you a personal question it is s one often asked in connection with missions I 1 want to know whether you bod are a christian mr armour thought a moment and then replied 1 I am not a christian in the sense of being a member of the church but I 1 believe in christianity I 1 IQ 4 christ T cr red to church and my boys bays have been aught up to go to church I 1 know it t they went when they were young am m afraid they dont go as much as ey should now the churches are all litand and I 1 think the closer a man keeps them the better belter it makes little arence to me however as to the inor or parts of the different doctrines lich ich the churches profess and I 1 think it there is about an equal chance for i catholics and protestants that they s each on the righting right road to heaven J you were aspea speaking of your boys K armour how about them are ey y good business men 1 I think so said eaid mr armour as a mile re of conscious pride came across his ce my boys are you know my ners they do most of the business low w and all I 1 have to do is to sit here seq ack kick now and then the conversation here turned from igdon to business and I 1 asked mr p mour our how he was able to handle an tit ution doing a year rith th such apparent ease he replied S it is is almost altogether a matter of iza tion I 1 make it a point to get bod men about me I 1 take men when ey yare are young and keep them just as teg as I 1 can nearly all of the men jiju see here have grown up with me bany y of them have worked with me for venty nty years they have started in at wages and have been steadily ad d until they have reached the est aest position which their capacity ws s PV how about the chances for young en mr armour said I 1 are they good od today as they were when you ou lere young ryes Y es I 1 think so was the reply iche e world is changing every day and RW fields are constantly opening we ave e new ideas new inventions new rhods of manufacture and new ways way 0 do ao everything there is plenty of isiom in for any man who can do anything fell 11 the electrical field is a wonderful me there are other things equally pod od and the right man is never at a BBS abr hn an opportunity are there any rules by the following if which a man may become rich said i 11 1 1 mr armour t yes replied pro ded d the man has some ability to start ath if a man is thrifty honest and bionomical bono mical there is no reason why she krould id not attain so called success in he VP ito what do you vou attribute your won gerful ul success said I 1 fe I 1 think that thrift and economy have A d much to do with it said mr mour our 1 I owe much to tomy my iny mothers lining nj and to a good tine line of scotch testers estors who have always been thrifty d economical As to my business uca cation tion I 1 never had any I 1 am in act t a good deal like topsy 11 1 jest wid but mr armour arm our is not this matter j moneymaking money making to a large extent an copel erite talan are not rich men after r all born rather than made madea 9 yes I 1 think the they y are replied mr bdour our the power of making and money and of handling farge affairs are as much natural gifts as fe t those ose of a singer or an artist thrill lad business habits aid in the utilization kd d development of the powers the cerms s of the power must be in the man feke ka ay iy acce the people wo we hye bilys working for us I 1 can get millions of good boek keepers or accountants but no more than five men in a hundred of all those I 1 have employed have been great successes as organizers and traders 11 how about wages will they not from now on be on the decline I 1 asked 1 I dont think that wages have fallen to any extent replied mr armour wages are to a large extent dependent upon certain conditions they are subject to the times they cannot be increased when times are hard and they cannot rise above the level of their possibilities in order for them to hold their own and to go up upward ard we must have a protective tariff this is I 1 believe the true financial policy of the united states As to the increased taxation through the advance that the laboring man pays for what he uses is a bagatelle as compared with the extra money he receives in good times it does not amount to toone one per cent I 1 believe we can learn a good deal from the condition and actions of the people of europe take france she is the thriftiest thrift iest and richest of all the european nations does she have free trade no and why not because she wants the frenchman to get good wages and not the english and the germans we dont care to help the european workman business and charity charily both begin at home I 1 believe in legislation for america and not for europe I 1 believe in high wages and high wages for americans how about monopolies in business mr armour are not the monopolies which you and others have injurious to the people 1 I 1 think not was the reply 1 I think that the great department stores and establishments such as those of armour co are for the good of the people it is a question of the greatest good to the greatest number why should the people pay high prices for the privilege of keeping any small class of men at work we can give better and cheaper meat to the people than they can get anywhere elte ehe the small butchers cannot understand how we do it they appeal to congress and they say that there is a beef combine and a pork combine you ask them how they know it and they will reply know it why of course we know it phil armour is in it why he drove me out of business and how you ask did he d drive ir ive you out of business and the m man an invariable replies why he sold m meat eat cheaper than I 1 could this is the same story you hear everywhere now I 1 want to know if this is not for the good of the people and it if so why should it not exis but do you sell meat cheaper and how do you vou do it I 1 asked I 1 will tell you replied mr armour when the ordinary butcher kills his animals a great part of the cow or hog goes to waste in the |