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diff --git a/41953.txt b/41953.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 4cf09f1..0000000 --- a/41953.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6552 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Cyrus Hall McCormick, by Herbert Newton Casson - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - - - - -Title: Cyrus Hall McCormick - His Life and Work - - -Author: Herbert Newton Casson - - - -Release Date: January 31, 2013 [eBook #41953] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYRUS HALL MCCORMICK*** - - -E-text prepared by Tom Roch, Charlie Howard, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA), Albert R. -Mann Library, Cornell University (http://chla.library.cornell.edu/) and -Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://archive.org/details/americana) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 41953-h.htm or 41953-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41953/41953-h/41953-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41953/41953-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA), - Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University, see - http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=3139668 - and - Internet Archive/American Libraries, see - http://archive.org/details/cyrushallmccormi00cass - - - - - -CYRUS HALL McCORMICK - -His Life and Work - - -[Illustration: C. H. McCormick (signature)] - - -CYRUS HALL McCORMICK - -His Life and Work - -by - -HERBERT N. CASSON - -Author of -"The Romance of Steel," "The Romance of the Reaper," etc. - -Illustrated - - - - - - - -[Illustration] - -Chicago -A. C. McClurg & Co. -1909 - -Copyright -A. C. McClurg & Co. -1909 - -Published October, 1909 - -Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England - -The Lakeside Press -R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company -Chicago - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -Whoever wishes to understand the making of the United States must read -the life of Cyrus Hall McCormick. No other one man so truly represented -the dawn of the industrial era,--the grapple of the pioneer with the -crudities of a new country, the replacing of muscle with machinery, and -the establishment of better ways and better times in farm and city -alike. Beginning exactly one hundred years ago, the life of McCormick -spanned the heroic period of our industrial advancement, when great -things were done by great individuals. To know McCormick is to know what -type of man it was who created the United States of the nineteenth -century. And now that a new century has arrived, with a new type of -business development, it may be especially instructive to review a life -that was so structural and so fundamental. - -As Professor Simon Newcomb has observed, "It is impressive to think how -few men we should have had to remove from the earth during the past -three centuries to have stopped the advance of our civilization." From -this point of view, there are few, if any, who will appear to be more -indispensable than McCormick. He was not brilliant. He was not -picturesque. He was no caterer for fame or favor. But he was as -necessary as bread. He fed his country as truly as Washington created it -and Lincoln preserved it. He abolished our agricultural peasantry so -effectively that we have had to import our muscle from foreign countries -ever since. And he added an immense province to the new empire of mind -over matter, the expansion of which has been and is now the highest and -most important of all human endeavors. - -As the master builder of the modern business of manufacturing farm -machinery, McCormick set in motion so many forces of human betterment -that the fruitfulness of his life can never be fully told. There are -to-day in all countries more than one hundred thousand patents for -inventions that were meant to lighten the labor of the farmer. And the -cereal crop of the world has risen with incredible gains, until this -year its value will be not far from ten thousand millions of -dollars,--very nearly the equivalent of all the gold in coin and jewelry -and bullion. - -So, if there is not power and fascination in this story, it will be the -fault of the story-teller, and not of his theme. The story itself is -destined to be told and retold. It cannot be forgotten, because it is -one of those rare life-histories that blazon out the peculiar genius of -the nation under the stress of a new experience. As it is passed on from -generation to generation, it may finally be polished into an Epic of the -Wheat,--the tale of Man's long wrestle with Famine, and how he won at -last by creating a world-wide system for the production and distribution -of the Bread. - - H. N. C. - -CHICAGO, _September 1, 1909_. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I. THE WORLD'S NEED OF A REAPER 1 - - II. THE McCORMICK HOME 13 - - III. THE INVENTION OF THE REAPER 26 - - IV. SIXTEEN YEARS OF PIONEERING 48 - - V. THE BUILDING OF THE REAPER BUSINESS 68 - - VI. THE STRUGGLE TO PROTECT PATENTS 91 - - VII. THE EVOLUTION OF THE REAPER 105 - - VIII. THE CONQUEST OF EUROPE 123 - - IX. McCORMICK AS A MANUFACTURER 139 - - X. CYRUS H. McCORMICK AS A MAN 154 - - XI. THE REAPER AND THE NATION 188 - - XII. THE REAPER AND THE WORLD 203 - - XIII. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD 234 - - INDEX 249 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - PAGE - PORTRAIT OF CYRUS HALL McCORMICK _Frontispiece_ - - OLD BLACKSMITH SHOP ON WALNUT GROVE FARM, VIRGINIA 14 - - THE OLD McCORMICK HOMESTEAD, WALNUT GROVE FARM, ROCKBRIDGE - COUNTY, VIRGINIA 18 - - PORTRAIT OF ROBERT McCORMICK 22 - - PORTRAIT OF MRS. MARY ANN HALL McCORMICK 24 - - NEW PROVIDENCE CHURCH, ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA 28 - - FACSIMILES FROM MANUSCRIPT BY MR. McCORMICK, GIVING HIS OWN - ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE REAPER 30 - - FIRST PRACTICAL REAPING MACHINE 34 - - THE FIELD ON WHICH THE FIRST McCORMICK REAPER WAS TRIED, - WALNUT GROVE FARM, VIRGINIA 38 - - INTERIOR OF BLACKSMITH SHOP IN WHICH C. H. McCORMICK BUILT - HIS FIRST REAPER 42 - - REAPING WITH CRUDE KNIVES IN INDIA 50 - - REAPING WITH SICKLES IN ALGERIA 56 - - REAPING WITH CRADLES IN ILLINOIS 60 - - AN EARLY ADVERTISEMENT FOR McCORMICK'S PATENT VIRGINIA REAPER 64 - - THE McCORMICK REAPER OF 1847, ON WHICH SEATS WERE PLACED FOR - THE DRIVER AND THE RAKER 70 - - PORTRAIT OF CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, 1839 76 - - PANORAMIC VIEW SHOWING THE McCORMICK REAPER WORKS BEFORE THE - CHICAGO FIRE OF 1871, ON CHICAGO RIVER, EAST OF RUSH - STREET BRIDGE 82 - - MEN OF PROGRESS 96 - - THE FIRST McCORMICK SELF-RAKE REAPING MACHINE 112 - - PORTRAIT OF CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, 1858 120 - - PORTRAIT OF CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, 1867 136 - - McCORMICK REAPER CUTTING ON A SIDE HILL IN PENNSYLVANIA 144 - - REAPER DRAWN BY OXEN IN ALGERIA 150 - - THE REAPER IN HEAVY GRAIN 166 - - HARVESTING NEAR SPOKANE, WASHINGTON 174 - - PORTRAIT OF CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, 1883 182 - - THE WORKS OF THE McCORMICK HARVESTING MACHINE COMPANY 190 - - McCORMICK REAPER IN USE IN RUSSIA 196 - - CHART SHOWING RELATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF VALUES BY PRODUCING - COUNTRIES OF 1908 OF WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF FIVE - PRINCIPAL GRAINS 206 - - CHART SHOWING RELATIVE VALUES IN 1908 OF THE WORLD'S - PRODUCTION OF THE FIVE PRINCIPAL GRAINS 206 - - MAMMOTH WHEAT-FIELD IN SOUTH DAKOTA WITH TWENTY HARVESTERS - IN LINE 214 - - HARVESTING IN ROUMANIA 222 - - HARVESTING HEAVY GRAIN, SOUTH AMERICA 230 - - INDIANS REAPING THEIR HARVEST, WHITE EARTH, MINNESOTA 236 - - A HARVEST SCENE UPON A RUSSIAN ESTATE 242 - - - - -CYRUS HALL McCORMICK HIS LIFE AND WORK - - - - -CHAPTER I - -THE WORLD'S NEED OF A REAPER - - -Either by a very strange coincidence, or as a phenomenon of the instinct -of self-preservation, the year 1809, which was marked by famine and -tragedy in almost every quarter of the globe, was also a most prolific -birthyear for men of genius. Into this year came Poe, Blackie, and -Tennyson, the poet laureates of America, Scotland, and England; Chopin -and Mendelssohn, the apostles of sweeter music; Lincoln, who kept the -United States united; Baron Haussemann, the beautifier of Paris; -Proudhon, the prophet of communism; Lord Houghton, who did much in -science, and Darwin, who did most; FitzGerald, who made known the -literature of Persia; Bonar, who wrote hymns; Kinglake, who wrote -histories; Holmes, who wrote sentiment and humor; Gladstone, who -ennobled the politics of the British empire; and McCormick, who gave the -world cheap bread, and whose life-story is now set before us in the -following pages. - -None of these eminent men, except Lincoln, began life in as remote and -secluded a corner of the world as McCormick. His father's farm was at -the northern edge of Rockbridge County, Virginia, in a long, thin strip -of fairly fertile land that lay crumpled between the Blue Ridge on the -east and the Alleghanies on the west. It was eighteen miles south of the -nearest town of Staunton, and a hundred miles from the Atlantic coast. -The whole region was a quiet, industrious valley, whose only local -tragedy had been an Indian massacre in 1764, in which eighty white -settlers had been put to death by a horde of savages. - -The older men and women of 1809 could remember when wolf-heads were used -as currency; and when the stocks and the ducking stool stood in the main -street of Staunton. Also, they were fond of telling how the farmers of -the valley, when they heard that the Revolution had begun in -Massachusetts, carted 137 barrels of flour to Frederick, one hundred -miles north, and ordered it sent forthwith to the needy people of -Boston. This grew to be one of the most popular tales of local -history,--an epic of the patriots who fought for liberty, not with -gunpowder but flour. - -By 1809 the more severe hardships of the pioneer days had been overcome. -Houses were still built of logs, but they were larger and better -furnished. In the McCormick homestead, for instance, there was a parlor -which had the dignity of mahogany furniture, and the luxury of books and -a carpet. The next-door county of Augusta boasted of thirteen carriages -and one hundred and two cut-glass decanters. And the chief sources of -excitement had evolved from Indian raids and wolf-hunts into elections, -lotteries, and litigation. - -It was perhaps fortunate for the child McCormick that he was born in -such an out-of-the-way nook, for the reason that in 1809 almost the -whole civilized world was in a turmoil. In England mobs of unemployed -men and women were either begging for bread or smashing the new machines -that had displaced them in the factories. In the Tyrol, sixty thousand -peasants, who had revolted from the intolerable tyranny of the -Bavarians, were being beaten into submission. In Servia, the Turks were -striking down a rebellion by building a pyramid of thirty thousand -Servian skulls,--a tragic pile which may still be seen midway between -Belgrade and Stamboul. Sweden was being trampled under the feet of a -Russian army; and the greater part of Holland, Austria, Germany, and -Spain had been so scourged by the hosts of Napoleon as to be one vast -shamble of misery and blood. - -In the United States there was no war, but there certainly did exist an -abnormal surplus of adversity. The young republic, which had fewer white -citizens than the two cities of New York and Chicago possess to-day, was -being terrorized in the West by the Indian Confederacy of Tecumseh; and -its flag had been flouted by England, France, and the Barbary pirates. -Its total revenue was much less than the value of last year's hay crop -in Vermont. It was desperately poor, with its people housed for the most -part in log cabins, clothed in homespun, and fed every winter on food -that would cause a riot in any modern penitentiary. - -There was no such thing known, except in dreams, as the use of machinery -in the cultivation of the soil. The average farmer, in all civilized -countries, believed that an iron plow would poison the soil. He planted -his grain by the phases of the moon; kept his cows outside in winter; -and was unaware that glanders was contagious. Joseph Jenks, of Lynn, had -invented the scythe in 1655, "for the more speedy cutting of grasse"; -and a Scotchman had improved it into the grain cradle. But the greater -part of the grain in all countries was, a century ago, being cut by the -same little hand sickle that the Egyptians had used on the banks of the -Nile and the Babylonians in the valley of the Euphrates. - -The wise public men of that day knew how urgent was the need of better -methods in farming. Fifteen years before, George Washington had said, -"I know of no pursuit in which more real and important service can be -rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture." But it was -generally believed that the task was hopeless; and any effort to -encourage inventors had hitherto been a failure. An English society, for -instance, had offered a prize of one hundred and fifty dollars for a -better method of reaping grain, and the only answer it received was from -a traveller who had seen the Belgians reaping with a two-foot scythe and -a cane; the cane was used to push the grain back before it was cut, so -that more grain could be cut at a blow. As to whether or not he received -the prize for this discovery is not recorded. - -The city of New York in 1809 was not larger than the Des Moines of -to-day, and not nearly so well built and prosperous. Two miles to the -north of it, through swamps and forests, lay the clearing that is now -known as Herald Square. There was no street railway, nor cooking range, -nor petroleum, nor savings bank, nor friction match, nor steel plow, -neither in New York nor anywhere else. And the one pride and boast of -the city was Fulton's new steamboat, the _Clermont_, which could waddle -to Albany and back, if all went well, in three days or possibly four. - -As for social conditions, they were so hopelessly bad that few had the -heart to improve them. The house that we call a "slum tenement" to-day -would have made an average American hotel in 1809. Rudeness and rowdyism -were the rule. Drunkenness was as common, and as little considered, as -smoking is at the present time; there was no organized opposition to it -of any kind, except one little temperance society at Saratoga. There -were no sewers, and much of the water was drawn from putrid wells. Many -faces were pitted with small-pox. Cholera and yellow jack or strange -hunger-fevers cut wide swaths of death again and again among the -helpless people. There was no science, of course, and no sanitation, and -no medical knowledge except a medley of drastic measures which were apt -to be as dangerous as the disease. - -The desperate struggle to survive appears to have been so intense that -there was little or no social sympathy. There was very little pity for -the pauper,--he was auctioned off to be half starved by the lowest -bidder; and for the criminal there was no feeling except the utmost -repulsion and abhorrence. It was found, for instance, in 1809, that in -the jail in New York there were seventy-two women, white and black, in -one chairless, bedless room, all kept in order by a keeper with a whip, -and fed like cattle from a tub of mush, some eating with spoons and some -with cups and some with their unwashed hands. And the men's room of that -jail, says this report, "is worse than the women's." - -Also, in 1809, the chronic quantity of misery had been terribly -augmented by the Embargo,--that most ruinous invention of President -Jefferson, whereby American ships were swept from the sea, with a loss -to capital of twelve millions a year, and a loss to labor of thirty -thousand places of employment. According to this amazing act of -political folly, every market-boat sailing from New Jersey to New -York--every sailboat or canoe--had to give bail to the federal -government before it dared to leave the dock. - -Whatever flimsy little structure of industry had been built up in thirty -years of independence, was thrown prostrate by this Embargo. A hundred -thousand men stood on the streets with helpless hands, begging for work -or bread. The jails were jammed with debtors,--1,300 in New York alone. -The newspapers were overrun by bankruptcy notices. The coffee-houses -were empty. The ships lay mouldering at the docks. In those -hand-to-mouth days there was no piled-up reserve of food or wealth,--no -range of towering wheat-banks at every port; and the seaboard cities lay -for a time as desolate as though they had been ravaged by a pestilence. - -In that darkest year the hardscrabble little republic learned and -remembered one of its most important lessons,--the fact that liberty and -independence are not enough. Here it was, an absolutely free -nation,--_the only free civilized country in the world_,--and yet as -miserable and poor and hungry as though it were a mere province of a -European empire. So, by degrees, there came a change in the American -point of view,--a swing from politicalism to industrialism. The mass of -the people were now surfeited with oratory and politics and war. They -began to settle down to hard facts and hard work. Instead of declaiming -about the rights of man, they began to build roads and weave cloth and -organize stock companies. Slowly they came to realize that a second -Revolution must be wrought,--a Revolution that would enable them to -write a Declaration of Independence against Hunger and Hardship and Hand -Labor. - -Up to the year 1809 the chief topics of interest in American -legislatures and grocery stores were the blockades, the Embargo, the -treaties, the badness of Napoleon, the blunders of Jefferson, and the -rudeness of England and France. But after that year the chief topics of -interest came to be of a wholly different sort. They were such as the -tariff, the currency, the building of factories and canals, the opening -of public lands, the problem of slavery, and the development of the -West. The hardy, victorious little nation began to talk less and work -more; and so by a natural evolution of thought the era of George -Washington and Thomas Jefferson came to an end, and the era of Robert -Fulton and Peter Cooper and Cyrus Hall McCormick was in its dawn. - -From 1810 to 1820 there was a rush to the land. Twenty million acres -were sold, in most cases for two dollars an acre. Thousands of men who -had been sailors turned their backs on the sea and learned to till the -soil. Town laborers, too, whose wages had been fifty cents a day, -tramped westward along the Indian trails and seized upon scraps of land -that lay ownerless. Nine out of ten Americans began to farm with the -utmost energy and perseverance,--_but with what tools?_ With the wooden -plow, the sickle, the scythe, and the flail, the same rude hand-labor -tools that the nations of antiquity had tried to farm with,--the tools -of failure and slavery and famine. - -Such was the predicament of this republic for the first seventy-five -years of its life. It could not develop beyond the struggle for food. It -was chained to the bread-line. It could not feed itself. Not even -nine-tenths of its people could produce enough grain to satisfy its -hunger. Again and again, until 1858, wheat had to be imported by this -nation of farmers. So, as we now look back over those basic years, from -the summit of the twentieth century, we can see how timely an event it -was that in the dark year 1809 the inventor of the Reaper was born. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE McCORMICK HOME - - -IF we wish to solve the riddle of the Reaper,--to know why it was not -invented in any of the older nations that rose to greatness and perished -in so many instances for lack of bread,--we can find the key to the -answer in the home and the ancestry of the McCormicks. We shall see that -the family into which he was born represented in the highest degree that -new species of farmer,--self-reliant, studious, enterprising, and -inventive,--which was developed in the pioneer period of American -history. - -Robert McCormick, the father of Cyrus, was in his most prosperous days -the owner of four farms, having in all 1,800 acres. But his acres were -only one-half of his interests. He owned as well two grist-mills, two -sawmills, a smelting-furnace, a distillery, and a blacksmith-shop. He -did much more than till the soil. He hammered iron and shaped wood, and -did both well, as those can testify who have seen an iron crane and -walnut cabinet that were made by his hands. More than this, he invented -new types of farm machinery,--a hemp-brake, a clover huller, a bellows, -and a threshing-machine. - -The little log workshop still stands where Robert McCormick and his sons -hammered and tinkered on rainy days. It is about twenty-four feet -square, with an uneven floor, and a heavy door that was hung in place by -home-made nails and home-made hinges. There was a forge on either side -of the chimney, so that two men could work at the same time; and one -small rusted anvil is all that now remains of its equipment. - -[Illustration: OLD BLACKSMITH SHOP ON WALNUT GROVE FARM, VIRGINIA - -In this shop the first practical reaping machine was built by Cyrus Hall -McCormick in 1831] - -As for the McCormick homestead itself, there were so many manufacturing -activities in it that it was literally half a home and half a factory. -Shoes were cobbled, cotton, flax, and wool were spun into yarn, woven -into cloth, and fashioned into clothes for the whole family. The -stockings and mitts and caps were all home-made, and so was the cradle -in which the eight children were rocked. What with the moulding of -candles, and sewing of carpet-rags, and curing of hams, and boiling -of soap, and drying of herbs, and stringing of apples, the McCormick -home was practically a school of many trades for the people who lived -under its roof. - -Robert McCormick was an educated man. He was not at all like the poor -serfs who tilled the soil of Europe. He belonged to the same general -class as those other eminent farmers,--Washington, Jefferson, Adams, -Webster, and Clay. He was a reader of deep books and a student of -astronomy. Lawyers and clergymen would frequently drive to his house to -consult with him. And in mechanical pursuits he had an unusual degree of -skill, having been born the son of a weaver and accustomed from babyhood -to the use of machinery. - -He was a gentle, reflective man, with a genius for self-reliance in any -great or little emergency. When a new stone church was built, and he -found that his pew was so dark that he could not see to read the hymns, -he promptly cut a small window in the wall,--a peculiarity which is -still pointed out to visitors. On another occasion, with this same -spirit of resourcefulness, he drove the spectre of yellow fever from -the home. This dreaded disease was gathering in a full harvest in the -farm-houses of the county. It had cut down three of Mrs. McCormick's -family,--her father, mother, and brother,--and had swung its fatal -scythe toward the boy Cyrus, who was then five years of age. When the -doctor was called, he insisted that the child should be bled. "But you -bled all the others, and they died," said Robert McCormick quietly; -"I'll have no more bleedings." No remedy for yellow fever, except -bleeding, was known to the doctors of a century ago, so Robert McCormick -at once invented a remedy. He devised a treatment of hot baths, hot -teas, and bitter herbs; and Cyrus was rescued from the fever and -restored to perfect health. - -Such a man as Robert McCormick would have been practically impossible in -any other country at that time. There, in that isolated hollow of the -Virginian mountains, he was a citizen of a free country. His vote had -helped to make Thomas Jefferson President. He was a proprietor, not a -serf nor a tenant. He was not compelled to divide up every cord of wood -and bushel of wheat with a king or a landlord. Whatever he earned was -his own. He