COLONEL HARRIS'S BIG BLUE ENVELOPE
The honeymoon of George and Gertrude included not only the two delightful
weeks in Switzerland, but also the ten or twelve days on a slow steamer
returning to New York. The weather at sea was all that could be desired.
The longer a smooth sea-voyage, the better lovers are pleased. Return
ocean passages usually furnish the much needed rest after a so-called
vacation abroad. Overworked Americans need, not so much an entire
cessation of activities, as a change of occupation, which usually, brings
the desired results.
George and Gertrude made but few acquaintances on the steamer. The
thought that each possessed the other was enjoyment that satisfied, and
both were happy. Each lived as in dreamland, and scarcely observed even
the daily runs made by the steamer. The death by accident of a sailor,
and his strange burial at sea, served only for a brief time to arrest a
happiness made complete by each other's voice and presence. The two weeks
on the ocean came and went as softly as flowers unfold and disappear.
Thus far, married life had been ideal.
It was after eleven o'clock, and anxious passengers were pacing the
decks, hoping to sight native land before retiring. Suddenly the officer
on the bridge discerned the dim Fire Island Light, bearing north by west,
twenty miles distant. Ten minutes later, five points on the port bow, a
pilot boat was sighted. Her mast-head light was visible, also the torch,
which soaked in turpentine, burnt brightly at intervals.
The steamer signals, "We want a pilot," by burning a blue light on the
bridge, and bears down on the pilot schooner. The moon reveals enormous
figures, with a heavy dot beneath, on the mainsail of the schooner. Over
the rail goes the yawl, followed by the oarsman and pilot, whose turn
it is to go ashore. The pilot carries a lantern, which in the egg-shaped
yawl dances on the white wave crests up and down like a fire-fly. The
yawl is soon under the steamer's lee, and a line from the big ship pulls
the little boat to the ladder, and the pilot nimbly climbs to the
steamer's bridge, bringing the latest papers. The schooner drifts under
the steamer's stern, takes in the yawl, and again sails to the eastward
in search of another liner.
The entrance to the port of New York is patrolled night and day by a
pilot-fleet of thirty boats, which cost from $10,000 to $20,000 each.
They are staunch and seaworthy, the fastest schooners afloat. Often,
knocked down by heavy seas, for a moment they tremble, like a frightened
bird, then shaking the water off their decks, they rise, heave to,
perhaps under double reefed foresail, and with everything made snug,
outride the storm, and are at their work again. Pilots earn good pay, and
this they deserve, as they often risk their lives in behalf of others.
Sandy Hook Light was now in sight, and long before the sun began his
journey across the heavens, the steamer lay at anchor at quarantine,
waiting for a certificate from the health officer. As the steamer proudly
sped through "The Narrows," a jubilant crowd of passengers on the
promenade deck sang,
"My country 'tis of thee
Sweet Land of Liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died;
Land of the pilgrim's pride;
From ev'ry mountain side
Let freedom ring."
The hymn was sung to the tune of "God Save the Queen," and several
enthusiastic Englishmen joined with their kith and kin.
On Bedloe's Island Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty waved her torch, outward
bound steamers exchanged salutes, the Brooklyn Bridge and all the ferries
were thronged with people hurrying to the labor marts of the metropolis,
as the steamer with George and Gertrude aboard moved up the harbor and
was safely docked on the North River.
In the lead down the gangway Gertrude hastened George to secure a
carriage for their hotel, so anxious was she to reach rooms on American
soil, where she might honorably break the seal of her father's mysterious
big blue envelope. It had rarely been out of her mind since the day of
her wedding in Paris.
After breakfast, served in true American style, the Ingrams glanced at
the big morning papers crowded with American news, and wondered why
European papers printed so little about the States. Then they retired to
their rooms to break the seal of the blue envelope.
George was all attention as his young wife with the flush of health and
excitement in her cheeks tore apart the envelope, and stepping to the
window for better light, she began to read Reuben Harris's letter.
Paris--
_Dear George and Gertrude_,--
The accumulation of my fortune, now largely invested in prime
securities, has been a surprise and often a burden to me, and with it
came, as I now clearly see, great responsibilities.
Money is power, and most people zealously seek it. Many fail to get it,
and often those who do succeed, fail to keep it. Wealth unsought comes
only to a few, while others, with perhaps hereditary financial
instincts, pursue with certainty of success the golden fleece.
My early experiences with poverty, and now with wealth, and my late
extensive observations have impressed upon me, as never before, the
common brotherhood of mankind. The great problem of our age is the
proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may
still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relations. What
shall be the laws of accumulation and distribution? To decide this
wisely the discretion of our present and future legislators will be
heavily burdened.
The condition of many races is better to-day on the foundations on
which society is built, than on the old ones tried and abandoned. What
were yesterday's luxuries are to-day's necessities. The poor enjoy
to-day what yesterday even the rich could not afford. Mankind always
has exhibited great irregularities. In every race some are born with an
energy and ability to produce wealth, others not. Invention and
discovery have replaced scarcity and dearness with abundance and
cheapness. The law of competition seems to cheapen comforts and
luxuries.
