e tried to convince him that we were not to be
deterred from going into the trade, and that we were willing to pay
him a satisfactory commission for looking after the building of the
ships. Somebody, we explained, was going to do the work for us, and he
might as well have the profit as the next man. This argument finally
seemed to impress him and we then and there closed an agreement, the
details of which were worked out afterward to our mutual
satisfaction. This gentleman was Mr. Samuel Mather of Cleveland. He
spent only a few minutes in the house, during which time we gave him
the order for about $3,000,000 worth of ships and this was the only
time I saw him. But Mr. Mather is a man of high business honour, we
trusted him implicitly although he was a competitor, and we never had
occasion to regret it.

At that time there were some nine or ten shipbuilding companies
located at various points on the Great Lakes. All were independent of
each other and there was sharp competition between them. Times were
pretty hard with them; their business had not yet recovered from the
panic of 1893, they were not able to keep their works in full
operation; it was in the fall of the year and many of their employees
were facing a hard winter. We took this into account in considering
how many ships we should build, and we made up our minds that we would
build all the ships that could be built and give employment to the
idle men on the Great Lakes. Accordingly we instructed Mr. Mather to
write to each firm of shipbuilders and ascertain how many ships they
could build and put in readiness for operation at the opening of
navigation the next spring. He found that some companies could build
one, some could build two, and that the total number would be twelve.
Accordingly we asked him to have constructed twelve ships, all of
steel, all of the largest capacity then understood to be practicable
on the Great Lakes. Some of them were to be steamships and some
consorts, for towing, but all were to be built on substantially the
same general pattern, which was to represent the best ideals then
prevalent for ore-carrying ships.

In giving such an order he was exposed, of course, to the risk of
paying very high prices. This would have been certain if Mr. Mather
had announced in advance that he was prepared to build twelve ships
and asked bids on them. Just how he managed it I was not told until
long after, and though it is now an old story of the lak