was an American; and thus, in the endless chain of cause and -effect, we can trace the origin of the Reaper back, if we wish, to -George Washington and Christopher Columbus. - -The whole spirit of the young republic pushed towards the invention of -labor-saving machinery,--towards replacing the hoe with the steel plow, -the needle with the sewing-machine, the puddling-furnace with the -Bessemer converter, the sickle with the Reaper. And it is fair to say -that the social forces that represented the American spirit were focused -to a remarkable degree in the home in which Cyrus H. McCormick had his -birth and his education. - -There was another contributing influence, too, in the making of -McCormick,--the fact that the blood of his father and mother came to him -in a pure strain of Scotch-Irish. It was this inheritance that endowed -him with the tenacity and unconquerable resiliency that enabled him not -only to invent a new machine, but to create a new industry and hold -fast to it against all comers. - -The Scotch-Irish! The full story of what the United States owes to this -fire-hardened race has never yet been told,--it is a tale that will some -day be expanded into a fascinating volume of American history. It is not -possible to understand either the character or the success of McCormick -without knowing the Scotch-Irish influences that shaped him. - -The one man who did more to launch the Scotch-Irish on their conquering -way, so it appears, was John Knox. This preacher-statesman, "who never -feared the face of man," forced Queen Mary from her throne, and -established self-government and a pure religion in Scotland, about -seventy-five years after the discovery of America. This brought English -armies down upon the Scotch, and for very nearly two centuries the -struggle was bitter and desperate, the Scotch refusing to compromise or -to bate one jot or tittle of a covenant which many of them had signed -with their blood. - -[Illustration: THE OLD McCORMICK HOMESTEAD, WALNUT GROVE FARM, -ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA] - -At the height of this conflict, about 300,000 of these Scotch -Covenanters left their ravaged country and set out in a fleet of little -vessels for the north of Ireland. Here they settled in the barren and -boggy province of Ulster, and presto! in the course of two generations -Ulster became the most prosperous, moral, and intelligent section of the -British empire. Its people were, beyond a doubt, the best educated -masses of that period, either in Great Britain or anywhere else. They -were the most skilful of farmers. They wove woollen cloth and the finest -of linen. They built schools and churches and factories. But in 1698, -the English Parliament, jealous of such progressiveness, passed laws -against their manufacturing, and Ulster was overrun, as Scotland had -been, with the police and the soldiery of England. - -The Scotch-Irish fought, of course, even against such odds. They had -never learned how to submit. But as the devastation of Ulster continued, -they resolved to do as their great-grandfathers had done,--emigrate to a -new country. They had heard good reports of America, through several of -their leaders who had been banished there by the British government. So -they packed up their movable property, and set out across the wide -uncharted Atlantic Ocean in an exodus for liberty of industry and -liberty of conscience. - -By the year 1776 there were more than 500,000 of the Scotch-Irish in -this country. They went first across the Alleghanies, into the new lands -of western Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas. Beyond all -question, they were the hardiest and ablest founders of the republic. -They dissolved the rule of the Cavaliers in Virginia; and in the little -hamlet of Mecklenburg they planned the first defiance of Great Britain -and struck the key-note of the Revolution. They gave Washington -thirty-nine of his generals, three out of four members of his cabinet, -and three out of five judges of the first Supreme Court. - -Of all classes of settlers in the thirteen colonies, they were the best -prepared and most willing for the struggle with England, for the reason -that they had begun to fight for liberty two hundred and fifty years -before the battle of Bunker Hill. They were not amateurs in the work of -revolution. They were veterans. And so, because they were pioneers and -patriots by nature and inheritance, the Scotch-Irish became, in the -words of John Fiske, "the main strength of our American democracy." - -Naturally, they were pathfinders in industry as well as in the matter of -self-government, as many of them had been manufacturers in Ireland. -"Thousands of the best manufacturers and weavers in Ulster went to seek -their bread in America," writes Froude, "and they carried their art and -their tools with them." In one instance, by the failure of the woollen -trade, 20,000 of them were driven to the United States. As might have -been expected, these Scotch-Irish Americans have produced not only five -of our Presidents, but also such merchants as A. T. Stewart; such -publishers as Harper, Bonner, Scribner, and McClurg; and such inventors -as Joseph Henry, Morse, Fulton, and McCormick. They were possibly the -first large body of people who had ever been driven from manufacturing -into farming; and it was not at all surprising, therefore, that the new -profession of making farm machinery should have been born upon a -Scotch-Irish farm. - -As for Cyrus H. McCormick, he represented the fourth generation of -American McCormicks. His great-grandfather, Thomas McCormick, quit -Ulster in the troublous days of 1735. He was a soldier at Londonderry; -and later became noted as an Indian fighter in Pennsylvania. His son -Robert, who moved south to Virginia, carried a rifle for American -independence at the battle of Guilford Court-house, North Carolina, in -1781. He was a farmer and weaver by occupation, a typical Ulsterman, -whose farm was a busy workshop of invention and manufacturing. - -[Illustration: ROBERT McCORMICK] - -On his mother's side, too, Cyrus McCormick had behind him a line of -battling Scotch-Irish. She was the daughter of a Virginian farmer named -Patrick Hall, one of whose forefathers had been driven out of Armagh by -the massacre of 1641. Patrick Hall was the leader of the old-school -Presbyterians in his region of Virginia. So rigid was he in his loyalty -to the faith of the Covenanters, that once when a new minister came -to preach in the little kirk, and lined out a Watts hymn instead of a -psalm of David, Patrick Hall picked up his hat and strode out, followed -by a goodly part of the congregation. He at once built upon his own farm -a new church of limestone, in which no such levity as hymn-singing was -permitted. - -Cyrus McCormick's mother inherited her father's strength of character, -without his severity. She was a thorough Celt, impulsive, free-spoken, -and highly imaginative. Judging from the stories about her that are -remembered in the neighborhood, it is evident that she was a woman of -exceptional quality of mind. She was not as studious as her husband, but -quicker and more ambitious. As a girl, she had been strikingly handsome, -with a tall and commanding figure. She was saving and shrewd, with the -Scotch-Irish passion for "getting ahead." She allowed no idle moments in -the home. If the children were dressed before breakfast was ready, out -they went to cut wood or weed the garden. She knew the profession of -housekeeping in all its old-fashioned complexity; and she worked at it -from dawn to starlight, with no rest except the relief of flitting from -one task to another. - -"Mrs. McCormick came riding by our farm one day," said an aged neighbor, -"at a time when my father and mother were hurrying to save some hay from -a coming rain-storm. 'If you don't hurry up you'll be too late,' she -said; and then tying her horse to the fence she picked up a rake and -helped with the hay until it was all in the barn. That's the kind of -woman she was,--always full of energy and ready to help." - -[Illustration: MRS. MARY ANN HALL McCORMICK] - -But Mrs. McCormick was much more than industrious. She had a fine pride -in the ownership of beautiful things,--flowers and handsome clothes and -silverware and mahogany furniture. Her flock of peacocks was one of the -sights of the county; and in her later life, when she was for ten years -the sole manager of the farm, she was accustomed to drive about in a -wonderful carriage with folding steps, drawn by prancing horses and -driven by a stately colored coachman,--an equipage of so much style -and grandeur that it is still remembered by the neighbors. "She loved to -drive fast," said one old lady; "and I was much impressed as a little -girl with the startling way in which her horses would come clattering -and dancing up to the door." - -Thus there was in the McCormick home the spiritual and imaginative -element that was vital to the development of a man whose whole life was -a battle against the prejudices and "impossibilities" of the world. -Cyrus McCormick was predestined, we may legitimately say, by the -conditions of his birth, to accomplish his great work. From his father -he had a specific training as an inventor; from his mother he had -executive ability and ambition; from his Scotch-Irish ancestry he had -the dogged tenacity that defied defeat; and from the wheat-fields that -environed his home came the call for the Reaper, to lighten the heavy -drudgery of the harvest. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE INVENTION OF THE REAPER - - -Not far from the McCormick homestead was the "Old Field School," built -of logs and with a part of one of the upper logs cut out to provide a -window. Here the boy Cyrus sat on a slab bench and studied five books as -though they were the only books in the world,--Murray's Grammar, -Dilworth's Arithmetic, Webster's Spelling Book, the Shorter Catechism, -and the Bible. - -He was a strong-limbed, self-contained, serious-natured boy, always -profoundly intent upon what he was doing. Even at the age of fifteen he -was inventive. One winter morning he brought to school a most elaborate -map of the world, showing the two hemispheres side by side. First he had -drawn it in ink upon paper, then pasted the paper upon linen, and hung -it upon two varnished rollers. This map, which is still preserved, -reveals a remarkable degree of skill and patience; and the fact that a -mere lad could conceive of and create such a map was a week's wonder in -the little community. "That boy," declared the teacher, "is beyond me." - -At about this time he undertook to do a man's work in the reaping of the -wheat, and here he discovered that to swing a cradle against a field of -grain under a hot summer sun was of all farming drudgeries the severest. -Both his back and his brain rebelled against it. One thing at least he -could do,--he could make a smaller cradle, that would be easier to -swing; and he did this, whittling away in the evening in the little log -workshop. - -"Cyrus was a natural mechanical genius," said an old laborer who had -worked on the McCormick farm. "He was always trying to invent -something." "He was a young man of great and superior talents," said a -neighbor. At eighteen he studied the profession of surveying, and made a -quadrant for his own use. This is still preserved, and bears witness to -his good workmanship. From this time until his twenty-second year, there -is nothing of exceptional interest recorded of him. He had grown to be -a tall, muscular, dignified young man. The neighbors, in later years, -remembered him mainly because he was so well dressed on Sundays, in -broadcloth coat and beaver hat, and because of his fine treble voice as -he led the singing in the country church. - -Even as a youth he was absorbed in his inventions and business projects. -He had no time for gayeties. In a letter written from Kentucky to a -cousin, Adam McChesney, in 1831, he says: "Mr. Hart has two fine -daughters, right pretty, very smart, and as rich probably as you would -wish; but alas! I have other business to attend to." - -[Illustration: NEW PROVIDENCE CHURCH, ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA] - -Ever since Cyrus was a child of seven, it had been the most ardent -ambition of his father to invent a Reaper. He had made one and tried it -in the harvest of 1816, but it was a failure. It was a fantastic -machine, pushed from behind by two horses. A row of short curved sickles -were fastened to upright posts, and the grain was whirled against them -by revolving rods. It was highly ingenious, but the sinewy grain merely -bunched and tangled around its futile sickles; and the poor old -Reaper that would not reap was hauled off the field, to become one of -the jokes of the neighborhood. - -This failure did not dishearten Robert McCormick. He persevered with -Scotch-Irish tenacity, but in secret. Hurt by the jests of the -neighbors, he worked thenceforward with the door of his workshop locked, -or at night. He hid his Reaper, too, upon a shelf inside the workshop. -"He allowed no one to see what he was doing, except his sons," said -Davis McCormick, who is now the only living person in the neighborhood -with a memory that extends back to that early period. "Yes," said this -lone octogenarian, "Robert McCormick was a good man, a true Christian; -and he worked for years to make a Reaper. He always kept his plans to -himself, and he told his wife that if visitors came to the house, she -should send one of the children to fetch him, and not allow the visitors -to come to his workshop." - -By the early Summer of 1831, Robert McCormick had so improved his Reaper -that he gave it a trial in a field of grain. Again it was a failure. It -did cut the grain fairly well, but flung it in a tangled heap. As much -as this had been done before by other machines, and it was not enough. -To cut the grain was only one-half of the problem; the other half of the -problem, which up to this time no one had solved, was how to properly -handle and deliver the grain after it was cut. - -[Illustration: FACSIMILES FROM MANUSCRIPT BY MR. McCORMICK GIVING HIS -OWN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE REAPER] - -By this time Cyrus had become as much of a Reaper enthusiast as his -father. Also, he had been studying out the reasons for his father's -failure, and working out in his mind a new plan of construction. How -this _new plan_ was slowly moulded into shape by his creative fancy is -now told for the first time. A manuscript, written by Cyrus H. McCormick -himself, and which has not hitherto been made public, gives a complete -description of the process of thought by which he became the inventor of -the first practical Reaper. This account, it may be said in explanation, -was written by Mr. McCormick shortly before the Chicago fire of 1871. It -was to be published at that time, and was in type when the fire came and -left not a vestige of the printery. The original manuscript was -preserved; but the labor of rebuilding his factory prevented him from -carrying out his original design. He wholly forgot his authorship in the -troubles of his city; and so his own story of his invention lay -untouched among the private papers of the family for thirty-eight years. - -"Robert McCormick," says this document, "being satisfied that his -principle of operation could not succeed, laid aside and abandoned the -further prosecution of his idea." He had labored for fifteen years to -make a Reaper that would reap, and he had failed. - -At this point Cyrus took up the work that his father had reluctantly -abandoned. He had never seen or heard of any Reaper experiments except -those of his father; but he believed he saw a better way, and "devoted -himself most laboriously to the discovery of a _new principle of -operation_." - -He showed his originality at the outset by beginning where his father -and all other Reaper inventors had left off,--with the cutting of grain -that lay in a fallen and tangled mass. He faced the problem worst end -first. The Reaper that would cut such grain, he believed, must first -separate the grain that is to be cut from the grain that is left -standing. It must have at the end of its knife a curved arm--a -_divider_. This idea was simple, but in the long history of harvesting -grain no one had thought of it before. - -Next, in order to cut this snarled and prostrate grain without missing -any of it, the knife must have two motions: its forward motion, as drawn -by the horses, and also a slashing sideways motion of its own. How was -this to be done? McCormick's first thought was to cut the grain with a -whirling wheel-knife, but this plan presented too many new difficulties. -Suddenly the idea came to him--why not have a straight blade, with a -back and forward motion of its own? This was the birth-idea of the -_reciprocating blade_, which has been used to this day on all -grain-cutting machines. It was not, like the divider, a wholly new -conception; but Cyrus McCormick conceived it independently, and did more -than any one else to establish it as the basic feature of the Reaper. - -The third problem was the supporting of the grain while it was being -cut, so that the knife would not merely flatten it to the ground. -McCormick solved this by placing a row of _fingers_ at the edge of the -blade. These fingers projected a few inches, in such a way that the -grain was caught and held in position to be cut. The shape of these -fingers was afterwards much improved, to prevent wet grain from clogging -the slit in which the knife slid back and forth. - -A fourth device was still needed to lift up and straighten the grain -that had fallen. This was done by a simple revolving _reel_, such as -fishermen use for the drying of their nets. Several of the abortive -Reapers that had been tried elsewhere had possessed some sort of a reel; -but McCormick made his much larger than any other, so that no grain was -too low to escape it. - -The fifth factor in this assembling of a Reaper was the _platform_, to -catch the cut grain as it fell; and from which the grain was to be raked -off by a man who walked alongside of it. The sixth was the idea of -putting the shafts on the outside, or stubble side, of the Reaper, -making it a _side-draught_, instead of a "push" machine. And the -seventh and final factor was the building of the whole Reaper upon one -big _driving-wheel_, which carried the weight and operated the reel and -cutting-blade. The grain-side end of the blade was at first supported by -a wooden runner, and later--the following year--by a small wheel. - -[Illustration: FIRST PRACTICAL REAPING MACHINE - -Built and used by Cyrus Hall McCormick on Walnut Grove Farm, Va., in -1831] - -Such was the making of the first practical Reaper in the history of the -world. It was as clumsy as a Red River ox-cart; but _it reaped_. It was -made on right lines. The "new principle" that the youth McCormick -laboriously conceived in the little log workshop became the basic type -of a wholly new machine. It has never been displaced. Since then there -have been 12,000 patents issued for reaper and mower inventions; but not -one of them has overthrown the type of the first McCormick Reaper. Not -one of the seven factors that he assembled has been thrown aside; and -the most elaborate self-binder of to-day is a direct descendant of the -crude machine that was thus created by a young Virginian farmer in -1831. - -The young inventor toiled "laboriously," he says, to complete his Reaper -in time for the harvest of 1831. He was very nearly too late, but a -small patch of wheat was left standing at his request; and one day in -July, with no spectators except his parents and his excited brothers and -sisters, Cyrus put a horse between the shafts of his Reaper, and drove -against the yellow grain. The reel revolved and swept the gentle wheat -downwards upon the knife. Click! Click! Click! The white steel blade -shot back and forth. The grain was cut. It fell upon the platform in a -shimmering golden swath. From here it was raked off by a young laborer -named John Cash. It was a roughly done specimen of reaping, no doubt. -The reel and the divider worked poorly. But for a preliminary test it -was a magnificent success. Here, at last, was a Reaper that reaped, the -first that had ever been made in any country. - -The scene of this first "reaping by horse-power" was then, and is -to-day, one of unusual beauty. The field is near by the farm-house, -rolling in several undulations to the rim of a winding little rivulet. -In the centre of the field is a single tree, a wide-branched white oak, -which was probably born before the first colonists arrived at Jamestown. -And in the background, not more than two miles distant, rise the tall -and jagged crags of the Blue Ridge, twelve sharp peaks flung high from -deep ravines, on which the lights and shades are incessantly -changing,--a most impressive staging for the first act of the drama of -the Reaper. - -This McCormick farm, having 600 acres of land, is now owned by the -McCormick family. The whole region has changed but little. Once, and -once only, the great noisy outside world surged into this quiet -valley,--when a Union army under General Butler clattered through it, -burning and destroying, and so close to the McCormick homestead that the -blue uniforms could be seen from its front windows. Doubtless, when -farmers have time to take a proper pride in the history of their own -profession, they will visit the McCormick farm as a spot of historic -interest,--the place where the New Agriculture was born. It is no longer -a difficult place to reach, as it is now possible to lunch to-day in -either Chicago or New York and to-morrow in the same comfortable red -brick farm-house that sheltered the McCormicks in 1831. - -Several days after the advent of the Reaper on the home farm, Cyrus -McCormick had improved its reel and divider, and was ready for a public -exhibition at the near-by village of Steele's Tavern. Here, with two -horses, he cut six acres of oats in an afternoon, a feat which was -attested in court in 1848 by his brothers William and Leander, and also -by three of the villagers, John Steele, Eliza Steele, and Dr. N. M. -Hitt. Such a thing at that time was incredible. It was equal to the work -of six laborers with scythes, or twenty-four peasants with sickles. It -was as marvellous as though a man should walk down the street carrying a -dray-horse on his back. - -The next year, 1832, Cyrus McCormick came out with his Reaper into what -seemed to him "the wide, wide world." He gave a public exhibition near -the little town of Lexington, which lay eighteen miles south of the -farm. Fully one hundred people were present--several political leaders -of local fame, farmers, professors, laborers, and a group of negroes who -frolicked and shouted in uncomprehending joy. - -At the start, it appeared as though this new contraption of a machine, -which was unlike anything else that human eyes had ever seen, was to -prove a grotesque failure. The field was hilly, and the Reaper jolted -and slewed so violently that John Ruff, the owner of the field, made a -loud protest. - -"Here! This won't do," he shouted. "Stop your horses. You are rattling -the heads off my wheat." - -[Illustration: THE FIELD ON WHICH THE FIRST McCORMICK REAPER WAS TRIED, -WALNUT GROVE FARM, VIRGINIA] - -This was a hard blow to the young farmer-inventor. Several laborers, who -were openly hostile to the machine as their rival in the labor market, -began to jeer with great satisfaction. "It's a humbug," said one. "Give -me the old cradle yet, boys," said another. These men were hardened and -bent and calloused with the drudgery of harvesting. They worked twelve -and fourteen hours a day for less than a nickel an hour. But they were -as resentful toward a Reaper as the drivers of stage-coaches were to -railroads, or as the hackmen of to-day are towards automobiles. - -At this moment of apparent defeat, a man of striking appearance, who had -been watching the floundering of the Reaper with great interest, came to -the rescue. - -"I'll give you a fair chance, young man," he said. "That field of wheat -on the other side of the