Both labor and capital are organizing, concentrating, competing. The
idealist may dream of what is attainable in the future, but our duty is
plainly with what is practicable now. My prayer is for wisdom and
ability to administer wisely our wealth, during my life-time. I am
therefore resolved to act as follows:--
1st. To retain for my family only what will provide modestly for them
all. I do not wish to leave much property for my relatives to use
prodigally, or to quarrel over.
2nd. I plan not to wait till I die and then leave behind for public
purposes money which I cannot take with me. I shall consider myself as
an agent, or trustee, in charge of certain surplus funds to be expended
in behalf of my poorer brethren.
On our return to America, Mrs. Harris and I will make our wills in
accordance with the above. It is our desire that, when you reach home,
you both enter at once upon the development of your plans, of a
cooperative manufacturing corporation, in accordance with the views
which you have so frequently mentioned. In the execution of these
plans, you may use, if necessary, five millions. With best wishes for
your happiness.
Your father,
Reuben Harris.
The writing of this letter gave Colonel Harris more pleasure than any act
of his life; in fact it was for him the beginning of a new life; a life
for others.
The reading of the letter also gave George and Gertrude much happiness,
for it furnished them abundant means for the execution of their
beneficent plans, which had been thoroughly considered by the Harris
family. This important letter was returned to the blue envelope and given
to Gertrude for safe keeping, and it was agreed to leave for Harrisville
next day at 1 o'clock on the Chicago Special.
Among the personals in the Harrisville Sunday paper appeared the
following:
Arrived from Europe Saturday morning, Mr. and Mrs. George Ingram. It is
needless to say that their many friends will give them cordial welcome.
Colonel and Mrs. Reuben Harris, their son and daughter, Alfonso and
Lucille, will remain in Europe for several weeks.
This notice, though brief, was of much interest to rich and poor in
Harrisville. Society, of course, was interested in the marriage of
Gertrude, business men in the return of so skilled a manufacturer as
George Ingram, and many workmen, still unemployed, hoped that their old
superintendent whom they loved would find or make positions for them.
The continued absence of Colonel Harris the financier aided George Ingram
in certain important negotiations which he proceeded quietly to make,
viz., the purchase in the suburbs of Harrisville, in fifty parcels, of
4,000 acres of contiguous land, that had both a river and a lake front.
While these purchases were being made, agents were dispatched into
several Ohio counties, and more than 20,000 acres of well tested coal
lands were secured. When it was learned that all these lands were bought
in the name of George Ingram, and paid for in cash, the wisacres of the
city began to say, "I told you so; these monopolists having visited
England have adopted foreign ideas, and now they have returned to buy and
hold our valuable lands." George Ingram was reticent, as most successful
business men are, for he gave attention to business. "Talkers are no
great doers," wrote Shakespeare.
The offices of the old Harrisville Iron & Steel Co. had been rented to
other parties, so a suite of rooms near by was occupied by George Ingram
and his five assistants. It had leaked out, however, that Ingram had
given orders for twenty millions of brick and a large quantity of
structural iron and copper tubes, all to be delivered within four months.
The order for copper tubes puzzled even the wisest in Harrisville. Later,
when a thousand laborers were set at work on the river front of
his purchase, building extensive foundations, it dawned upon the
expectant that a gigantic plant for some purpose was to be erected near
Harrisville. Newspaper reporters found it difficult to reach George
Ingram, even with a card, which would be returned with the reply "Busy
to-day. Please excuse me."
In the meantime Harrisville agreed to create a more available harbor, and
to establish dock lines, not less than 500 feet apart, and in three years
to dredge the river to a depth of 25 feet for five miles back from the
lake.
George Ingram in his own mind had settled three vital points; that
Harrisville was one of the most favorable producing and distributing
centers in America; that he would so design and build a manufacturing
plant as to minimize the cost of production; that he would attempt to
harmonize capital and labor. Important provisions of the Company's
charter were:
ARTICLE III
The capital stock of this Corporation shall be Five Million Dollars
($5,000,000) to be divided into Five Hundred Thousand Shares at Ten
Dollars each, fully paid, and non-assessable.
ARTICLE VI
The private property of stockholders shall be exempt from any and all
debts of this Corporation.
Two thousand of the four thousand acres purchased were set apart for
manufacturing purposes. Most of the land sloped gradually, and the
surface-water naturally drained into the river. George Ingram's plans for
an enormous steel-plant had been most carefully worked out in detail.
Night and day the construction went forward. In eight months the plant
was in full operation. He had obtained the latest important labor-saving
devices and improved facilities in use throughout America and Europe. The
whole was supplemented by the inventions already perfected by his father
and himself.
The Harris-Ingram Steel Co. was provided with every modern device that
could in any manner contribute economy and rapidity from the time the
ores left the ship, till the finished product was loaded for market. All
ores and limestone were delivered on a tableland of the same height, and
adjacent to a series of several enormous blast-furnaces. The melted iron
from the blast-furnaces was tapped into ladles mounted on iron cars, and
provided with mechanism for tipping the ladles. The molten iron of the
cars was next transferred to improved converters in an adjoining
building, constructed entirely of iron. Nearby were the spiegel cupolas.
