关于Henry Clay Frick的演讲

Opening words

Hi, everyone,
First, let me ask you a question: What will you need or what will you do to make yourself a millionaire in the following ten years?
Well, the answer can be an excellent technical ability or have a rich family background.
But how could a poverty boy become a millionaire and increase his wealth at an alarming rate? Next, I will show his story: Henry Clay Frick, the industrialist.

Main idea

There are four aspects I want to show in my presentation: First, the Background of Clay to start his business empire, Second, how did he run his companies, Third, the results of his management and last: evaluations of him by society.

Background

Clay was born in 1849, a farmer family of West Overton. His grandfather Abraham Overholt was a distiller of whiskey, he was the wealthiest citizen in his County. He shared none of his wealth with his daughter and her family. He did, however, serve as a role model for Clay.

He enrolled Westmoreland College in 1864 and then transferred to Otterbein College, but only ten weeks later, he left college at the age of seventeen.

After he quitted from college, he worked as a clerk in his uncle’s store and then as a salesman in a Pittsburgh department store. Later, was employed as a chief bookkeeper in his grandfather’s distillery.

Clay wanted to find his road to wealth and determined that before he reached the age of thirty, he would acquire a larger fortune than his grandfather’s.
So he gave up the chance that he could take over the management of his grandfather’s distillery and entered into a partnership to buy coal land and then joined the enterprise bought up 123 more acres of coal land, formed Henry C. Frick Coke Company.

Management

We have to say Clay was confident, far-sighted, and dauntless. He had the vision and awareness that there would be a huge market of coke. So, he persuaded his partners to expand their operations. He even borrowed much money to buy coal land. By doing that, he owned 16 mines in Morgan Valley.

Except for his foresight, another factor that helped him to success was cooperating with powerful and helpful partners. Two of the most famous people were Thomas Mellon and Andrew Carnegie. One was the person who could lend him millions of money, so he could continue to expand his coal land, and one was the person who could provide the sales for his coke and an important co-worker. Not unexpectedly, they got colossal profits from their win-win cooperation.

Contrary to his friendly and cooperative to partners, he treated workers badly. He was unconcerned with the work-safety conditions and lives of people employed by him. He extended the working hours from an eight hour to a 12-hour a day, six-day work week, with a 24-hour shift. And even cut workers' wages, by arguing that increased efficiency had inflated salaries. Because the conflict with a labor union, Frick locked the workers out and announced that he had suspended union negotiations and would only meet with individual workers.

Result

As we thought, that could produce both good and bad results under these kinds of management.
If we look at it from the perspective of the development and profitability of the companies, it produced a good result. Clay’s coke company became the largest coke company, that means, he owned the largest and the most modern mine where has the biggest and the best standards (Shaft No.2) in it. At the same time, under his manage, the annual profits of Carnegie Steel Company reached 142 million.
But seen from another perspective his management resulted in several times of strikes; the well-known one was Homestead Strike.

Evaluation

By doing these, he was a demanding employer and a grim union breaker.
Despite all this, we cannot deny that he was a par excellence manager and his genius spurred the American Industrial Revolution. Besides, he was a devoted husband and father and a great art collector.

Summary

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that Henry Clay Frick was a pivotal person in establishing Pittsburgh’s place as an industrial giant and in making the United States an economic powerhouse.

reference

http://readmebeforeidie.blogspot.com/2015/07/coal-coke-frick-h-c-frick-coke-company.html
http://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1000597
http://popularpittsburgh.com/henry-clay-frick-mark-pittsburgh/
https://www.westovertonvillage.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Early-Coal-Mines-of-Henry-Clay-Frick.pdf
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_of_American_Biography/Frick,_Henry_Clay
https://www.westovertonvillage.org/history/mines/
https://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_543031.html
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&psid=3194