fence belongs to me. Pull down the fence and -cross over." - -This friend in need was the Honorable William Taylor, who was several -years later a candidate for the governorship of Virginia. His offer was -at once accepted by Cyrus McCormick, and as the second field was fairly -level, he laid low six acres of wheat before sundown. This was no more -than he had done in 1831, but on this occasion he had conquered a larger -and more incredulous audience. - -After the sixth acre was cut, the Reaper was driven with great acclaim -into the town of Lexington and placed on view in the court-house square. -Here it was carefully studied by a Professor Bradshaw of the Lexington -Female Academy, who finally announced in a loud and emphatic voice, -"This--machine--is worth--a hundred--thousand--dollars." This praise, -from "a scholar and a gentleman," as McCormick afterwards called him, -was very encouraging. And still more so was the quiet word of praise -from Robert McCormick, who said, "It makes me feel proud to have a son -do what I could not do." - -Of all who were present on that memorable summer day, not one is now -alive. Neither in Lexington nor in Staunton--the towns that lay on -either side of the McCormick farm--can we find any one who saw the -Reapers of 1831 and 1832. But among those who testified at various -lawsuits that they had seen the Lexington Reaper operate were Colonel -James McDowell, Colonel John Bowyer, Colonel Samuel Reed, Colonel A. T. -Barclay, Dr. Taylor, William Taylor, John Ruff, John W. Houghawout, John -Steele, James Moore, and Andrew Wallace. There was an old lady, also, in -1885, Miss Polly Carson, who told how she had seen the Reaper hauled -along the road by two horses, which, she said, "had to be led by a -couple of darkies, because they were scared to death by the racket of -the machine." And she expressed the general unbelief of that day, very -likely, by saying, "I thought it was a right smart curious sort of a -thing, but that it wouldn't come to much." - -Cyrus McCormick was far from being the first to secure a Reaper patent. -He was the forty-seventh. Twenty-three others in Europe and twenty-three -in the United States had invented machines of varying inefficiency; but -there was not one of these which could have been improved into the -proper shape. Without any exception, the rival manufacturers who rose up -in later years to fight McCormick did him the homage of copying his -Reaper; and certainly none of them attempted to offer for sale any type -of machine that was invented prior to 1831. - -A careful study of the pre-McCormick Reapers reveals one fault common to -all,--they were made by theorists, to cut ideal grain in ideal fields. -Some of them, if grain always grew straight and was perfectly willing -to be cut, might have been fairly useful. They assuredly might have -succeeded if grain grew in a parlor. But to cut actual grain in actual -fields was another matter, and quite beyond their power. None of them, -apparently, knew the fundamental difference between a Reaper and a -mower. They did not observe that grain is easy to cut but hard to -handle, while grass is hard to cut and easy to handle; and they -persisted in the assumption that grain could be reaped by a mower. - -[Illustration: INTERIOR OF BLACKSMITH SHOP IN WHICH C. H. McCORMICK -BUILT HIS FIRST REAPER] - -These inventors who failed, but who doubtless blazed the way by their -failures to the final success of McCormick, were not, as he was, a -practical farmer on rough and hilly ground. One was a clergyman, who -devised a six-wheel chariot, with many pairs of scissors, and which was -to be pushed by horses and steered by a rudder that in rough ground -would jerk a man's arm out of joint. A second of these inventors was a -sailor, who experimented with a few stalks of straight grain stuck in -gimlet holes in his workshop floor. A third was an actor, who had -built a Reaper that would cut artificial grain on the stage. A fourth -was a school-teacher, a fifth a machinist, and so on. In no instance can -we find that any one of these pre-McCormick inventors was a farmer, who -therefore knew what practical difficulties had to be overcome. - -The farmers, on the other hand, thought first of these difficulties and -scoffed at the parlor inventors. The editor of the "Farmer's Register" -spoke the opinion of most farmers of that time when he said that "an -insurmountable difficulty will sometimes be found to the use of -reaping-machines in the state of the growing crops, which may be twisted -and laid flat in every possible direction. A whole crop may be ravelled -and beaten down by high winds and heavy rains in a single day." - -One of the basic reasons, therefore, for the success of Cyrus McCormick -was the fact that he was not a parlor inventor. He was primarily a -farmer. He knew what wheat was and how it grew. And his first aim in -making a reaper was not to produce a mechanical curiosity, nor to -derive a fortune from the sale of his patent, but to cut the grain on -his father's farm. - -So far as the pre-McCormick inventors are concerned, the whole truth -about them seems to be that a few invented fractional mowers or reapers -that were fairly good as far as they went, and that most of them -invented nothing that became of any lasting value. Nine-tenths of them -were pathfinders in the sense that they showed what ought _not_ to be -done. - -Very little attention would have been given them had it not been for the -persistent effort made by rival manufacturers to detract from -McCormick's reputation as an inventor. This they did in a wholly -impersonal manner, of course, so that they should not be obliged to pay -him royalties, and because his prestige as the original inventor of the -Reaper enabled him to outsell them among the farmers. - -But now that the competition of Reaper manufacturers has been tempered -by consolidation, the time has arrived to do justice to Cyrus McCormick -as the inventor of the Reaper. The stock phrase,--"He was less of an -inventor than a business man," which was so widely used against him -during his lifetime, ought now in all fairness to be laid aside. The -fact is, as we have seen, that he was schooled as a boy into an -inventive habit of mind; and that before his invention of the Reaper, he -had devised a new grain-cradle, a hillside plow, and a self-sharpening -plow. There is abundant corroborative evidence in the letters which he -wrote to his father and brothers, instructing them to "make the divider -and wheel post longer," to "put the crank one inch farther back," and so -forth. Also, in the will of Robert McCormick, there is a clause -authorizing the executor to pay a royalty to Cyrus of fifteen dollars -apiece on whatever machines were sold by the family during that season, -showing that the father, who of all men was in the best position to -know, regarded Cyrus as the inventor. - -Of all the manufacturers who fought McCormick in the patent suits of -early days, three only have survived to see the passing of the McCormick -Centenary--Ralph Emerson, C. W. Marsh, and William N. Whiteley. In -response to a question as to Cyrus McCormick's place as an inventor, -Mr. Whiteley said: "McCormick invented the divider and the practical -reel; and he was the first man to make the Reaper a success in the -field." Mr. Marsh said: "He was a meritorious inventor, although he -combined the ideas of other men with his own; and he produced the first -practical side-delivery machine in the market." And Mr. Emerson said: -"The enemies of Cyrus H. McCormick have said that he was not an -inventor, but I say that he was an inventor of eminence." - -Thus it appears that the invention of the Reaper was not in any sense -unique; it came about by an evolutionary process such as produced all -other great discoveries and inventions. First come the dreamers, the -theorists, the heroic innovators who awaken the world's brain upon a new -line of thought. Then come the pioneers who solve certain parts of the -problem and make suggestions that are of practical value. And then, in -the fulness of time, comes one masterful man who is more of a doer than -a dreamer, who works out the exact combination of ideas to produce the -result, and establishes the new product as a necessary part of the -equipment of the whole human family. - -Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the Reaper. He did more--he invented the -business of making Reapers and selling them to the farmers of America -and foreign countries. He held preeminence in this line, with scarcely a -break, until his death; and the manufacturing plant that he founded is -to-day the largest of its kind. Thus, it is no more than an exact -statement of the truth to say that he did more than any other member of -the human race to abolish the famine of the cities and the drudgery of -the farm--to feed the hungry and straighten the bent backs of the -world. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -SIXTEEN YEARS OF PIONEERING - - -In 1831 Cyrus McCormick had his Reaper, but the great world knew nothing -of it. None of the 850 papers that were being printed at this time in -the United States had given the notice of its birth. There was the young -inventor, with the one machine that the human race most needed, in a -remote cleft of the Virginian mountains, four days' journey from -Richmond, and wholly without any experience or money or influence that -would enable him to announce what he had done. - -He had such a problem to solve as no inventor of to-day or to-morrow can -have. He was not living, as we are, in an age of faith and -optimism--when every new invention is welcomed with a shout of joy. He -confronted a sceptical and slow-moving little world, so different from -that of to-day that it requires a few lines of portrayal. - -In general, it was a non-inventive and hand-labor world. There were few -factories, except for the weaving of cotton and woollen cloth. There -was no sewing-machine, nor Bessemer converter, nor Hoe press, nor -telegraph, nor photography. It was still the age of the tallow candle -and stage-coach and tinder-box. Practically no such thing was known as -farm machinery. Jethro Wood had invented his iron plow, but he was at -this time dying in poverty, never having been able to persuade farmers -to abandon their plows of wood. As for steel plows, no one in any -country had conceived of such a thing. James Oliver was a bare-footed -school-boy in Scotland and John Deere was a young blacksmith in Vermont. -Plows were pulled by oxen and horses, not by slaves, as in certain -regions of Asia; but almost every other sort of farm work was done by -hand. - -Railways were few and of little account. Eighty-two miles of flimsy -track had been built in the United States; the Baltimore and Ohio was -making a solemn experiment with locomotives, horses, and _sails_, to -ascertain which one of these three was the best method of propulsion. -The first really successful American locomotive was put on the rails in -this year; and Professor Joseph Henry set up his trial telegraph wire -and gave the electric current its first lesson in obedience. - -There was no free library in the world in 1831. The first one was -started in Peterborough, N. H., two years later. In England, electoral -reform had not begun, a General Fast had been ordered because of the -prevalence of cholera, and a four-pound loaf cost more than the day's -pay of a laborer. The United States was a twenty-four-State republic, -with very little knowledge of two-thirds of its own territory. The -source of the Mississippi River, for instance, was unknown. To send a -letter from Boston to New York cost the price of half a bushel of wheat. -There was no newspaper in Wisconsin and no house in Iowa. The first sale -of lots was announced in Chicago, but there was then no public building -in that hamlet, nothing but a few log cabins in a swampy waste that was -populous only in wild ducks, bears, and wolves. Forty of the latter were -shot by the villagers in 1834. - -[Illustration: REAPING WITH CRUDE KNIVES IN INDIA] - -Of the many eminent men who had the same birth-year as McCormick, Poe -and Mendelssohn had begun to be known as men of genius in 1831. But -Lincoln was then "a sort of clerk" in a village store. Darwin was -setting out on H. M. S. _Beagle_ upon his first voyage as a naturalist. -Gladstone was a student at Oxford. Proudhon was working at the case as a -poor printer. Oliver Wendell Holmes was somewhat aimlessly studying law. -Chopin was on his way to Paris. Tennyson had left college, without a -degree, to devote his life to the service of poetry. Three great men who -had been born earlier, Garrison, Whittier, and Mazzini, began their -life-work in 1831. And science was a babe in the cradle. Herbert -Spencer, Virchow and Pasteur were learning the multiplication table. -Huxley was six and Bertheiot four. - -There was no Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, California, nor -Texas. Virginia was the main wheat State. Local famines were of -yearly occurrence. The period between 1816 and 1820 had been -one of severe depression and was bitterly referred to as the -"1800-and-starve-to-death" period. Seventy-five thousand people had -been imprisoned for debt in New York in a single year, and a -workingmen's party had sprung up as a protest against such intolerable -conditions. Even as late as 1837 there was a bread riot in the city of -New York. Five thousand hungry rioters broke into the warehouse of Eli -Hart & Company, and destroyed a great quantity of flour and wheat. Five -hundred barrels of flour were thrown from the windows; and women and -children gathered it up greedily from the dirty gutter where it fell. - -So the world that confronted Cyrus McCormick was not a friendly world of -science and invention and prosperity. It was slow and dull and largely -hostile to whoever would teach it a better way of working. And we shall -now see by what means McCormick compelled it to accept his Reaper, and -to give him the credit and pay for his invention. - -He was resolved from the first not to be robbed and flung aside as most -inventors had been. Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, had said in -1812: "The whole amount I have received is not equal to the value of the -labor saved in one hour by my machines now in use." Fulton had died at -fifty, plagued and plundered by imitators. Kay, Jacquard, Heathcoat, and -Hargreaves, inventors of weaving machinery, were mobbed. Arkwright's -mill was burned by incendiaries. Gutenberg, Cort, and Jethro Wood lost -their fortunes. Palissy was thrown into the Bastile. And Goodyear, who -gave us rubber, Bottgher, who gave us Sevres porcelain, and Sauvage, who -gave us the screw propeller, died in poverty and neglect. - -But Cyrus McCormick was more than an inventor. He was a -business-builder. In the same resolute, deliberate way in which he had -made his Reaper, he now set to work to make a business. He planned and -figured and made experiments. "His whole soul was wrapped up in his -Reaper," said one of the neighbors. Once while riding home on horseback -in the Summer of 1832, his horse stopped to drink in the centre of a -stream, and as he looked out upon the fields of yellow grain, shimmering -in the sunlight, the dazzling thought flashed upon his brain, "Perhaps I -may make a million dollars from this Reaper." As he said in a letter -written in later years: "This thought was so enormous that it seemed -like a dream-like dwelling in the clouds--so remote, so unattainable, so -exalted, so visionary." - -His first step was seemingly a mistake, though it must have contributed -much toward the development of self-reliance and hardihood in his own -character. He received a tract of land from his father, and proceeded -with might and main to farm it alone. There was a small log house on his -land, and here he lived with two aged negro servants and his Reaper. - -He needed money to buy iron--to advertise--to appoint agents. And he had -no means of earning money except by farming. - -It is very evident that he had not set aside his purpose to make -Reapers, for we find in the _Lexington Union_ of September 28, 1833, the -first advertisement of his machine. He offers Reapers for sale at $50.00 -apiece, and gives four testimonials from farmers. But nothing came of -this advertisement. No farmer came forward to buy. The four men who had -given testimonials had only seen the Reaper at work. They were not -purchasers. McCormick was "a voice crying in the wilderness" for _nine -years_ before he found a farmer who had the money and the courage to buy -one of his Reapers. - -After living for more than a year on his farm, McCormick saw that as a -means of raising money it was a failure. It had given him a most -valuable period of preparatory solitude, but it had not helped him to -launch the Reaper; so he looked about him for some enterprise that would -yield a larger profit. There was a large deposit of iron ore near by, -and he resolved to build a furnace and make iron. Iron was the most -expensive item in the making of a reaper. At that time it was $50.00 a -ton--two and a half cents a pound. So as he had been unable to establish -the Reaper business with a farm, he now set out to do it with a furnace. -He persuaded his father and the school teacher to become his partners; -and they built the furnace and were making their first iron in -1835--the same year, by the way, in which a babe named Andrew Carnegie -was born in the little Scotch town of Dunfermline. - -[Illustration: REAPING WITH SICKLES IN ALGERIA] - -For several years the furnace did fairly well. It swallowed the ore and -charcoal and limestone, and poured into the channelled sand little -sputtering streams of fiery metal. Cyrus made the patterns for the -moulds, and, because of his great strength, did much of the heaviest -labor. But the work was so incessant that he had no time to build -Reapers. And in 1839, when the effects of the 1837 panic were felt in -the more remote regions of Virginia, Cyrus McCormick realized to the -full the aptness of that couplet of Hudibras-- - - "Ah, me, the perils that environ - The man who meddles with cold iron!" - -The price of iron fell; debtors were unable to pay; the school teacher -signed over his property to his mother; and the whole burden of the -inevitable bankruptcy fell upon the McCormicks. Cyrus gave up his farm -to the creditors, and whatever other property he had that was saleable. -He did not give up the Reaper, and nobody would have taken it if he -had. Thus far, he had made no progress towards the building of a Reaper -business. Instead of being the owner of a million, or any part of a -million, he was eight years older than when he had begun to seek his -fortune, and penniless. - -In this hour of debt and defeat Cyrus became the leader of the family. -Here for the first time he showed that indomitable spirit which was, -more than any other one thing, the secret of his success. At once he did -what he had not felt was possible before--he began to make Reapers. -Without money, without credit, without customers, he founded the first -of the world's reaper factories in the little log workshop near his -father's house. In the year of the iron failure, 1839, he gave a public -exhibition on the farm of Joshua Smith, near the town of Staunton. With -two men and a team of horses he cut two acres of wheat an hour. At this -there was great applause, but no buyers. - -The farmers of that day were not accustomed to the use of machinery. -Their farm tools, for the most part, were so simple as to be made -either by themselves or by the village blacksmith. That the Reaper did -the work of ten men, they could not deny. But it was driven by an -expert. "It's all very wonderful, but I'm running a farm, not a circus," -thought the average spectator at these exhibitions. Also, there was in -all Eastern States at that time a surplus of labor and a scarcity of -money, both of which tended to retard the adoption of the Reaper. - -Neither did the business men of Staunton pay any serious attention to -it. There was a Samson Eager at that time who made wagons, a David -Gilkerson who made furniture, a Jacob Kurtz who made spinning wheels, -and an Absalom Brooks who made harness. But none of these men saw any -fortune in the making of Reapers, and Staunton lost its great -opportunity to be a manufacturing centre. - -Failure was being heaped on failure, yet Cyrus McCormick hung to his -Reaper as John Knox had to his Bible. He went back to the little log -workshop with a fighting hope in his heart, and hammered away to make a -still better machine. - -This was the darkest period in the history of the McCormicks--from 1837 -to 1840. Once a constable named John Newton rode up to the farm-house -door with a summons, calling Cyrus and his father before the County -Judge on account of a debt of $19.01. A teamster named John Brains had -brought suit. His bill had been $72.00 and he had been paid more than -three-fourths of the money. But the constable was so impressed with the -honesty and industry of the McCormicks, that he rode back to town -without having served the summons. A little later, Mr. John Brains -received his money; and it may be said that had he accepted, instead, a -five per cent interest in the Reaper, he would have become in twenty -years or less one of the richest men in the county. - -As it happened, not one of Cyrus McCormick's creditors thought of such -an idea as seizing the Reaper, or the patent, which had been secured in -1834. If the queer-looking machine, which was regarded as part marvel -and part freak, had been put up to auction in that neighborhood of -farmers, very likely it would have found no bidders. There appeared to -be one man only, a William Massie, who appreciated the ability of Cyrus -McCormick and lent him sums of money on various urgent occasions. - -But in 1840 a stranger rode from the north and drew rein in front of the -little log workshop. In appearance he was a rough-looking man, but to -Cyrus he was an angel of light. He had come to buy a Reaper. He had been -one of the spectators at the Staunton exhibition, and he had resolved to -risk $50 on one of the new machines. His name, which deserves to be -recorded in the annals of the Reaper, was Abraham Smith. - -[Illustration: REAPING WITH CRADLES IN ILLINOIS] - -Several weeks later came two other angels in disguise--farmers who had -heard of the Reaper and who had ridden from their homes on the James -River, a forty-mile journey on horseback through the Blue Ridge -Mountains. These men had never seen a Reaper, but they had faith. -They were notable men. Both ordered machines, and Cyrus McCormick -accepted one of the orders only, as he was not satisfied with the way -his Reaper worked in grain that was wet. It was apt to clog in the -grooves that held the blade. Even in this darkest and most debt-ridden -period of his life, McCormick was much more intent, apparently, upon -making his Reapers work well than upon winning a fortune. - -Almost breathlessly, the young inventor waited for the next harvest. -This was the unique difficulty of his task, that he had only a few weeks -once a year to try out his machine and to improve it. He had now sold -two, so that there were three Reapers clicking through the grain-fields -in the Summer of 1840. They failed to operate evenly. Where the grain -was dry, they cut well; but where it was damp, they clogged and at times -refused to cut at all. - -Wet grain! This, after nine years of arduous labor, still remained a -stubborn obstacle to the success of the Reaper. It was especially hard -to overcome, because in that primitive neighborhood McCormick could not -secure the best workmanship in the making of the cutting-blade. However, -this obstacle did not daunt him. He gave his blade a more serrated edge, -and to his delight it cut down the wet grain very nearly as neatly as -the dry. - -This success had cost him another year, for he sold no machines in 1841. -But he had now, at least, a wholly satisfactory Reaper. Fortified with a -testimonial from Abraham Smith, he fixed the price at $100 and became a -salesman. By great persistence he sold seven Reapers in 1842, -twenty-nine in 1843, and fifty in 