ORGANIZATION OF MANUFACTURERS 279 



must be reorganized, for which $7,500,000 are needed. 

 Their shares, which have sold above $85, are now at $38. 

 The vicissitudes of the leading iron and steel concerns of 

 Tennessee and Colorado are still in evidence. Our friends in 

 Canada have similar experiences. Shares of their large Do- 

 minion Iron and Steel company, which sold at $60 in 1901, are 

 quoted at $25. 



Our experience in America has not been peculiar. In 

 1901 the iron and steel works of Germany were generally 

 in a depressed condition, and their shares suffered heavily. 

 I read a list of these losses at the time which impressed 

 me deeply. If I remember rightly, many declined one 

 half or more. Several important works were reported in 

 financial trouble. Experience in Great Britain is similar. 

 Not a few concerns, after vibrating between seasons of loss 

 and gain, have from time to time had to be reorganized, en- 

 tailing heavy losses upon shareholders. Uncertainty of re- 

 sults pertains not only to iron and steel, but to all forms of 

 business operations, and is inherent in them. 



You know too well how the path of iron and steel is 

 strewn with financial loss in all countries, and that all forms 

 of business must encounter grave risks. Scarcely a week 

 passes without news of embarrassment or failure in the indus- 

 trial world. Thus it has ever been, and ever must be, wh'le 

 human nature remains unchanged. 



Bearing all this in mind, the thought of asking the work- 

 ingman to risk his precious savings in the manufacturing or 

 any form of business was always discarded by us as too dan- 

 gerous for him. He was advised to buy a home instead and 

 save his rent. To facilitate this, money to build a home was 

 lent to any of the employees who had the ground clear of 

 debt. Their savings up to $2,000 each were taken by the 

 company and placed in a special trust fund, entirely separate 

 from the business. Interest at 6 per cent was allowed, to 

 encourage the workman to save part of his earnings for old 

 age. The funds received were lent upon mortgage on real 

 property, generally to such workmen as wished to build homes. 

 It was believed that this was the safest, and therefore the 

 wisest, use of their savings which workmen could make. 