The greatest possible accuracy was thus attainable in delivering definite
quantities of molten iron into the converter for a given blow, also of
spiegeleisen. This was easily accomplished by standing the ladle cars
upon scales.
The metal was cast into ingot moulds, standing upon cars, and then
transferred to the mould stripper; afterwards the ingots were weighed
and sent to the soaking-pit furnaces. After a "wash heat" the ingots,
or blooms, entered the rolls, and were drawn and sized in shape to fill
orders from every part of the world.
The marvel at the Harris-Ingram Steel Co.'s mills was that electricity,
developed in vast quantities at the coal mines and conveyed on patented
copper tubes, furnished all the power, heat, and light used in the entire
plant. Electricity hoisted and melted all the ores; it worked Sturtevant
fans and blowing engines, which supplied necessary air for cupolas and
converters. Electricity furnished all the power requisite to handle
innumerable cranes and cars. As easily as a magnet picks up tacks,
electricity also handled ingots or finished steel. Five thousand tons of
finished steel per day were made and the labor and fuel account had been
reduced over one-half.
While the huge steel plant at Harrisville was being constructed, a large
force of men were building a conduit to protect copper tubes, from the
steel plant to the coal fields. At the mines hundreds of miners were set
at work, several shafts were sunk, and tunnels, levels, and winzes were
developed.
George Ingram believed that all the force in the world available for
man's use was derived from the sun; so he heroically resolved to hitch
his wagon, if not to a star, to the mighty sun. With this purpose in
view, he had bought the 20,000 acres of coal land. Half of this area was
located in Jefferson, Harrison, and Belmont counties on the Ohio River,
and thus title was secured to vast quantities of fossil power in the
upper coal measures, which ignites quickly and burns with a hot fire. The
other 10,000 acres were valuable because nearer to Harrisville. This coal
came from lower measures or seams.
George Ingram had made a thorough study of coal, or fossil fuel, its
formation and value. The coal of the carboniferous age is derived almost
entirely from the family of plants called _Lycopods_, or club mosses, and
the ferns, which back in high antiquity attained gigantic size. The
microscope has clearly developed this vegetable origin of coal. The great
Appalachian and other coal fields are without doubt, the long continued
and vigorous forest growths, and subsequent fossilization of the same in
the marginal swamps of ancient gulfs or seas.
The agency of transfer for solar energy is the vegetable kingdom. The
vegetable cell has the surprising property through the sun's agency of
being able to live and multiply itself on air alone. The carbon of
carbonic acid, a constituent of the atmosphere, is so liberated and
appropriated, as to become fixed in the forming tissues of plants. Thus
the plant is a storer of light and heat, a reservoir of force. It
mediates between the sun's energy and the animal life of the world. Thus
coal seams are the accumulations of the sun's energy for thousands of
centuries, requiring the patient growth and slow decay of hundreds of
immense forests. One secret of the unprecedented late growth of cities is
discovered in the steam engine, or the coal which feeds it.
A pound of good coal, used in a good engine, stands for the work of six
horses for an hour; a ton of coal for the work of thirteen hundred horses
for a day of ten hours; ten thousand tons of coal, used in a day by
single lines of railways, stand for the work of thirteen million horses,
working ten hours a day. In 1894 the English mines produced 188,277,525
tons of coal. In Great Britain alone, coal does the work of more than a
hundred millions of men, and adds proportionately to the fabulously
increasing wealth of those fortunate islands.
The Ingrams had solved two important problems, and on their practicable
application depended the success of the great Harris-Ingram experiment.
The more important of the two was the unlocking of the sun's stored
energy, electricity, at the coal mines. The second was a device for
conveying this energy from the mines to the steel plant, and it had been
patented to protect it.
Since electricity possibly travels on the surface of wires or metals, the
Ingrams patented a valuable device of small corrugated copper tubes,
strengthened in the center by steel wires, and thus the carrying capacity
of electricity was greatly increased, and the amount of costly copper
much decreased. These corrugated tubes enclosed in cheap glass, and
surrounded with oil, were laid in properly prepared conduits of vitrified
fire-clay sewer pipes. Without the intervention of the steam engine, by
a surprisingly simple process, electrical force was liberated chemically
at the mines and transferred for multiple uses at the steel plant.
Expensive coal-freights were thus saved. All the slack coal was utilized,
and instead of the waste of nine-tenths of the stored energy of the coal,
only one tenth was now lost. To husband properly the fruits of so great a
discovery, it was decided not to patent this latter invention, which if
disclosed would give too great publicity to the details.
The electrical works at the mines were constructed of safe-steel walls
and roof, and so built that the operations of generating electricity
directly from coal were conducted in secret in several separate
apartments, so that no single operator without the knowledge of all the
initiated employees would be able to successfully work the inventions.
The dozen initiated employees had made life long contracts with the
company in consideration of liberal and satisfactory rewards. The
Harris-Ingram Steel Co. thus equipped began operations.