1844. At last, after thirteen years of -struggle and defeat, Cyrus McCormick had succeeded; and the home farm -was transformed into a busy and triumphant Reaper factory. - -There were new obstacles, of course. A few buyers failed to pay. Four -machines were held on loitering canal-boats until they were too late for -the harvest. There was strong opposition in several places by day -laborers. A trusted workman who was sent out to collect $300 ran away -with both horse and money. But none of these trifles moved the -victorious McCormick. The great stubborn world was about to surrender, -and he knew it. - -By 1844 he had done more than sell machines. He had made converts. One -enthusiastic farmer named James M. Hite, who had made a world's record -in 1843 by cutting 175 acres of wheat in less than eight days, was the -first of these apostles of the Reaper. "My Reaper has more than paid for -itself in one harvest," he said; and he gave $1,333 for the right to -sell Reapers in eight counties. Closely after this man came Colonel -Tutwiler, who agreed to pay $2,500 for the right to sell in southern -Virginia. And a manufacturer in Richmond, J. Parker, bought an agency in -five counties for $500; and won the renown of being the first business -man who appreciated the Reaper. All this money was not paid in at once. -Some of it was never paid. But after thirteen years of struggle and -debt, this was Big Business. - -Best of all, orders for seven Reapers had come from the West. Two -farmers in Tennessee and one each in Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, -Illinois, and Ohio, had written to McCormick for "Virginia Reapers," as -they were called in the farm papers of that day. These seven letters, as -may be imagined, brought great joy and satisfaction to the McCormick -family, which was now, under the leadership of Cyrus, devoting its best -energies to the making of Reapers. The Reapers were made and then, when -the question of their transportation arose, Cyrus for the first time saw -clearly that the Virginia farm was not the best site for a factory. To -get the seven Reapers to the West, they had first to be carried in -wagons to Scottsville, then by canal to Richmond, re-shipped down the -James River to the Atlantic Ocean and around Florida to New Orleans, -transferred here to a river boat that went up the Mississippi and Ohio -Rivers to Cincinnati, and from Cincinnati in various directions to the -expectant farmers. Four of these Reapers arrived too late for the -harvest of 1844, and two of them were not paid for. Clearly, something -must be done to supply the Western farmers more efficiently. - -[Illustration: AN EARLY ADVERTISEMENT FOR McCORMICK'S PATENT VIRGINIA -REAPER] - -At this time a friend said to him, "Cyrus, why don't you go West with -your Reaper, where the land is level and labor is scarce?" His mind was -ripe for this idea. It was the call of the West. So one morning he put -$300 into his belt and set off on a 3,000-mile journey to establish the -empire of the Reaper. Up through Pennsylvania he rode by stage to Lake -Ontario, then westward through Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, -Iowa, and Missouri. - -For the first time he saw the _prairies_. So vast, so flat, so fertile, -these boundless plains amazed him. And he was quick to see that this -great land ocean was the natural home of the Reaper. Virginia might, but -the West _must_, accept his new machine. - -Already the West was in desperate need of a quicker way to cut grain. As -McCormick rode through Illinois, he saw the most convincing argument in -favor of his Reaper. He saw hogs and cattle turned into fields of ripe -wheat, for lack of laborers to gather it in. The fertile soil had given -Illinois five million bushels of wheat, and it was too much. It was more -than the sickle and the scythe could cut. Men toiled and sweltered to -save the yellow affluence from destruction. They worked by day and by -night; and their wives and children worked. But the tragic aspect of the -grain crop is this--it must be gathered quickly or it breaks down and -decays. It will not wait. The harvest season lasts from four to ten days -only. And whoever cannot snatch his grain from the field during this -short period must lose it. - -Truly, the West needed the Reaper; and McCormick's first plan was to -overcome the transportation obstacle by selling licenses to many -manufacturers in many States. By 1846 he had, with herculean energy, -started Fitch & Company and Seymour, Morgan & Company in Brockport, N. -Y., Henry Bear in Missouri, Gray & Warner in Illinois, and A. C. Brown -in Cincinnati. These manufacturers, and the McCormick family in -Virginia, built 190 Reapers for the harvest of 1846. This was -multiplying the business by four, very nearly, but the plan was not -satisfactory. Some manufacturers used poor materials; some had unskilled -workmen; and one became so absorbed in new experiments that when the -harvest time arrived, his machines were not completed. - -The new difficulty was not to get manufacturers to make Reapers, but to -get them to make _good_ Reapers. What was to be done? The thought of -having defective Reapers scattered among the farmers was intolerable to -Cyrus McCormick. He pondered deeply over the whole situation. He -considered the fact that the supremacy in wheat was slowly passing from -Virginia to Ohio. He took note of the railroads that were creeping -westward. He remembered the limitless prairies, far out in the sunset -country, that were still uncultivated. Plainly, he must make Reapers in -a factory of his own, so as to have them made well, and he must locate -that factory as near as possible to the prairies, at some point along -the Great Lakes. With the most painstaking diligence he studied the map -and finally he put his finger upon a town--a small new town, which bore -the strange name of _Chicago_. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE BUILDING OF THE REAPER BUSINESS - - -Of all the cities that Cyrus McCormick had seen in his 3,000-mile -journey, Chicago was unquestionably the youngest, the ugliest, and the -most forlorn. It lacked the comforts of ordinary life, and many of the -necessities. For the most part, it was the residuum of a broken land -boom; and most of its citizens were remaining in the hope that they -might persuade some incoming stranger to buy them out. - -The little community, which had absurdly been called a city ten years -before, had at this time barely ten thousand people--as many as are now -employed by a couple of its department stores. It was exhausted by a -desperate struggle with mud, dust, floods, droughts, cholera, debt, -panics, broken banks, and a slump in land values. Other cities ridiculed -its ambitions and called it a mudhole. Its harbor, into which six small -schooners ventured in 1847, was obstructed by a sand-bar. And the entire -region, for miles back from the lake, was a dismal swamp--the natural -home of frogs, wild ducks, and beavers. - -The six years between 1837 and 1843 had been to Illinois a period of the -deepest discouragement. There was little or no money that any one could -accept with confidence. Trade was on a barter basis. The State was -hopelessly in debt. It had borrowed $14,000,000 in the enthusiasm of its -first land boom, and now had no money to pay the interest. Even as late -as 1846 there was only $9,000 in the State treasury. - -Buffalo was at this time the chief grain market of the United States. We -were selling a little wheat to foreign countries--much less than is -grown to-day in Oklahoma. Hulled corn was the staff of life in Iowa. The -Mormons had just started from Illinois on their 1,500-mile pilgrimage to -the West, through a country that had not a road, a village, a bridge, -nor a well. The sewing-machine had recently been invented by Howe, and -the use of ether had been announced by Dr. Morton; but there was no Hoe -press, nor Bessemer steel, nor even so much as a postage stamp. And in -the Old World the two most impressive figures, perhaps, were -Livingstone, the missionary, who was groping his way to the heart of the -Dark Continent, and DeLesseps, the master-builder of canals, who was now -cutting a channel through the hot sand at Suez. - -In Chicago, there was at this time no Board of Trade. The first wheat -had been exported nine years before--as much as would load an ordinary -wagon. There was no paved street, except one short block of wooden -paving. The houses were rickety, unpainted frame shanties, which had not -even the dignity of being numbered. There was a school, a jail, a police -force of six, a theatre, and a fire-engine. But there was no railroad, -nor telegraph, nor gas, nor sewer, nor stock-yards. The only post-office -was a little frame shack on Clark Street, with one window and one clerk; -and one of the lesser hardships of the citizens was to stand in line -here on rainy days. - -[Illustration: THE McCORMICK REAPER OF 1847, ON WHICH SEATS WERE PLACED -FOR THE DRIVER AND THE RAKER] - -Prosperity was still an elusive hope in 1847, but the spirit of -depression was being overcome. The Federal bankrupt law of 1842 had -broken the deadlock, and the Legislature had passed several "Hard Times" -measures for the relief of debtors. To such an extent had the little -community recovered its confidence that it opened a new theatre, -welcomed its first circus, founded a law-school, launched a new daily -paper called the _Tribune_, and organized a regiment for the Mexican -War. - -There were two Chicago events in this year which must have deeply -impressed Cyrus McCormick. The first was the arrival of a horde of -hunger-driven immigrants from Ireland. The famine of 1846, which had -caused 210,000 deaths in that unfortunate island, was driving the -survivors to America; and the people of Chicago showed the warmest -sympathy towards these gaunt, sad-faced newcomers. Even in the depth of -her own depression, Chicago called a special meeting to consider what -could be done to alleviate the suffering of the Irish, and gave several -thousand dollars for their relief. - -The second event was the holding of the great "River and Harbor -Convention" in Chicago. This was the first formal recognition of -Chicago by Congress, and gave the greatest possible amount of delight -and reassurance to its citizens. Abraham Lincoln, who had just been -elected to Congress, was there; and Horace Greeley and Thurlow Weed. -There was a grand procession in the muddy little main street. A ship -under full sail was hauled through the city on wheels. The newly -organized firemen, in the glory of red shirts and leather hats, threw a -stream of water over the flag-staff in the public square, and Thurlow -Weed, in a peroration that aroused the utmost enthusiasm, prophesied -that "on the shores of these lakes is a vast country that will in fifty -years support one-quarter of a million people." It is interesting to -notice that had Thurlow Weed lived fifty years after the delivery of -that optimistic prophecy, he would have seen one-quarter of a million -school children in the city of Chicago alone. - -As a matter of history, the arrival of McCormick was a much more -important event for Chicago than the "River and Harbor Convention." He -was the first of its big manufacturers. His factory was the largest and -the busiest; and the Reapers that it produced were a most important -factor in the growth of Chicago. Every Reaper shipped to the West was a -feeder of the city. It brought back more wheat. It opened up new -territory. The Reaper gave the farmers of the Middle West an ideal -weapon with which to win wealth from the prairies. And it established -the primary greatness of Chicago as the principal wheat market of the -world. - -This incoming flood of wheat gave Chicago its start as a railway and -shipping centre. Chicago was never obliged to give money, or to lend it, -to railroad companies. The railroads came into Chicago without the -inducement of subsidies, because they wanted to carry its wheat. And -ships, too, came more and more readily to Chicago when they found that -they could be sure of a return cargo. - -The choice of Chicago as his centre of operations was one of the -master-strokes of McCormick's career. At that time, Cleveland, -Milwaukee, and St. Louis were more prosperous cities; but McCormick -considered one thing only--the making and selling of his Reaper, and he -saw that Chicago, with all its mud and shabbiness, was the link between -the Great Lakes and the Great West. Here he could best assemble his -materials--steel from Sheffield, pig iron from Scotland and Pittsburg, -and white ash from Michigan. And here he could best ship his finished -machines to both East and West. - -Chicago, in fact, and the McCormick Reaper, had many characteristics in -common. Both were born at very nearly the same time. Both were cradled -in adversity. Both were unsightly to the artistic eye. Both were linked -closely with the development of the West. And both inevitably achieved -success, because they were fundamentally right--Chicago in location and -the Reaper in design. - -At the time that he began to build his Chicago factory, Cyrus McCormick -was no longer a country youth. He was thirty-eight years of age, and a -tall powerful Titan of a man, with a massive head and broad shoulders. -His upper lip was clean-shaven, but he had a thick, well-trimmed beard, -and dark, wavy hair, worn fairly long. His nose was straight and -well-shaped, his mouth firm, and his eyes brown-gray and piercing. In -manner he was resolute and prompt, with a rigid insistence that could -not be turned aside. He had won the prize in the contest of -reaper-inventors; and he was now about to enter a second contest, -against overwhelming odds, with a number of aggressive and competent -business men who had determined that, by right or by might, they would -manufacture McCormick Reapers and sell them to the farmers. - -As McCormick had neither money nor credit, it was evident to him that -his first step in business-building must be to secure a partner who had -both of these. He looked about him and selected the man who was -unquestionably the first citizen of Chicago--William B. Ogden. Ogden had -been the first mayor of the little city. He had been from the beginning -its natural leader. He had built the first handsome house, promoted the -first canal, and was now busy in the building of the first railroad -from Chicago to Galena. - -William Butler Ogden had been born in the little New York hamlet of -Walton, four years earlier than the birth of McCormick. To use his own -picturesque words, he "was born close to a saw-mill, was early left an -orphan, christened in a mill-pond, taught at a log school-house, and at -fourteen fancied that nothing was impossible, which ever since, and with -some success, I have been trying to prove." Once in Chicago he quickly -made a fortune in real estate, and was generally looked to as the leader -in any large enterprise that promised to help Chicago. - -[Illustration: CYRUS HALL McCORMICK - -From a Daguerreotype, taken about 1839] - -He was a tall man of striking appearance. At that time he wore no beard, -and with his keen eyes, high forehead, long straight nose, and masterful -under-lip, he would attract attention in any assemblage. By his -hospitality and courtly manners he made many friends for the city. Among -his guests were Webster, Van Buren, Bryant, Tilden, and Miss Martineau. -And when Cyrus McCormick came to him and proposed the building of a -Reaper factory, Ogden was as quick as a flash to see its value to -Chicago. "You are the man we want," said he to McCormick. "I'll give you -$25,000 for a half interest, and we'll start to build the factory at -once." - -This partnership helped McCormick greatly. It gave him at once capital, -credit, prestige, and a factory. It enabled him to escape from the -tyranny of small anxieties. It set him free from contract-breaking -manufacturers, who looked upon the making of Reapers merely as business, -and not, as McCormick did, as a mission. He now had his chance to -manufacture on a large scale; and he immediately made plans to sell 500 -Reapers for the harvest of 1848. He built the largest factory in -Chicago, on the spot where John Kinzie had built the first house in -1804, and thus once for all was solved the problem of where and how his -Reapers should be made. - -For two years it was one of the sights of Chicago to see McCormick and -Ogden walking together to their factory. They were both tall, powerful, -dominating men, and were easily the chief citizens--the Romulus and -Remus of a city that was destined to be more populous than Rome. - -But they were not suited as co-workers. Each was too strong-willed for -co-operative action. Also, Ogden was a man of many interests, while -McCormick was absorbed in his Reaper. There was no open quarrel, but in -1849 McCormick said: "I will pay you back the $25,000 that you invested, -and give you $25,000 for profits and interest." Ogden accepted, well -pleased to have doubled his money in two years; and from that time -onward McCormick had no partners except the members of his own family. - -Moving at once from one obstacle to another, as McCormick did throughout -the whole course of his life, he now began to create the best possible -_system_ of selling his Reapers to the farmers. This he had to do, for -the reason that there was no means at that time whereby he could offer -them for sale. The village blacksmith was too busy at his anvil to -become an agent. The village storekeeper was not a mechanic, and was -too careful of his reputation among the farmers to offer for sale a -machine that he did not understand. Therefore, McCormick bent all his -energies to this new task of devising a mode of action. He began to -develop what he was apt to call "the finger-ends of the business." And -he created a new species of commercial organization which is by many -thought to be fully as remarkable as his invention of the Reaper. - -First, he gave a _Written Guarantee_ with every machine. He had -conceived of this inducement as early as 1842. He "warranted the -performance of the Reaper in every respect," and by this means made -seven sales in that year. In 1848 he had his guarantee printed like an -advertisement, with a picture of the Reaper at the top, and blank spaces -for the farmer, the agent, and two witnesses to sign. The price of the -machine was to be $120. The farmer was to pay $30 cash, and the balance -in six months, on condition that the Reaper would cut one and a half -acres an hour, that it would scatter less grain than the grain-cradle, -that it was well made, and that the raking off could easily be done from -a raker's seat. If the Reaper failed to fulfil these promises, it was to -be brought back and the $30 was to be refunded. - -This idea of giving a free trial, and returning the money to any -dissatisfied customer, was at that time new and revolutionary. To-day it -is the code of the department store, and even the mail-order -establishments are in many instances adopting it. It has become one of -the higher laws of the business world. It has driven that discreditable -maxim, "Let the buyer beware," out of all decent commercialism. To -McCormick, who had never studied the selfish economic theories of his -day, there was no reason for any antagonism between buyer and seller. He -trusted his Reaper and he trusted the farmers. And he built his business -foursquare on this confidence. - -Second, he sold his Reapers at a _Known Price_. He announced the price -in newspapers and posters. This, too, has since become an established -rule in business; but it was not so sixty years ago. The Oriental method -of chaffering and bargaining was largely in vogue. The buyer got as high -a price as he could in each case. Among merchants, A. T. Stewart was -probably the first to abolish this practice of haggling, and to mark his -goods in plain figures. And in the selling of farm machinery, it was -McCormick who laid down the principle of equal prices to all and special -rebates to none--a principle which has been very generally followed ever -since, except during periods of over-strenuous competition. - -Third, he was one of the first American business men who believed -heartily in a policy of _Publicity_. As early as September 28, 1833, he -began to advertise his Reaper; and his advertisement was nearly a column -in length. Also, in the same paper, he had a half-column advertisement -of his hillside plow. This was publicity on a large scale, according to -the ideas of advertising that were then prevalent. Even George -Washington, when advertising an extensive land scheme in 1773, had not -thought of using more than half a column of a Baltimore paper. - -McCormick was an efficient advertiser, too, as well as an enterprising -one. When he talked to farmers, he knew what to say. He told the story -of what one of his Reapers had done, and named the time and the farm and -the farmers. He made great use of the argument that the Reaper pays for -itself, and showed that it would cost the farmer less to buy it than -_not_ to buy it. - -Among the many testimonials that he got from farmers the one that -pleased him most, and which he scattered broadcast, was one in which a -farmer said: "My Reaper has more than paid for itself in one harvest." - -[Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW SHOWING THE McCORMICK REAPER WORKS BEFORE -THE CHICAGO FIRE OF 1871, ON CHICAGO RIVER, EAST OF RUSH STREET BRIDGE] - -In 1849, when the rush to the new gold mines of California began, he was -quick to see his opportunity. This sudden exodus of a hundred thousand -men to the Pacific coast meant much to him, and he knew it. It meant a -decrease in the number of farm laborers and an increase in the amount of -money in circulation. More than this, it meant that Chicago was no -longer a city of the Far West. It was _central_. It was the link between -the banks and factories of the East and the gold mines and prairies of -the West. So McCormick quickly prepared an elaborate advertisement, -warning the farmers that labor would now become scarce and expensive, -that the coming grain crop promised to be a large one, and giving the -names and addresses of ninety-two farmers who were now using his -machines. - -The fourth factor in the McCormick System was the appointment of a -_Responsible Agent_ and the building of a storage warehouse at every -competitive point. He did not wait for the business to grow. He pushed -it. He thrust it forward by sending an agent to every danger-spot on the -firing-line. As one of his competitors complained, in an 1848 lawsuit, -McCormick "flooded the country with his machines." He knew that many -farmers would be undecided until the very hour of harvest, when there -would be no time to get a Reaper from Chicago; and therefore he had -supplies of machines stored in various parts of the country. By 1849 he -had nineteen of these agencies. - -His plan, with regard to these agents, was to fasten them to him by -exclusive contracts, which forbade them to sell Reapers made by any -other manufacturers. Each agent was given free scope. He was not worried -by detail instructions. He was picked out for his aggressive, -self-reliant qualities, and the whole responsibility of a certain -territory was put upon him. Once a month he made a report; but he stood -or fell by the final showing for the year, which he made in October. -This plan of leaving his men free and putting them upon their mettle, -developed their mental muscle to the utmost. Also, it made them -intensely loyal and combative--a regiment, not of private soldiers, but -generals, each one in charge of his own province, blamed for his defeats -and rewarded for his victories. - -The fifth factor in the McCormick System was the _Customers' Good-Will_. -For the good-will of other capitalists or for the applause of the -public in general, no men cared less than McCormick. But he always stood -well with the farmers. "I have never yet sued a farmer for the price of -a Reaper," he said in 1848. This heroic policy he pursued as long as -possible, knowing the fear that all farmers have of contracts that may -lead them into litigation. More than this, he freely gave them