Note 2 — Chapter VI

An American Murdoch was found in Captain Jones, the best manager of works of his day. He entered the service of the Carnegie Steel Company as a young mechanic at two dollars per day, a perfect copy of Murdoch in many important respects. Reading Murdoch's history, we have found ourselves substituting the "captain," a title well earned on the field in the war for the Union, which he entered as a private. Once he was offered an interest in the firm, which would have made him one of the band of young millionaires. His reply was, "Thank you, don't want to have anything to do with business. These works (Steel rail mills, Pittsburg) give me enough to think of. You just give me a 'thundering salary.'" "All right, Captain, the salary of the president of the United States is yours." Also like Murdoch, he was an inventor. His principal invention, recently sustained by the Supreme Court, would easily yield from those who appropriated it and refused payment, at least five millions of dollars in royalties. Captain Jones was born in Pennsylvania of Welsh parents. Murdoch won promotion at last, and was first superintendent of one of the special departments, and later had general supervision of the mechanical department, becoming "the right hand man" of the firm. The young partners dealt generously with him, and treated him with reverence and affection to the end. He died in his eighty-fifth year. Captain Jones was injured at the works and passed away just as a touch of age came upon him, as many war veterans did. Fortunate is the firm that discovers a William Murdoch or a William Jones, and gives him swing to do the work of an original in his own way.