credit, -without being safeguarded by any Dun or Bradstreet. He allowed them to -pay with the money that was saved during the harvest. "It is better that -I should wait for the money," he said, "than that you should wait for -the machine that you need." So he borrowed money in Chicago to build the -Reapers, borrowed more money to pay the freight, and then sold them on -time to the farmers. - -In some cases he lost heavily, as in Kansas and North Dakota, where the -first settlers were driven off by drought. But as a rule he lost little -by bad debts. Immigrants of twenty nationalities swarmed westward upon -the free land offered to them by the United States Government, and -usually each man found waiting for him at the nearest town one of the -McCormick agents, ready to supply him with a Reaper, whether he had the -money to pay for it or not. As may be imagined, the effect of this -policy upon the settlement and welfare of the West was magical. There -are to-day tens of thousands of Western farmers who date the era of -their prosperity from the day when a McCormick Reaper arrived in all the -glory of its red paint and shining blade, and held its first reception -in the barn-yard. - -One instance of this deserves to be embodied in the history of the -Reaper. In 1855 a poor tenant farmer, who had been evicted from his -rented land in Ayrshire, Scotland, arrived with his family at the banks -of the Mississippi. There was then no railroad nor stage-coach, so the -whole family walked to a quarter section of land farther west, not far -from where the city of Des Moines stands to-day. The first year they cut -the wheat with the cradle and the scythe, and the following year they -bought a McCormick Reaper. They prospered. The father went back for a -visit to Ayrshire and paid all his creditors. And the eldest son, -James, became first Speaker of the Iowa Legislature, then a professor -in an agricultural college, and finally the founder of the Department of -Agriculture in all its present completeness. To-day we know him as the -Honorable James Wilson, the first official farmer of the United States. - -There was one other method in the marketing of farm machinery, which -seems to have been originated by McCormick--the _Field Test_. As a means -of stirring up interest in an indifferent community, this was the most -electrical in its effects of any plan that has ever been devised. As a -pioneering advertisement, it was unsurpassed. It was nothing less than a -contest in a field of ripe grain between several machines that belonged -to rival manufacturers. Sometimes there were only two machines, and in -one grand tournament there were forty. And all the farmers in the county -were invited to come and witness the battle free of charge. - -The first of these field tests occurred near Richmond in 1844. McCormick -had challenged Obed Hussey, a Baltimore sailor who had invented a -practical mowing-machine, and who was offering it for sale to cut grain -as well as grass. In this instance McCormick won easily. The judges said -that while the Hussey machine was stronger and simpler, having no reel -nor divider, the McCormick Reaper was lighter, cheaper, scattered less -grain, and was better at cutting grain that was wet and in its method of -delivering the grain. - -"Meet Hussey whenever you can and put him down," Cyrus McCormick wrote -to his brothers. In one letter, written the following year, he is so -enthusiastically aggressive in the pursuit of Hussey that he proposes to -his brothers a grand final contest. Hussey is to be dared to sign an -agreement that in case of defeat, he will pay McCormick $10,000 and -become the Maryland agent for the McCormick Reaper. McCormick, on his -part, is to agree that if he is beaten he will pay Hussey $10,000 and -become the Virginia agent for the Hussey machine. Nothing came of this -confident proposal, either because it was not put into effect by -McCormick, because Hussey refused to accept it. - -But the field test flourished for more than forty years. It did more in -the earlier days than any other one thing to make talk about the Reaper -and to move the farmers out of the old-fashioned ruts. It provided the -vaudeville element which is necessary in salesmanship where people are -not interested in the commodity itself. As often happens, it was in the -end carried too far. It became the most costly weapon of competition. It -introduced all manner of unfairness and often violence. The most absurd -tests were frequently agreed to. Mowers would be chained back to back -and then forcibly torn apart. Reapers were driven into groves of -saplings. Machines of special strength were made secretly. And so the -warfare raged, until by general consent the field test was abandoned. - -These six factors of the McCormick System became the six commandments of -the farm machinery business. They were largely adopted by his -competitors, and exist to-day, with the exception of the exclusive -contract and the field test. - -By 1850 McCormick had not only solved the problem of the Reaper; he had -worked out a method of distribution. He had established a new business. -But even this was not enough. He was now beset by a swarm of -manufacturers who sought to deprive him of his patents and of a business -which he naturally regarded as his own. It remained to be seen whether -he could stand his ground when opposed by several hundred rivals; and -whether he could duplicate in the courts the victories that he had won -in the fields. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE STRUGGLE TO PROTECT PATENTS - - -In 1848 Cyrus McCormick's original patent expired. He applied to have it -extended, and at once there began one of the most extraordinary legal -wars ever known in the history of the Patent Office. It continued with -very little cessation until 1865. It enlisted on one side or the other -the ablest lawyers of that period--such giants of the bar as Lincoln, -Stanton, Seward, Douglas, Harding, Watson, Dickerson, and Reverdy -Johnson. The tide of battle rolled from court to court until the final -clash came in the chamber of the Supreme Court and the halls of -Congress. It was perhaps the most Titanic effort that any American -inventor has ever made to protect his rights and to carry out the -purpose of the Patent Law. - -McCormick had strong reasons for believing that his patent should be -extended. He was asking for no more than the Patent Office, on other -occasions, had granted to other inventors. A patent was supposed to -protect an inventor for fourteen years, and he had lost half of this -time in making a better machine, and in finding out the best way to -carry on the business. He had received from all sources nearly $24,000, -and most of it had been swallowed up in expenses. He was still a poor -man in 1848. He was no more than on the threshold of prosperity. And his -peculiar difficulty, which gave him a special claim upon the Patent -Commissioners, was the shortness of the harvest season. He had only -three or four weeks in each year in which he could make experiments. - -For eight years McCormick's claim was tossed back and forth like a -tennis ball between the Patent Office and Congress. This delay threw the -door wide open to competition. A score of manufacturers built factories -and began to make McCormick Reapers, with trifling variations and under -other names. If McCormick had won his case, they would have had to pay -him a royalty of $25 on each machine. Consequently, they combined -against him. They hired lawyers and lobbyists, secured petitions from -farmers, and raised a hue and cry that one man was "trying to impose a -tax of $500,000 a year upon the starving millions of the world." - -One firm of lawyers in Cincinnati sent a letter to these manufacturers -in 1850, saying that, "McCormick can be beaten in the Patent Office, and -must be beaten now or never. If funds are furnished us, we shall surely -beat him; but if they are not furnished us, he will as certainly beat -us. Please, therefore, take hold and help us to beat the _common enemy_. -The subscriptions have ranged from $100 to $1,000.... Send in also to -Patent Office hundreds of remonstrances like this: We oppose the -extension of C. H. McCormick's patent. He has made money enough off of -the farmer." - -Towards the end of this famous case, the anti-McCormick lobby at the -Capitol became so rabid that Senator Brown, of Mississippi, made an -indignant protest on the floor of the Senate. He said: "Why, Mr. -President, if it were not for the people out of doors, people without -inventive genius, people without the genius to invent a mouse-trap or a -fly-killer, who are pirating on the great invention of McCormick, there -would never have been an hour's delay in granting all that he asks. I -know, and I state here, in the face of the American Senate and the -world, that these men have beset me at every corner of the street with -their papers and their affidavits--men who have no claim to the ear of -the country, men who have rendered it no service, but who have invested -their paltry dollars in the production of a machine which sprang from -the mind of another man; and who now, for their own gain, employ lawyers -to draw cunning affidavits, to devise cunning schemes, and to put on -foot all sorts of machinery to defeat McCormick." - -What worried McCormick most was not this consolidation of competitors, -but the fact that a few farmers had signed petitions of protest against -his claim. This was "the most unkindest cut of all." But he made no -attack upon them. Manufacturers he would fight, and inventors and -lawyers and judges--any one and every one, if need be, except farmers. -"How can the farmers be against me?" he asked in amazement. "They save -the price of the Reaper in a single harvest." - -McCormick lost his suit, as he did a second time in 1859, and a third -time in 1861. Not one of his patents was at any time renewed. Up to 1858 -he had received $40,000 in royalties, but it had cost him $90,000 in -litigation. From first to last he did not get one dollar of net profit -from the protection of the Patent Office. - -Many other inventors were fairly treated by Congress. Fulton, for -example, was presented with a bonus of $76,300. Willmoth, who improved -the turret of a battleship, received $50,000. Professor Page, for making -an electric engine, was given $20,000. Morse was awarded $38,000. The -patents of Goodyear, Kelly, Howe, Morse, Hyatt, Woodworth, and Blanchard -were extended. The protection of inventors had been a national -policy--an American tradition. In the phrasing of Daniel Webster: "The -right of an inventor to his invention is a natural right, which existed -before the Constitution was written and which is above the -Constitution." - -The benefit of the Reaper to the nation, and the fact that McCormick was -its inventor, were admitted freely enough. Senator Johnson, of Maryland, -estimated in 1858 that the Reaper was then worth to the United States -$55,000,000 a year. D. P. Holloway, the Commissioner of Patents, sang an -anthem of eloquent praise to McCormick in 1861. "He is an inventor whose -fame, while he is yet living, has spread through the world," he said. -"His genius has done honor to his own country, and has been the -admiration of foreign nations. He will live in the grateful recollection -of mankind as long as the reaping-machine is employed in gathering the -harvest." Then, in an abrupt postscript to so fine a eulogy, this -extraordinary Commissioner adds: "But the Reaper is of too great value -to the public to be controlled by any individual, and the extension of -his patent is refused." - -[Illustration: PAINTING BY C. SCHUSSELE, PHILADELPHIA, 1861 - -ENGRAVED ON STEEL BY JOHN SARTAIN, PHILADELPHIA, 1862 - -MEN OF PROGRESS - -STANDING, LEFT TO RIGHT: 1, Dr. W. T. G. Morton, first man to administer -ether to a patient; 2, J. Bogardus, invented ring spinner (for cotton -spinning), an engraving machine, and dry gas meter; 3, S. Colt, -revolver; 4, Cyrus Hall McCormick, reaper; 5, Joseph Saxton, locomotive -differential pulley and deep sea thermometer; 6, Peter Cooper, founder -of Cooper Union and inventor machine for mortising hubs for carriage -wheels; 7, Prof. J. Henry, inventor of communication by electricity; 8, -E. B. Bigelow, power loom for spinning jenny. - -SITTING, LEFT TO RIGHT: 1, C. Goodyear, vulcanizer of rubber; 2, J. L. -Mott, iron manufacturer and inventor; 3. Dr. E. Nott, base burner for -stoves: 4, F. E. Sickles, inventor of cut-off of steam in engine; 5, S. -F. B. Morse, telegraph; 6, H. Burden, cultivator, and machine for making -horseshoes; 7, R. M. Hoe, printing press; 8, I. Jennings; 9, T. -Blanchard, machine for cutting and heading tacks, and lathe for turning -irregular forms: 10, E. Howe, sewing machine.] - -The truth seems to be that McCormick was too strong, too aggressive, to -receive fair play at the hands of any legislative body. The note of -sympathy could never be struck in his favor. He personally directed his -own cases. He dominated his own lawyers. And he fought always in an -old-fashioned, straight-from-the-shoulder way that put him at a great -disadvantage in a legal conflict. Also, he was supposed to be much -richer than in reality he was. He had made money by the rise in Chicago -real estate. By 1866 he had become a millionaire. And his entire fortune -was assumed by opposing lawyers to be the product of the Reaper -business. - -It is to be said, to the lasting honor of South Carolina, that she gave -a grant of money to Whitney, out of the public treasury, as a token of -gratitude for the invention of the cotton gin. But no wheat State ever -gave, or proposed to give, any grant or vote of thanks to Cyrus -McCormick for the invention of the Reaper. The business that he -established was never at any time favored by a tariff, or franchise, or -patent extension, or tax exemption, or land grant, or monopoly. -Single-handed he built it up, and single-handed he held it against all -comers. If, as Emerson has said, an institution is no more than "the -lengthened shadow of one man," we may fairly say that the immense -McCormick Company of to-day is no more than the lengthened shadow of -this farm-bred Virginian. - -By 1855 McCormick realized that the Federal Government was not the -impartial tribunal that he had believed it to be. He saw that he could -not depend upon it for protection, so he made a characteristic -decision--he resolved to protect himself. He, too, would hire a battery -of lawyers and charge down upon these manufacturers who were -unrighteously making his Reaper and depriving him of his patents. He -engaged three of the master lawyers of the American bar, William H. -Seward, E. N. Dickerson, and Senator Reverdy Johnson, and brought suit -against Manny and Emerson, of Rockford, Illinois, for making McCormick -Reapers without a license. - -Then came a three-year struggle that shook the country and did much to -shape the history of the American people. Manny and Emerson, who were -shrewd and forceful men, hired twice as many lawyers as McCormick and -prepared to defend themselves. They selected as the members of this -legal bodyguard, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Edwin M. Stanton, -Peter H. Watson, George Harding, and Congressman H. Winter Davis. - -It was a battle of giants. Greek met Greek with weapons of eloquence. -But Stanton out-classed his great co-debaters in a speech of -unanswerable power which unfortunately was not reported. The speech so -vividly impressed McCormick that in his next lawsuit he at once engaged -Stanton. It awoke the brain of Lincoln, as he afterwards admitted; and -drove him back to a more comprehensive study of the law. It gave Lincoln -so high an opinion of Stanton's ability that, when he became President -several years later, he chose Stanton to be his Secretary of War. And it -gripped judge and jury with such effect that McCormick lost his case. It -was a wonderful speech. - -Abraham Lincoln, who made no speech at all, was the one who derived the -most benefit in the end from this lawsuit. It not only aroused his -ambitions, but gave him his first big fee--$1,000. This money came to -him at the precise moment when he needed it most, to enable him to enter -into the famous debate with Douglas--the debate that made him the -inevitable candidate of the Republican party. It is interesting to note -how closely the destinies of Lincoln and McCormick were interwoven. Both -were born in 1809, on farms in the South. Both struggled through a youth -of adversity and first came into prominence in Illinois. Both labored to -preserve the Union, and when the War of Secession came it was the Reaper -that enabled Lincoln to feed his armies. Both men were emancipators, the -one from slavery and the other from famine; and both to-day sleep under -the soil of Illinois. No other two Americans had heavier tasks than -they, and none worked more mightily for the common good. - -Of all McCormick's lawsuits, and they were many, the most extraordinary -was the famous Baggage Case, which lasted for twenty-three years--from -1862 to 1885. It was probably the best single instance of the man's -dogged tenacity in defence of a principle. The original cause of this -trial was a comedy of mishaps. A McCormick family party of six, with -nine trunks, boarded a train at Philadelphia for Chicago. The train was -about to start, when the baggage-master demanded pay for 200 pounds of -surplus baggage. The amount was only $8.70, but McCormick refused to pay -it. He called his family out of the train and ordered that his trunks be -taken off. The conductor refused to hold the train, and the trunks were -carried away. Mr. McCormick at once saw the president of the railroad, -J. Edgar Thompson, who telegraphed an order for the trunks to be put off -at Pittsburg. The McCormicks set out for Chicago by the next train. At -Pittsburg they learned that the trunks had been carried through to -Chicago. And the next day, in Chicago, when McCormick went to the Fort -Wayne depot, he found it a mass of smoking cinders. It had caught fire -in the night, and the nine trunks had been destroyed. - -McCormick sued the railroad for $7,193--the value of the trunks and -their contents. Repeatedly he won and repeatedly the railroad appealed -to higher courts. After twenty years the worn and battered case was -carried up to the nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court. They -decided for McCormick. But even then the railroad evaded payment for -three years, until after McCormick's death. Then the president of the -road signed a check for $18,060.79, which was the original value of the -nine trunks plus twenty-three years' interest. - -McCormick did not for a moment regard this case as trivial. It involved -a principle. Once when a friend bantered him for fighting so hard over a -small matter, he replied, "My conscience, sir! I don't know what would -become of the American people if there were not some one to stand up for -fair dealing." His victory did much to teach the railroads better -manners and a finer consideration of the travelling public. Soon after -the conclusion of the case, a trunk belonging to a relative of the -McCormicks was destroyed on the New York Central. It value was $1,300, -and one of the railroad's lawyers promptly sent a check, saying, "We -don't want to have a lawsuit with the McCormicks." - -For these numerous lawsuits McCormick paid a terrible price, both in -money and friendship. He acquired a reputation as "a man who would law -you to death." He brought down upon himself to a remarkable degree the -hostility of his competitors, and prevented himself from receiving the -full credit and prestige that he deserved. Instead of being revered as -the father of the Reaper business, he was feared as an industrial -Bismarck--a man of unyielding will and indomitable purpose, who regarded -his competitors as a pack of trespassers in an empire that belonged by -right to him. - -The truth is that this situation did not arise because of the natural -perversity of either McCormick or his competitors. In his later life, -McCormick proved that he could co-operate with his equals in the most -harmonious way, in a new business enterprise. His competitors, too, were -for the most part men of ability and uprightness. Neither in their -public nor private lives, was there any stain upon the honor of such men -as Wood, Osborne, Adriance, Manny, Emerson, Huntley, Warder. Bushnell, -Glessner, Jones, and Lewis Miller. But these men were all newcomers. -They were beardless striplings compared to McCormick. He had made and -exhibited a successful Reaper twenty years before the first of them -began. His father had grappled with the problem of the Reaper before -most of them were born. It was inevitable, therefore, that there should -have been an unspanable gap between the two points of view. McCormick -stood alone because he _was_ alone. He and the Reaper had grown up -together in long hazardous years of pioneering, through ridicule and -poverty and failure. It was his dream come true. And in the same spirit -with which he had fought to create it, he also fought to hold it, and to -protect it from men to whom it was not a dream and a life-mission, but a -mere machine. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE EVOLUTION OF THE REAPER - - -Of all the varieties of difficulties that confronted Cyrus H. McCormick -during his strenuous life, the most baffling and disconcerting -difficulty was when his Reaper began to grow. For fifteen years--from -1845 to 1860--it had remained unchanged except that seats had been added -for the raker and the driver. It did no more than cut the grain and -leave it on the ground in loose bundles. It had abolished the sickler -and the cradler; but there yet remained the raker and the binder. Might -it not be possible, thought the restless American brain, to abolish -these also and leave no one but the driver? - -This at once became a most popular and fascinating problem for -inventors. There was by this time everything to gain and nothing to lose -by improving the Reaper. There was no opposition and no ridicule. To cut -grain by horse-power had become, of course, the only proper way of -cutting it. As many as 20,000 Reapers of all kinds were made in 1860; -and McCormick's factory had grown to be the pride of Chicago. It was 90 -by 150 feet in size, two stories high, and gave work to about a hundred -and twenty men. - -As early as 1852 a fantastic self-rake Reaper had been invented by a -mechanical genius named Jearum Atkins. This man was a bed-ridden -cripple, who, to while away the tiresome hours of his confinement, -bought a McCormick Reaper, had it placed outside his window, and -actually devised an attachment to it which automatically raked off the -cut grain in bundles. It was a grotesque contrivance. The farmers -nicknamed it the "Iron Man." It consisted of an upright post, with two -revolving iron arms. These arms whirled stiffly around, windmill -fashion, and scraped the grain from the platform to the ground. - -An amusing anecdote of this machine was told by Henry Wallace, known to -all farmers of the Middle West as the founder of _Wallace's Farmer_. -"The first Reaper that my father bought," said Mr. Wallace, "was a -McCormick machine that had an 'Iron Man' on it. The first day that it -was driven into the grain it made such a clatter that the horses ran -away. It was certainly a terrifying sight as it rattled through the -wheat, with its long, rake-fingered arms flying and hurling the cut -grain in the wildest disorder. It was as good as a chariot race in a -circus to the crowd of farmers, who had come to see how the new machine -would operate. The next day my father tried again. There had been rain -during the night, and the heavy machine stuck fast in the mud. It had -cost $300, but my father took the 'Iron Man' off, and during the -remainder of that harvest we raked off the grain by hand." - -A great variety of self-rake Reapers soon appeared, and after 1860 the -farmers would buy no other kind. Thus a part of the problem had been -solved. The raker was abolished. There now remained the much more -difficult work of supplanting the binder--the man, or sometimes woman, -who gathered up the bundles of cut grain, and, making a crude rope of -the grain itself, bound it tightly around the middle, making what was -called a sheaf. This was hard, back-breaking work, intolerable when the -sun was hot, except to men of the strongest physique. It required not -strength only, but skill. Ninety-nine farmers out of a hundred believed -that it would always have to be done by hand. "How can it be possible," -they asked, "that a machine which is being dragged by horses over a -rough field can at the same time be picking up grain and tying knots?" - -Just then two young farmers near De Kalb came to the rescue by inventing -a new species of machine. It was neither a Reaper nor a self-binder. It -was half-way between the two. It was the missing link. It appeared that -an inventor named Mann had taken a McCormick Reaper and built a moving -platform upon it, in such a way that the grain was carried up to a wagon -which was drawn alongside. These two young farmers had bought a Mann -machine, and one of them, when he saw it in operation, originated a -brilliant idea. - -"Why should the grain be carried up to a wagon?" he asked. "Why can't -we put a foot-board on the machine, for two of us to stand on, and then -bind the grain as fast as it is carried up?" - -This was the origin of the "Marsh Harvester," which held the field for -ten years or longer. It did not abolish the man who bound, but it gave -him a chance to work twice as fast. It compelled him to be quick. It -saved him the trouble of walking from bundle to bundle. It enabled him -to stand erect. And best of all, it put half a dozen inventors on the -right line of thought. Plainly, what was needed now was to teach a Marsh -Harvester to tie knots. - -One evening in 1874 a tall man, with a box under his arm, walked -diffidently up the steps of the McCormick home in Chicago, and rang the -bell. He asked to see Mr. McCormick, and was shown into the parlor, -where he found Mr. McCormick, sitting as usual in a large and -comfortable chair. - -"My name is Withington," said the stranger. "I live in Janesville, -Wisconsin. I have here a model of a machine that will automatically -bind grain." Now, it so happened that McCormick had been kept awake -nearly the whole of the previous night by a stubborn business problem. -He could scarcely hold his eyelids apart. And when Withington was in the -midst of his explanation, with the intentness of a born inventor, -McCormick fell fast asleep. - -At such a reception to his cherished machine, Withington lost heart. He -was a gentle, sensitive man, easily rebuffed, and so, when McCormick -aroused from his nap, Withington had departed and was on his way back to -Wisconsin. For a few seconds McCormick was uncertain as to whether his -visitor had been a reality or a dream. Then he awoke with a start into -instant action. A great opportunity had come to him and he had let it -slip. He was at this time making self-rake Reapers and Marsh Harvesters; -but what he wanted--what every Reaper manufacturer wanted in 1874--was a -self-binder. He at once called to him one of his trusted workmen. - -"I want you to go to Janesville," he said. "Find a man named Withington, -and bring him to me by the first train that comes back to Chicago." - -The next day Withington was brought back and treated with the utmost -courtesy. McCormick studied his invention and found it to be a most -remarkable mechanism. Two steel arms caught each bundle of grain, -whirled a wire tightly around it, fastened the two ends together with a -twist, cut it loose and tossed it to the ground. This self-binder was -perfect in all its details--as neat and effective a machine as could be -imagined. McCormick was delighted. At last, here was a machine that -would abolish the binding of grain by hand. - -A bargain was made with Withington on the spot; and the following July a -self-binder was tried on the Sherwood farm, near Elgin, Illinois. It cut -fifty acres of wheat and bound every bundle without a slip. From this -time onwards no one was needed but a man, a boy, a girl, anybody, who -could hold the reins and drive a team of horses. Of the ten or twelve -sweating drudges who toiled in the harvest-field, all were now to be set -free--the sicklers, cradlers, rakers, binders--every one except the -driver, and he (or she) was to have the glory of riding on the triumphal -chariot of a machine that did all the work itself. - -"There were ten men working in my wheat-field in the old days," said an -Illinois farmer. "But to-day our hired girl climbs upon the spring seat -of a self-binder and does the whole business." - -McCormick was not the first to make one of these magical machines. There -was an able and enterprising manufacturer in New York State, Walter A. -Wood, who in 1873 had made three Withington binders, under the -supervision of Sylvanus D. Locke, who had been a co-worker with -Withington. McCormick had given Wood his start, as early as 1853, by -selling him a license to make Reapers; and Wood, by his high personal -qualities, had built up a most extensive business. But McCormick was the -first to make self-binders upon a large scale. He made 50,000 of the -Withington machines, and pushed them with irresistible energy. - -[Illustration: THE FIRST McCORMICK SELF-RAKE REAPING MACHINE] - -He originated a new method of advertising the self-binders among the -farmers. Special flat-cars were provided for him by the railroads. Upon -each one of these cars a binder was placed, in the charge of an expert. -These cars, during the harvest season, were attached to ordinary freight -trains; and whenever the train came to a busy wheat-field it was stopped -for an hour or more, the self-binder was rushed from the car to the -field, and an exhibition of its skill given to the wondering farmers. -Then it was put back on its car, and the train resumed its leisurely -course until it arrived at the next scene of harvesting. - -The sensitive-natured inventor, Charles B. Withington, who gave such -timely aid to McCormick, was one of the most romantic knights-errant of -industry in his generation. Born near Akron a year before McCormick -invented his Reaper, he was trained by his father to be a watchmaker. At -fifteen, to earn some pocket-money, he went into the harvest field to -bind grain. He was not robust, and the hard, stooping labor under a hot -sun would sometimes bring the blood to his head in a hemorrhage. There -were times after the day's work was done when he was too weary to walk -home, and would throw himself upon the stubble to rest. - -At eighteen he set out to find his fortune in the far West, became a -Forty-niner, drifted to Australia, and in 1855 came back to Janesville, -Wisconsin, with three thousand dollars or more in his belt. All this -money he proceeded to fritter away on the invention of a self-rake -Reaper--"a crazy scheme," as the townspeople called it. As it happened, -the whole southern region of Wisconsin was being stirred up at that time -by the speeches of an inventive Madison editor, who went by the name of -"Pump" Carpenter. Carpenter's hobby was that the binding of grain must -be done by machinery. He was eloquent and popular, and his arguments -were substantiated by a little model which he was accustomed to carry -about with him. Withington heard him speak and was converted. He dropped -his self-rake reaper and went to work upon a self-binder. He completed -his first machine in 1872, and was thrust from one discouragement to -another until two years later he met McCormick. - -It is a most interesting fact, and certainly not an accidental one, that -the group of noted inventors who together produced the self-binder all -appeared from the region south of Madison, which had been so aroused by -the eloquence of "Pump" Carpenter. Besides C. B. Withington, there were -Sylvanus D. Locke, also of Janesville, H. A. Holmes, of Beloit, John F. -Appleby, of Mazomanie, W. W. Burson, Jacob Behel, George H. Spaulding, -and Marquis L. Gorham, of Rockford. - -Until 1880, all went well with McCormick and the Withington self-binder. -Apparently, the process of invention had ceased. The Reaper had become -of age. This miraculous wire-twisting machine was working everywhere -with clock-like precision, and was believed to be the best that human -ingenuity could devise. Then, like a bolt of lightning from a blue sky, -came the news that William Deering had made and sold 3,000 _twine_ -self-binders, and that the farmers had all at once become prejudiced -against the use of wire. Wire, they said, got mixed with the straw and -killed their cattle. Wire fell in the wheat and made trouble in the -flour-mills. Wire cut their hands. Wire cluttered up their barn-yards. -They would have no more to do with wire. What they wanted and must have -was _twine_. - -William Deering, the newcomer who had caused this disturbance, became in -a flash McCormick's ablest competitor. He had entered the business eight -years before with a running start, having been a successful dry goods -merchant in Maine. His geneology in the harvester industry shows that he -had become an active partner of E. H. Gammon in 1872. Gammon, who had -formerly been a Methodist preacher in Maine, had started as an agent for -Seymour and Morgan of Brockport, which firm had been licensed by -McCormick in 1845. Deering was the first highly skilled business man to -enter the harvester trade. He was not a farmer's son, like McCormick. He -was city-bred and factory trained. And in 1880 he staked practically his -whole fortune upon the making of 3,000 twine self-binders, and won. - -Cyrus McCormick saw at a glance that the wire self-binder must go. It -was his policy to give the farmers what they wanted, rather than to -force upon them an unpopular machine. So he called to his aid a -mechanical genius named Marquis L. Gorham--one of those who had been -lured into the quest of a self-binder by the insistence of "Pump" -Carpenter. Gorham's most valuable contribution was a self-sizing device, -by which all bound sheaves were made to be the same size. By the time -that the grain stood ripe and yellow the following season, Gorham had -prepared a twine self-binder that worked well, and McCormick, yielding -to this sudden hostility against wire, pushed the Gorham machine with -the full force of his great organization. - -This evolution of the Reaper into the twine self-binder was a momentous -event. It tremendously increased the sales. There were 60,000 machines -of all kinds sold in 1880, and 250,000 in 1885. And it strikingly -decreased the number of manufacturers. There were a hundred or more -until the appearance of the twine binder: and all but twenty-two fell -out of the race. Some of these were driven out by the expensive war of -patents that now ensued. But most of them gave up the contest for lack -of capital. The era of big production had arrived, and the little -hand-labor shops could not produce an intricate self-binder for the low -price at which they were being sold. - -Even McCormick lost heavily at first, before a truce was called in this -battle of the binders. One lawsuit cost him more than $225,000 and one -experiment, with what was called a "low-down" binder, cost him $80,000. -He was as determined as ever not to be beaten; and although he was at -this time over seventy years of age, and sorely crippled by rheumatism, -he straightway entered into a trade war with Deering, which was not -ended until 1902. Many of the older workmen who are now employed in the -McCormick works can remember the stress and strain of those battling -years, and how their indomitable old leader, at times when he was -unable to walk, would have himself pushed in a wheeled chair through the -various buildings of his immense plant, to make sure that every part of -the great mechanism was working smoothly. - -Of all the competitors who had fought him in the early days, before the -Civil War, there were few now remaining. Hussey, his first antagonist, -had sold out to a mowing machine syndicate in 1861. Emerson, Seymour, -and Morgan had decided not to make self-binders. Jerome Fassler, of -Springfield, Ohio, took his fortune of two million dollars and went to -New York City in 1882 with a scheme to build a subway. Manny was dead, -and very few were living of those who had seen the Reaper of 1831. - -John P. Adriance, of Poughkeepsie, had survived. He was a gentle-natured -man, who was content with a small and safe percentage of the business. -Byron E. Huntley, of Batavia, had also built up a small, but solidly -based, enterprise. He had been the office-boy, in 1845, in the factory -where the first hundred McCormick Reapers were made; and he had been a -manufacturer on his own account since 1850. He, too, was a quiet, -dignified man, very highly esteemed in both the United States and -Europe. Lewis Miller, who deserves most credit as the creator of the -mower, continued to do business at Akron. Mr. Miller was almost equally -famous as a Methodist and the originator of the Chautauqua idea. At -Auburn, N. Y., David M. Osborne was fighting manfully to keep in the -race. He had built seven Reapers as early as 1856; and had made many -friends by his ability and uprightness. At Hoosick Falls, N. Y., there -was Walter A. Wood--a most competent and enterprising man; at Plano, -Illinois, there was William H. Jones--self-made and as honest as the -soil; and at Springfield, Ohio, were the picturesque William N. Whiteley -and the powerful company of Warder, Bushnell, and Glessner. Whiteley was -an inventor who had changed a McCormick Reaper into what he called a -"combined machine"--a combined Reaper and mower. And Warder, Bushnell, -and Glessner had begun to make McCormick Reapers, by means of a license -from Seymour and Morgan, in 1852. - -[Illustration: CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, 1858] - -Such were the most notable men who, together with McCormick and Deering, -began in 1880 or soon afterwards to manufacture the new knot-tying -device that had become necessary to the Reaper. As for Cyrus H. -McCormick himself, he lived to see it the universal grain-cutter of all -civilized countries. He lived to see it perfected into one of the most -astonishing mechanisms known to man--an almost rational machine that -cuts the grain, carries it on a canvas escalator up to steel hands that -shape it into bundles, tie a cord around it as neatly as could be done -by a sailor, and cut the cord; after which the bound sheaf is pushed -into a basket and held until five of them have been collected, whereupon -they are dropped carefully upon the ground. - -Since 1884 there has been no essential change in the fashion of the -self-binder. It is the same to-day as when McCormick was alive. In the -span of his single life the Reaper was born and grew to its full -maturity. He saw its Alpha and its Omega. Best of all, he saw not only -its humble arrival, in a remote Virginia settlement, but, as we shall -see, he saw it become the plaything of Emperors, the marvel of Siberian -plainsmen, the liberator of the land-serf in twenty countries, and the -bread-machine of one-half of the human race. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -THE CONQUEST OF EUROPE - - -By 1850 Cyrus H. McCormick was ready for new business. He now had a -factory of his own, and the assistance of his brothers, William and -Leander. He had a score of busy agents and a few thousand dollars in the -bank. He had fought down the ridicule of the farm-hands. It was only six -years since he had set out from his Virginian farm with $300 in his belt -and the Idea of the Reaper in his brain; but in those six years he had -worked mightily and succeeded. His Reapers were now clicking merrily in -more than three thousand American wheat-fields. So, it was a natural -thing that in the first flush of victory, he should look across the sea -for "more worlds to conquer." - -There was at that time no general demand for Reapers in any European -country. Labor was plentiful and cheap--forty cents a day in Great -Britain and about half as much in Germany and France. In Austria and -Russia the farm laborers received no wages at all. They were serfs. -There was no economic reason why serfs should be replaced by machinery. -They had first to become free and expensive to employ, before this -Reaper, this product of a free republic, could set them free from the -drudgery of the harvest. - -England had been the first European country to abolish this serfdom. -Several centuries before, the ravages of the Black Death had made farm -laborers so scarce that their rights had begun to be respected. Also, -the upgrowth of the factory system and the development of English -shipping had called thousands of men away from the fields, and raised -the wages of those who were left behind. And the falling off in profits -was compelling many English land-owners to study better methods of -farming, and to favor the introduction of farm machinery. - -Fortunately for McCormick, he had no sooner begun to think of foreign -trade than there came the famous London Exposition of 1851. This mammoth -Exhibition was to Great Britain what the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 -was to the United States--magnificent evidence of industrial progress. -Its main promoter had been Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, -and its success gave the keenest pleasure to the young Queen. In a -letter written to the King of the Belgians, she thus describes her -impressions upon the opening day: - -"My dearest Uncle," she writes, "I wish you could have witnessed the 1st -May, 1851, the _greatest_ day in our history, the _most beautiful_ and -_imposing_ and _touching_ spectacle ever seen, and the triumph of my -beloved Albert. Truly it was astonishing, a fairy scene. Many cried, and -all felt touched and impressed with devotional feelings. It was the -_happiest, proudest_ day in my life, and I can think of nothing else. -You will be astounded at this great work when you see it. The beauty of -the building and the vastness of it all!" - -The crowning jewel of this Exposition was the priceless Koh-i-noor -diamond, which the Queen had received from India the previous year, and -had loaned to the Exposition managers. For five thousand years, so the -legend ran, this diamond had been one of the most precious treasures of -Asia. It had been worn by the hero Karna. And it had been so often the -most coveted prize in war that there was a Hindoo saying--"Whoever -possesses the Koh-i-noor has conquered his enemies." - -Most of the courts of Europe had sent some dazzling treasure. There were -tapestries from the Viceroy of Egypt, and rugs from the Sultan of -Turkey, and silks from the King of Spain. There were marbles from Paris, -and paintings from Dresden, and embroideries from Vienna. And in the -midst of this resplendent Exposition, surrounded and outshone by the -exhibits of Russia, Austria, and France, lay a shabby collection of odds -and ends from the United States. - -For three weeks the American department was the joke of the Exposition. -It was nicknamed the "Prairie Ground." It had no jewels, nor silks, nor -golden candelabra. There were only such preposterous things as Dick's -Press, Borden's Meat Biscuit, St. John's Soap, and McCormick's Reaper. -This last contraption was the most preposterous of all. It was said to -be "a cross between an Astley chariot, a wheelbarrow, and a -flying-machine." It was unlike anything else that English eyes had ever -seen, and by all odds the queerest and most ungainly thing that lay -under the glass roof of the Crystal Palace. Undeniably it was the "Ugly -Duckling" of the American exhibit. - -But one day there came to the Reaper booth a remarkable Anglo-Italian -named John J. Mechi. His father had been the barber of George III., and -he himself, by the invention of a "Magic Razor Strop," had made a -fortune. His hobby was scientific farming, and he was hungry for new -methods and new ideas. At the time of the Exposition, his farm, which -lay not far from London, had become the most famous experimental ground -in England. Therefore, when he spied this new contrivance called a -Reaper, he proposed that it be taken out to his farm and put to the -test. - -This was done on July twenty-fourth. In spite of a pouring rain, there -were present a group of judges and two hundred farmers. Lord Ebrington -was there, and Prince Frederick of Holstein, and several other titled -agriculturists. One other machine was to be tested, besides McCormick's. -It was put into the grain first and was at once seen to be a failure. It -broke down the grain instead of cutting it. Seeing this mishap, several -of the farmers said to Mr. Mechi, "You had better stop this trial, -because it is destroying your grain." Whereupon Mr. Mechi made one of -the noblest replies that can be found in the annals of progress. -"Gentlemen," he said, "this is a great experiment for the benefit of my -country. When a new principle is about to be established, individual -interests must always give way. If it is necessary for the success of -this test, you may take my seventy acres of wheat." - -Then came the McCormick Reaper, driven by an expert named Mackenzie. It -swept down the field like a chariot of war, with whirling reel and -clattering blade--seventy-four yards in seventy seconds. It was a -miracle. Such a thing had never before been seen by Europeans. "This is -a triumph for the American Reaper," said the delighted Mechi. "It has -done its work completely; and the day will come when this machine will -cut all the grain in England. Now," he continued, swinging his hat, "let -us, as Englishmen, show our appreciation by giving three hearty English -cheers." - -Horace Greeley, who was present on this occasion, described the victory -of the McCormick Reaper as follows:--"It came into the field to confront -a tribunal already prepared for its condemnation. Before it stood John -Bull--burly, dogged, and determined not to be humbugged,--his judgment -made up and his sentence ready to be recorded. There was a moment, and -but a moment, of suspense; then human prejudice could hold out no -longer; and burst after burst of involuntary cheers from the whole crowd -proclaimed the triumph of the Yankee Reaper. In seventy seconds -McCormick had become famous. He was the lion of the hour; and had he -brought five hundred Reapers with him, he could have sold them all." - -Suddenly the "Ugly Duckling" had become a swan. The glory of the Reaper -began to rival that of the Koh-i-noor. McCormick was given not only a -First Prize but a Council Medal, such as was usually awarded only to -Kings and Governments. The London _Times_, which had led the jeering, -became now the loudest in the chorus of approval. "The Reaping machine -from the United States," said the _Times_ editor, "is the most valuable -contribution from abroad, to the stock of our previous knowledge, that -we have yet discovered. It is worth the whole cost of the Exposition." -Also, speaking on behalf of the English people, Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer -said, "For all manly and practical purposes, the place of the United -States is at the head of the poll. Where, out of America, shall we get a -pistol like Mr. Colt's, to kill our eight enemies in a second, or a -reaping machine like Mr. McCormick's, to clear out twenty acres of wheat -in a day?" - -On the whole, this Exposition gave the United States its first -opportunity to answer the unpleasant questions that Sidney Smith had -asked in 1820. What have the Americans done, he had asked, for the arts -and sciences? Where are their Arkwrights, their Watts, their Davys? -Here he was answered by the McCormick Reaper, the Colt revolver, the -Hobbs lock, the Morse telegraph, the Howe sewing-machine, the Deere -plow, and the Hoe press. And, as if to make the triumph of American -invention complete, it was in this year that the yacht _America_ easily -out-classed the famous yachts of England in a great race at Cowes, and -that the American steamer _Baltic_, of the Collins Line, broke all the -ocean records and became the speediest vessel on the high seas. - -This Exposition did much for McCormick. It was the first appreciation of -his work, in a large way, that he had received. It was a welcome change -after twenty strenuous years. It gave him the distinction that a -naturally strong nature craved, and secured the friendship of such -eminent men as Junius Morgan, George Peabody, J. J. Mechi, and Lord -Granville. From a business point of view, also, the Exposition was of -great service to McCormick. It enabled him to draw up a new plan of -campaign for the foreign trade. - -In the United States, he had made his appeal directly to the mass of the -farmers. In Europe he could not do this. The vast bulk of the farmers -here were tenants or serfs. But it was also true, he observed, that the -Kings of Europe, and the members of the nobility, were land-owners. Here -was his chance. He would begin at the top. He would sell his Reapers to -the kings. - -He noticed that kings and queens were not the remote and inaccessible -personages that he had believed them to be. Prince Albert was plainly -more interested in farm machinery than in the Koh-i-noor. The one prize -which was awarded to him personally was for a model cottage, in which a -workingman's family might live with greater comfort. And one morning, -while McCormick was giving attention to his Reaper, the Queen and her -ten-year-old son (now the King of England) walked past and had a view of -the American Reaping machine that had been so widely ridiculed and -praised. - -McCormick had to hurry back to the United States, on account of a -patent suit that was then in full swing; but before he left England he -established an agency in London, and started a vigorous campaign among -the titled land-owners. He prepared a statement, showing that even at -the low rate of wages that were paid on English farms a Reaper would -mean a handsome saving to English wheat-growers. But he did not depend -upon the argument of economy. He placed his reliance also upon the fact -that the Reaper had become the playtoy of kings, and that their fancy -would presently make it the fashion. - -Four years later he went with another Reaper to an Exposition at Paris, -won the Gold Medal, and sold his machine to the Emperor. Then, in 1862, -with his wife and young son and daughter, he made his headquarters in -London, and opened up a two-years' campaign in Great Britain, Germany, -and France. Up to this time the foreign trade had grown but slowly. All -European countries combined were not buying more than half a million -dollars' worth of farm machinery a year from Americans--less than we -sell them now in five days. So McCormick exerted himself to the utmost. - -He held field tests to awaken the farmers. He advertised and organized. -There were now several dozen other manufacturers in the field, all -making Reapers more or less like McCormick's; and he gave battle to them -at London, Lille, and Hamburg. After the Hamburg contest, Joseph A. -Wright, the United States Commissioner, cabled to New York: "McCormick -has thrashed all nations and walked off with the Gold Medal." - -Again, in 1867, McCormick had a notable time at Paris. The Emperor -Napoleon III., then in the last days of his inherited glory, permitted -McCormick to give a sort of Reaper _matinee_ on the royal estate at -Chalons. The Emperor was present, at first on horseback, and then on -foot. The sun was hot, and presently he said to McCormick, "If you will -allow me, I'll come under your umbrella." So the two men, dramatically -different in the tendencies they represented, walked arm in arm behind -the Reaper, and watched it automatically cut and rake off the grain. The -Emperor was delighted. He forgot for the moment his impending troubles, -and at once offered McCormick the Cross of the Legion of Honor. This -was, in all probability, the last time that the coveted Cross was -conferred in France by the hand of a sovereign; and the meeting of the -two men was a highly impressive event, the one man typifying a falling -dynasty that had risen to greatness by the sword, and the other the -founder of a new industry that was destined to bring peace and plenty to -all nations alike. - -Two years later, because of the clamor of McCormick's competitors, a -grand Field Test was arranged by the German Government at Altenberg. -Thirty-eight contestants entered the lists, and after a most exciting -tournament the judges awarded the Gold Medal and a special prize of -sixty ducats to McCormick. Such contests, from this time onward, came -thick and fast. Several days later McCormick swept the field at Altona. -In 1873 he was decorated by the Austrian Emperor. And in 1878 the -French Academy of Science elected him a member, for the reason that he -"had done more for the cause of agriculture than any other living man." - -[Illustration: CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, 1867 - -From Painting by Cabanel] - -From that time to the present day the making of Reapers and Harvesters -has remained an American business. An American machine must pay twenty -dollars to enter France, and twenty-five to enter Hungary. But try as -they may, other nations cannot learn the secret of the Reaper. They -cannot produce a machine that is at once so complex, so hardy, and so -efficient. When Bismarck, at the close of his life, was inspecting -several American self-binders which he had bought for his farm at -Fredericksruhe, he asked, "Why do they not make these machines in -Germany?" As we have seen, had he wished a complete answer he would have -had to read the history of the United States. He would have seen that -the Reaper can be produced only in countries where labor receives a high -reward, where farmers own their own acres without fear of being -despoiled by invading armies, and where the average of intelligence -and enterprise is as high in the country as in the city. - -In 1898 Europe had become so dependent upon America for its reaping -machinery that 22,000 machines were shipped from the McCormick plant -alone--so many that a fleet of twelve vessels had to be chartered to -carry them. There are now as many American Reapers and Harvesters in -Europe as can do the work of 12,000,000 men. Of all American machines -exported, the Reaper is at the head of the list. It has been the chief -pathfinder for our foreign trade. Four-fifths of all the harvesting -machinery in the world is made in the United States; and one-third, -perhaps more, in the immense factory-city that Cyrus H. McCormick -founded in Chicago in 1847. - -It was McCormick's most solid satisfaction, in his later life, to see -foreign nations, one by one, adopt his invention and move up out of the -Famine Zone. No news was at any time more welcome to him than the -tidings that a new territory had been entered. And although the foreign -trade has been vastly multiplied in the past five or six years, he -lived long enough to see his catalogue printed in twenty languages, and -to know that as long as the human race continued to eat bread, the sun -would never set upon the empire of the Reaper. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -McCORMICK AS A MANUFACTURER - - -"If I had given up business, I would have been dead long ago," said -Cyrus H. McCormick in 1884, only a few weeks before his death; and this -statement was by no means an exaggeration. His business was his life. It -was not a definite, walled-off fraction of his life, as with most men. -It was the whole of it. His business was his work, his play, his -religion, his grand opera, his education. There was business even in his -love-letters and his dreams. - -McCormick believed in business. He had the sturdy pride of a "John -Halifax, Gentleman." He never wanted to be anything else but a worker. -He never wasted a breath in wishing for an easier life. He worked hard -for twenty-five years after he had made his fortune, because he believed -in work and commerce and the reciprocities of trade. He was never -dazzled nor deflected for a moment by the pomps and pageantries of the -world, and for the glory that springs from war he had very little -respect. In 1847, when offering a place in his factory to his brother -Leander, he writes, "This will be as honorable an enterprise as to go to -Mexico to be shot at." And in later life, in a conversation with General -Lilley, of Virginia, he said, "I expect to die in the harness, because -this is not the world for rest. This is the world for work. In the next -world we will have the rest." - -In the vast mass of letters, papers, etc., left by Mr. McCormick, there -is one mention, and only one, of recreation. After his first visit to -the West, in 1844, he wrote to one of his brothers and described a -hunting trip in which he shot three prairie chickens near Beloit. But -during the rest of his life, he was too busy for sport. His energy was -the wonder of his friends and the despair of his employees. His brain -was not quick. It was not marvellously keen nor marvellously intuitive. -But it was at work every waking moment, like a great engine that never -tires. - -"He was the most laborious worker I ever saw," said one of his -secretaries. One of the words that annoyed him most was _to-morrow_. He -wanted things done to-day. With regard to every important piece of work, -it was his instinct to "do it now." He abhorred delay and dawdling. Even -as a boy, when sent on an errand, he would set off upon a run. Walking -was too slow. And although he was in France on many occasions, the -French phrase that he knew best was "_Depechez-vous_." - -His plan of work, so far as he could be said to have a plan, was -this--_One Thing at a Time, and the Hardest Thing First_. He followed -the line of _most_ resistance. If the hardest thing can be done, he -reasoned, all the rest will follow. And as for all work that was merely -routine, he left as much as possible of it to others. - -He was not an organizer so much as a creator and a pioneer. His problem -was not like that which troubles the business men of to-day. He was not -grappling with the evils of competition, nor with the higher questions -of efficiency and "community of interest." He was making a business that -had not existed. He was clearing away obstacles that are now wholly -forgotten. Consequently, as each new difficulty appeared, he had to -consider it in all its details. He could not pass it over to Lieutenant -Number One or Lieutenant Number Two. - -McCormick was like a general who was leading an army into an unknown -country rather than like the business man of the twentieth century, who -can travel by time-table and schedule. When an obstacle blocked his -path, it had to be removed; and until it was out of the way, nothing -else mattered. Thus it was impossible for McCormick to have business -hours. Once his mind had applied itself to a problem, he cared nothing -for clocks and watches. Sometimes he would work on through the night, -hour after hour, until the gray light of another day shone in the -window. On all these arduous occasions, he had no idea of time, and he -would allow no distractions nor interruptions. So rigid was this grasp -of his mind that if his body rebelled and he fell asleep, he would -invariably when he woke take up the matter in hand at the exact point at -which it had been left. Not even sleep could detach his mind from a -task that was unfinished. - -When anything was going well, he let it alone. As soon as his factory -was in good running order, he gave it little attention. It was managed -first by his brothers, William and Leander, and afterwards by such -thoroughly competent men as Charles Spring and E. K. Butler. The work -that he chose to do himself was invariably new business. He cared little -for the mere making of money. The success always pleased him much more -than the profit. He was at heart a builder, and therefore when he had -finished one structure, he moved off and began another. - -It is a remarkable fact that as an investor, also, he had no interest in -businesses that were already established. Stocks were offered to him, -stocks that were safe and sure, but he bought none of them. The money -that he invested outside of his own business was put into pioneering -enterprises. He bought land in Chicago and Arizona. He opened up gold -mines in South Carolina and Montana. He supplied the capital for a -company which set out to bring mahogany from San Domingo. He invested -$55,000 in the Tehuantepec Inter-Ocean Railroad, an ambitious attempt to -join the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by rail, which was begun in 1879 -and came to an inglorious end several years later. And he was one of -that daring group of Americans who planned and financed the Union -Pacific Railway--the first road that really joined sea to sea and -reached to the farthest acre in the West. - -[Illustration: McCORMICK REAPER CUTTING ON A SIDE HILL IN PENNSYLVANIA] - -In all these undertakings he lost money, except in the instances of -Chicago real estate and the Union Pacific. By 1883 he had several -hundred thousand dollars invested in gold mines, and yet had not -received one dollar of profit. It was the fascination of pioneering that -had lured him. He saw no charm, as the gambler does, in the risk itself. -The Wall Street game he regarded as child's play. The thing that gripped -him was the developing of new material resources--the colonization of -new lands--the mastery of whatever is hostile to the welfare of the -human race. - -Another McCormick trait, which is not usually found in men who have the -pioneering instinct, was _Thoroughness_. He never said, "This is good -enough," or "Half a loaf is better than no bread." He wanted what was -_right_ whether it came to him or went from him. He never believed in a -ninety per cent success. He wanted par. Once his mind was fully aroused -upon a subject, there was no detail too petty for him to consider. He -labored hard to be correct in matters that appeared trifling to other -men. Even in his letters to members of his family, the sentences were -carefully formed, and there were no misspelled words. Once he gave -advice to a younger brother on the importance of spelling words -correctly. "You should carry a dictionary, as I do," he said. - -All slovenliness, whether of mind or body, he abhorred. To take thought -about a matter and to do it as it ought to be done, was to him a matter -of character as well as of business. When a telegram was submitted to -him for approval, it was his custom to draw a circle around the -superfluous words. This was a little lesson to his managers on the -importance of brevity and exactness. He insisted that clocks and watches -should be correct, and in his later life carried a fine repeater which -could strike the hour in the night and in which he took an almost boyish -pride. Once, when he had been given the management of a political -campaign in Chicago, he created consternation among the politicians by -the rigid way in which he supervised the expense accounts. "This will -never do," he said. "Things are at loose ends." If a bill was ten cents -too much it went back. One bill for $15 was held up for a week because -it was not properly drawn. The amazed politicians could not understand -such a man,--who would readily sign a check for $10,000, and put it in -the campaign treasury, and yet make trouble about the misplacing of a -dime of other people's money. - -McCormick demanded absolute honesty from his employees. One young man -lost his chance of promotion because he was seen to place a two-cent -stamp, belonging to the firm, on one of his personal letters. But once -he had tested a man, and found him to be pure gold, he trusted him -completely. A new employee would be pelted with questions and complete -answers insisted upon. This was often a harsh ordeal. It was irritating -to a man of independent spirit, until he realized that it was a sort of -discipline and examination. - -McCormick was always an optimist. He was not one of those who said, "Let -well enough alone." - -He never endured unsatisfactory business conditions. When he found that -the freight charges on Reapers from Virginia to Cincinnati were too -high, he arranged to have Reapers built in Cincinnati. When he found -that other manufacturers were apt to be careless as to the quality of -their materials, he built a factory of his own. Again and again in the -course of his life, came the temptation to be satisfied with what he had -already achieved. But he could not endure the thought of being beaten. -Instead of being content and complacent, he was far more likely to be -planning a wholly new policy, on larger lines. - -A daring proposition from a competent man always caught his attention. -Once, when he was sitting in his office, he heard E. K. Butler, who was -at that time the head of his sales department, protest that the factory -was not making as many machines as it should. "It is sheer nonsense," -said Butler, "to say that the factory is producing as much as it can. If -I were at the head of it, I could double the output with very little -extra expense." Most employers would have regarded this sort of talk as -mere boastfulness, but not so McCormick. He knew that Butler was a most -adaptable and competent man, so he called him into the office and -straightway appointed him to be the superintendent of the factory. -Butler was thus put upon his mettle. He went out to the factory resolved -that McCormick's confidence in him should not be overthrown. He routed -the wastes and inefficiencies, and keyed the whole plant up to such a -pitch that, in a remarkably short period, he had made good his boast and -doubled the output without hiring an extra man. - -But the preeminent quality in the character of Cyrus McCormick was not -his power of concentration, nor his spirit of pioneering, nor his -thoroughness. It was his strength of will--his _Tenacity_. This was the -motif of his life. - -He was not at all a shrewd accumulator of millions, as many have -imagined him. He had not an iota of craft and cunning. Neither was he a -financier, in the modern sense. It would be nearer the truth to say that -he was a farmer-manufacturer, of simple nature but tremendous -resolution, whose one overmastering life-purpose was to teach the wheat -nations of the world to use his harvesting machinery. - -"The exhibition of his powerful will was at times actually terrible," -said one of his lawyers. "If any other man on this earth ever had such a -will, certainly I have not heard of it." - -A drizzle of little annoyances and little matters always irritated him, -but he could stand up alone against a sea of adversity without a -whimper. In fact, he would sooner be asked for a thousand dollars than -for fifty cents. He would storm over the loss of a carpet slipper and -smile blandly at the loss of a lawsuit. "He made more fuss over a -pin-prick," said one of his valets, "than he did over a surgical -operation." He disliked the petty odds and ends of life. His mind was -too massive to adapt itself readily to small matters. But when a great -difficulty came in view, he rose and went at it with a sort of stern -satisfaction and religious zeal. He was so confident of his own -strength, and of the justice of his cause, that it was almost a joy to -him to-- - - "Breast the blows of circumstance, - And grasp the skirts of happy chance, - And grapple with his evil star." - -A defeat never meant anything more to McCormick than a delay. Often, the -harder he was thrown down the higher he would rebound. Again and again -he was thwarted and blocked. In the race of competition, there was a -time when he was beaten by Whiteley, and there was a time when he was -beaten by Deering. Most of his lawsuits were decided against him. But no -one ever saw him crushed or really disheartened. In 1877, after he had -made a long hard struggle to become a United States Senator, the news -came to him that he was defeated. "Well," he said, "that's over. What -next?" - -[Illustration: REAPER DRAWN BY OXEN IN ALGERIA] - -Usually, McCormick was at his best when the situation was at its worst. -His Titanic work immediately after the great Chicago Fire of 1871 is the -most striking evidence of this. He had been living at the corner of -Tenth Street and Fifth Avenue, in New York City, for four years before -the Fire; but he was in Chicago during the greatest of all Illinois -disasters. In one day of fire and terror he saw his city reduced to a -waste of ashes. It was no longer a city. It was two thousand acres of -desolation. He was himself in the midst of the fire-fighting. When his -wife, in response to his telegraphic message, came to him in Chicago two -days later, he met her wearing a half-burned hat and a half-burned -overcoat. His big factory, which was at that time making about 10,000 -harvesters a year, was wholly destroyed. In a flash he found himself -without a city and without a business. - -But McCormick never flinched. The arrival of a great difficulty was -always his cue. First he ascertained his wife's wishes. Did she wish -the factory to be rebuilt, or did she want him to retire from active -business life? She, thinking of her son, said--"Rebuild." At once -McCormick became the most buoyant and confident citizen in the ruined -city. His great spirit was aroused. He called up one of his attorneys -and sent him in haste to the docks to buy lumber. He telegraphed to his -agents to rush in as much money as they could collect. Every bank in the -city had been burned, so for a time this money was kept by the cashier -in a market basket, and carried at night to a private house. There was -one day as much as $24,000 in the basket. Before the cinders were cool, -McCormick had given orders to build a new factory, larger than the one -that had been burned down. More than this, he had also given orders that -his house in New York should be sold, and that a home should be -established in Chicago. Chicago was his city. He had seen it grow from -10,000 to 325,000. And in this hour of its distress he tossed aside all -other plans and gave Chicago all he had. - -His unconquerableness gave heart to others. Several of the wealthiest -citizens, who had lost courage, rallied to the help of the city. One -merchant, who had lost his store, borrowed $100,000 from McCormick and -started again. And so McCormick became not only one of the main builders -of the first Chicago, but also of the second Chicago, which in less than -three years had become larger and finer than the city that was. - -It was this steel-fibred tenacity that was the main factor in the -success of McCormick, whether we consider him as a manufacturer or as a -great American. It enabled him to establish the perilous industry of -making harvesting machines--a business so complex and many-sided that -out of every twenty manufacturers who set out to emulate McCormick, only -one survives to-day. It enabled McCormick to hold his own in spite of -adverse litigation, the hostility of Congress, the rivalry of other -inventors, and the calamity of the Great Fire. It was so remarkable, and -so productive of good to his country and to himself, that he will always -remain one of the creative and heroic figures in the early industrial -history of the United States. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -CYRUS H. McCORMICK AS A MAN - - -Cyrus H. McCormick was a great commercial Thor. He was six feet tall, -weighed two hundred pounds, and had the massive shoulders of a wrestler. -His body was well proportioned, with small hands and feet. His hair, -even in old age, was very dark and waving. His bearing was erect, his -manner often imperious, and his general appearance that of a man built -on large lines and for large affairs. - -Men of lesser caliber regarded him with fear, not for any definite -reason, but because, as Seneca has said--"In him that has power, all men -consider not what he has done, but what he may do." He was so strong, so -dominating, so ready to crash through obstacles by sheer bulk of -will-power, that smaller men could never quite subdue a feeling of alarm -while they were in his presence. He was impatient of small talk and -small criticisms and small objections. He had no tact at retail, and he -saw no differences in little-minded people. All his life he had been -plagued and obstructed by the Liliputians of the world, and he had no -patience to listen to their chattering. He was often as rude as Carlyle -to those who tied their little threads of pessimism across his path. - -At fashionable gatherings he would now and then be seen--a dignified -figure; but his mind was almost too ponderous an engine to do good -service in a light conversation. If a subject did not interest him, he -had nothing to say. What gave him, perhaps, the highest degree of social -pleasure, was the entertaining, at his house, of such men as Horace -Greeley, William H. Seward, Peter Cooper, Abram S. Hewitt, George -Peabody, Junius Morgan, Cyrus W. Field, or some old friend from -Virginia. - -His long years of pioneering had made him a self-sufficient man, and a -man who lived from within. He did not pick up his opinions on the -streets. His mind was not open to any chance idea. He had certain clear, -definite convictions, logical and consistent. What he knew, he knew. -There were no hazy imaginings in his mind. The main secret of his power -lay in his ability to focus all his energies upon a few subjects. Once, -in 1848, he mentioned the French Revolution in one of his letters. "It -is a mighty affair," he wrote, "and will be likely to stand." But -usually he paid little attention to the world-dramas that were being -enacted. He was too busy--too devoted to affairs which, if he did not -attend to them, would not be attended to at all. - -McCormick was a product of the Protestant Reformation, and of the -capitalistic development that came with it. The whole structure of his -character was based upon the two great dogmas of the Reformation--the -sovereignty of God and the direct responsibility of the individual. -Whoever would know the springs at which his life was fed must read the -story of Luther, Calvin, and Knox. They must call to mind the attitude -of Luther at the Diet of Worms, when he faced the men who had the power -to take his life and said, "Here I stand. I can do no other." They must -recollect how these three men, who were leaders of nations, not sects, -stood out alone against the kings and ecclesiasticisms of Europe, -without wealth, without armies, without anything except a higher Moral -Idea, and succeeded so mightily they actually changed the course of -empires and became the pathfinders of the human race. - -McCormick was so essentially a result of this religio-economic movement -that it is impossible to separate his religion and his business life. He -was an individualist through and through--as well marked a type of the -Covenanter in commerce as the United States has ever produced. He -believed in presbyters in religion, private capitalists in business, and -elected representatives in government. He was opposed to feudalism and -bureaucracy in all their myriad forms. He held the middle ground, the -_via media_, between the over-organization of the fourteenth century, -when the rights of the individual were forgotten, and the lax liberalism -of to-day, when too much is left to individual whim and caprice, and -when duties and responsibilities are too apt to be ignored. - -Above all constituted authorities stood a man's own conscience. This was -McCormick's faith, and it was this that made him the fighter that he -was. It gave him courage and the fortitude that is rarer than courage. -It compelled him to oppose his own political party at the Baltimore -Convention of 1861. It made him stand single-handed against his -fellow-manufacturers, in defence of his rights as an inventor. It -enabled him to beat down the Pennsylvania Railroad, after a twenty-three -year contest, and to prove that a great corporation cannot lawfully do -an injustice to an individual. - -McCormick was nourished on this virile Calvinistic faith from the time -when he first learned to read out of the Shorter Catechism and the -Bible. It had been the faith of his fathers for generations, and it was -bred into him from boyhood. Nevertheless, according to the practice of -the Presbyterians, there had to come a time when he himself openly made -his choice. This occasion came in 1834, when McCormick was twenty-five -years of age. A four-day meeting was being held in the little stone -church on his grandfather's farm. Three ministers were in charge. As was -the custom, there was constant preaching from morning until sundown, -with an hour's respite for dinner. At the close of the fourth day, all -who wished to become avowed Christians were requested to stand up. Cyrus -McCormick was there, and he was not a member of the church; yet he did -not stand up. That night his father went to his bedside and gently -reproached him. "My son," he said, "don't you know that your silence is -a public rejection of your Saviour?" Cyrus was conscience-stricken. He -leapt from his bed and began to dress himself. "I'll go and see old -Billy McClung," he said. Half an hour later, old Billy McClung, who was -a universally respected religious leader in the community, was amazed to -be called out of his sleep by a greatly troubled young man, who wanted -to know by what means he might make his peace with his Maker. The next -Sunday this young man stood up in the church, and became in name what -he already was by nature and inheritance--a Christian of the -Presbyterian faith. - -After he left home his letters to the members of his family are strewn -with scraps of religious reflection. In 1845, for instance, he writes, -"Business is not inconsistent with Christianity; but the latter ought to -be a help to the former, giving a confidence and resignation, after -using all proper means; and yet I have sometimes felt that I came so far -short of the right _feeling_, so worldly-minded, that I could wish -myself out of the world." On another occasion, when he was struggling -with manufacturers who had broken their contracts, he wrote, "If it were -not for the fact that Providence has seemed to assist me in our -business, it has at times seemed that I would almost sink under the -weight of responsibility hanging upon me; but I believe the Lord will -help us out." And after his first visit to New York City, he summed up -his impressions of the metropolis in the following sentence, "It is a -desirable place and people, with regular and good Presbyterian -preaching." - -McCormick enjoyed with all his heart the logical, doctrinal sermon. His -favorite Bible passage was the eighth chapter of Romans, that -indomitable victorious chapter that ends like the blast of a trumpet: - -"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or -distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? -As it is written, 'for Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are -accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Nay, in all these things we are -more than conquerors through Him that loved us; for I am persuaded that -neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor -things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other -creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in -Christ Jesus, our Lord." - -His favorite hymn, which he sang often and with the deepest fervor, was -that melodious prayer that begins-- - - "O Thou in whose presence my soul takes delight, - On whom in affliction I call, - My comfort by day, and my song in the night, - My hope, my salvation, my all." - -In his earlier journeys through the Middle West, McCormick was -distressed at the rough immorality of the new settlements. "I see a -great deal of profanity and infidelity in this country, enough to make -the heart sick," he wrote in 1845. These towns and villages needed more -preachers, and better preachers, he thought. Consequently, soon after he -had acquired his first million dollars, he determined to establish the -best possible college for the education of ministers. He almost stunned -with joy the Western friends of higher education for ministers, by -offering them $100,000 with which to establish a school of theology in -Chicago. This offer was made in 1859--half a century ago, and resulted -in the removal of a moneyless and decaying Seminary at New Albany, -Indiana, to Chicago. Thus was founded the Northwestern Theological -Seminary, afterwards named the McCormick Theological Seminary, which, in -its fifty years of life, has given a Christian education to thousands of -young men. - -Thirteen years later he bought _The Interior_ and made it what it has -remained ever since--a religious weekly of the highest rank. These -two--the college and the paper--were his pride and delight. He fathered -them in the most affectionate way. No matter what crisis might be -impending in the war of business, he always had time to talk to his -editors and his professors. So, though McCormick had received much from -his religious inheritance, it is also true that he gave back much. His -last public speech, which was read for him by his son Cyrus because he -was too weak to deliver it himself, was given at the laying of the -corner-stone of a new building which he had given to the college. Its -last sentence was typical of McCormick--full of hope and optimism: "I -never doubted that success would ultimately reward our efforts," he -said; "and now, on this occasion, we may fairly say that the night has -given place to the dawn of a brighter day than any which has hitherto -shone upon us." - -McCormick went into politics, too, with the same conscientious abandon -with which he plunged into business and religion. He was a Democrat of -the Jeffersonian type. One of his keenest pleasures was to go to the -Senate and listen to its debates. He was not a fluent speaker himself, -but he delighted in the orations of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster. He -believed in politics. He thought it a public danger that the strong and -competent men of the republic should willingly permit men of little -ability and low character to manage public affairs. In fact, he was -almost as much a pathfinder and pioneer in this matter as he had been in -matters of business, but without the same measure of success. Politics, -he found, was not like business. Its successes depended not upon your -own efforts, but upon the votes of the majority. - -What McCormick tried to do as a citizen and a patriot was the one heroic -failure of his life. He ran for office on several occasions, but he was -never elected. He was not the sort of man who gets elected. He stood for -his whole party at a time when the average politician was standing only -for himself. He talked of "fundamental principles" while the other -leaders, for the most part, were thinking of salaries. He gave up his -time and his money as freely for politics as he did for religion; but -he was out of his element. He was too sincere, too simple, too intent -upon a larger view of public questions. He could never talk the flexible -language of diplomacy nor suit his theme to the prejudice of his -listeners. Usually, to the political managers and delegates with whom he -felt it his duty to co-operate, he was like a man from another world. -They could never understand him, and tolerated his leadership mainly -because of his generous contributions. Again and again he astonished -them by developing a party speech into a sermon on national -righteousness, or by speaking nobly of a political opponent. On one -memorable occasion, for instance, in the white-hot passion of the -Hayes-Tilden controversy, and after he had lavished time and money in -support of Tilden, he sprang to his feet in a Democratic convention and -amazed the delegates by saying: "Mr. Hayes is not a Democrat, but he is -too patriotic and honest to suit his party managers and we must sustain -him so far as he is right." - -He was one of the first Americans who rose above sectional interests -and party loyalties, and surveyed his country as a whole. No other man -of his day, either in or out of public office, was so free from local -prejudices and so intensely national in his beliefs and sympathies. He -refused to stamp himself with the label of the North or of the South. He -had been reared in the one and matured in the other. And in the ominous -days before the Civil War he strove like a beneficent giant to make the -wrangling partisans listen to the voice of reason and arbitration. - -[Illustration: THE REAPER IN HEAVY GRAIN] - -He went to the Democratic Convention at Baltimore, just before the war, -and set before the Southerners the standpoint of the North. Then he -bought a daily paper--_The Times_--to explain to Chicago the standpoint -of the South. He wrote editorials. He made speeches. He poured into the -newspapers, day after day for two years, a large share of the profits -that he derived from his Reaper. He was no more popular as an editor -than as a political candidate. He was a maker, not a collector, of -public opinion; and instead of pandering to the war frenzy, he -opposed it,--put his newspaper squarely in its path, and held it there -until the feet of the crowd had trampled it into an impossible wreck. - -He was so strong, so indomitable, this heir of the Covenanters, that -when the war had openly begun, he strode between the North and South and -labored like a Titan to bring them to a reconciliation. He actually -believed that he could establish peace. He proposed a plan. Horace -Greeley indorsed it, and the two men, who were throughout life the -closest of comrades, undertook to bring the severed nation back to union -and the paths of law. - -The "McCormick Plan," in a word was to call immediately two -conventions--one to represent the Democrats of the North and the other -the Democrats of the South. These conventions would elect delegates to a -board of arbitration, which would consider the various causes of the war -and arrange a just basis upon which both sides could agree to disband -their armies and reestablish peace. - -After the war, too, almost before the nation had finished counting its -dead, it was Cyrus H. McCormick whose voice was first heard in favor of -church unity. Among the many speeches and letters of his which have been -preserved, the most beautifully phrased paragraph is the ending of an -article that he published in 1869, protesting against the invasion of -political partisanism into the religious life. - -"When are we to look for the return of brotherly love and Christian -fellowship," he asked, "so long as those who aspire to fill the high -places of the church indulge in such wrath and bitterness? Now that the -great conflict of the Civil War is past, and its issues settled, -religion and patriotism alike require the exercise of mutual -forbearance, and the pursuit of those things which tend to peace." - -For the mere game of party politics Mr. McCormick cared little or -nothing. It was all as irksome to him as the task of governing Geneva -was to John Calvin; but he could not help himself. His political -convictions were bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. They were -racial traits which his forefathers and foremothers had spent at least -three centuries in developing. - -On one occasion Dr. John Hall of New York, seeing how Mr. McCormick was -worried by political obligations, said to him: - -"Why do you plague yourself with these uncongenial things? What glory -can you hope to get from politics that will add to what you now possess -as the inventor of the Reaper?" - -"Dr. Hall," replied Mr. McCormick, "I am in politics because I cannot -help it. There are certain principles that I have got to stand by, and I -am obliged to go into politics to defend them." - -The form of Mr. McCormick's religious faith had been forged by such -preacher-patriots as John Knox and Andrew Melville; and he, like them, -found it as imperative upon his conscience to fight for both civil and -religious liberty. With his whole heart he believed in American -institutions as they had been established by the nation-builders of -1776. He did not want the Constitution to be ignored by Federal -reformers, nor the Union to be broken by secession. He was by -temperament and tradition a conservative, and opposed especially to all -extreme measures and sectional innovations. As he had adapted his Reaper -so that it would cut grain in all States, he could never see why -political policies, too, should not be lifted above the limitations of -geography and made to conserve the welfare of the whole people. As he -said on one strenuous occasion when laboring mightily to beat back the -extremists in his own party: "Is not every government on the face of the -earth established upon the principle of compromise?" - -To special privileges of every sort he was unalterably opposed. He asked -for none for himself--no favoring tariff or grant of public land or -monopolistic franchise. "I have been throughout my life," he said, -"opposed to all measures which tend to raise one class of the American -people upon the ruin of others, or one section of our common country at -the expense of another. The country is the common property of all -parties, and all are interested in its prosperity." - -All this shows the heroic side of McCormick; but he was not always -heroic. He was a giant, but a most human and simple-natured giant. -Strange as it may sound to those who knew him only with his armor on, it -is true that he could be tender or humorous. There were tears and -laughter in him. There was no cruelty in his strength and no revenge in -his aggressiveness. He was a big, red-blooded, great-hearted man, who -might to-day be threatening to cane a politician who had deceived him, -and to-morrow be playing with his younger children and letting their two -pet squirrels, Zip and Zoe, chase each other around his shoulders. - -He was fond of power, not because of its privileges and exemptions, but -because it furthered the work that he had in hand. He was often -surrounded by sycophants--by men who said yes to his yes and no to his -no; and while he accepted this homage with a certain degree of -satisfaction, he was not deceived by it. On one occasion, when he was -attending the Democratic Convention at Cincinnati--the convention that -nominated Hancock as candidate for President,--he was beset by a court -of flatterers and lip-servers. After it was over, he remarked simply to -his valet, "Well, Charlie, there is a lot of farce and humbug about -this." - -Dr. Francis L. Patton, who was for years the president of Princeton -University and also at one time editor of _The Interior_, was especially -impressed with this direct naturalness of McCormick. "One meets with all -sorts of men in the course of a lifetime," said Dr. Patton. "There are -patronizing men, pompous men, men who habitually wear a mask of -seriousness, men who clothe themselves with dignity as with a coat of -mail lest you should presume too much or go too far, men whose position -is never defined, and double-minded men with whom you never feel -yourself safe. But Mr. McCormick was not like one of these. There is -that in the possession of power which always tends to make men -imperious. I do not mean to imply that he was altogether free from this -tendency, for he was not. But he was approachable, companionable, and -ready to hear what I had to say. He was not one of those men who are so -uninterestingly self-controlled as to be always the same. There were -times when his mirth was contagious and times when his wrath was kindled -a little. We did not always agree, and sometimes we both grew hot in -argument; but at the end his cheery laugh proclaimed the fact that our -differences had only been the free and easy give-and-take of -friendship." - -To see McCormick laugh was a spectacle. There was first a mellowing of -his usual Jovian manner. His gray-brown eyes twinkled. The tense lines -of his face relaxed. Then came a smile and soon a burst of laughter, -shaking his powerful body and putting the whole company for the time -into an uproar of merriment. It was the triumph of the genial and -magnetic side of his nature--the side that was ordinarily repressed by -the pressure of his big affairs. - -McCormick had humor, but not wit. His jokes were simple and -old-fashioned, such as Luther and Cromwell would have laughed at. There -was no innuendo and no cynicism. On one occasion two small urchins -knocked at the door and asked for food. McCormick heard their voices -and had them brought into the sitting-room, where he happened to be in -consultation with his lawyer. "Now," said he to the youngsters, "we are -going to put both of you on trial. I will be the judge and this -gentleman will be the prosecutor." Each boy in turn was placed on the -witness-stand, and plied with questions. It was soon clear that neither -of them was telling the truth, so "Judge" McCormick took them in hand -and gave them a serious talk on the folly and wickedness of lying. Then -he gave them twenty-five cents apiece, and sent them down to the kitchen -to eat as much supper as they could hold. - -[Illustration: HARVESTING NEAR SPOKANE, WASHINGTON] - -At another time a very dignified and self-centred military officer was -taking supper with the McCormick family. The first course, as usual, was -corn-meal mush and milk. This was served in Scotch fashion, with the hot -mush in one bowl and the cold milk in another, and the practice was to -so co-ordinate the eating of these that both were finished at the same -time. The officer planned his spoonfuls badly, and was soon out of -milk. "Have some more milk to finish your mush, Colonel," said -McCormick. Several minutes later the Colonel's mush bowl was empty, at -which McCormick said, "Have some more mush to finish your milk." And so -it went, with milk for the mush and mush for the milk, until the -unfortunate Colonel was hopelessly incapacitated for the four or five -courses that came afterwards. - -McCormick was not by any means a teller of stories, but he had a few -simple and well-worn anecdotes that appealed so strongly to his sense of -humor that he told and re-told them many times. There was the story of -the man who stole the pound of butter and hid it in his hat, and how the -grocer saw him and kept talking in the store, beside a hot stove, until -the butter melted and exposed the man's thievery. Another favorite story -was about the pig that found its way into a garden by walking through a -hollow log, and how the gardener fooled the pig by placing the hollow -log in such a way that both ends of it were on the outside of the -garden. - -Even McCormick's jokes had a certain moral tang--a flavor of the first -Psalm and the eighth chapter of Romans. They were apt to deal with the -troubles of the ungodly who had been caught in their wickedness. There -were times, too, when his sense of humor and his sense of justice would -co-operate in odd ways. Once, when a roast game bird, which had been -sent to him as a gift from the hunter, was left over from supper, he -ordered that his dainty be kept and served for the next day's luncheon. -At luncheon the next day it did not appear. On asking for the game bird, -a roast chicken was set before him, and he at once noticed that it was -not the same bird which he had ordered to be kept. He questioned the -butler, who protested that it was the same. After the meal McCormick -ordered that the servants involved should be called into the -dining-room. From them, by a series of questions, he soon obtained the -truth and proved the butler to be the culprit. The one thing that he -would tolerate least was a lie. As he would say at times, "A thief you -can watch, but I detest a liar." - -There were very few who had the temerity to play a practical joke upon -the great inventor himself. His two youngest sons, Harold and Stanley, -would hide in the hallway when they saw him approaching, and pounce out -upon him with wild yells in small-boy fashion, but they were both -privileged people. - -McCormick was a most hearty and hospitable man. He was an ideal person -for such a life-work--the abolition of famine. He was fond of food and -plenty of it. He loved to see a big table heaped with food. The idea of -hunger was intolerable to him. He might well have been posing for a -statue of the deity of Plenty, as he squared himself around to the long, -family dinner-table, with his napkin worn high and caught at his -shoulders by a white silk band that went around his neck, and with a -complacent, "Now, then," plunged the carving-fork into a crisp and -fragrant fowl that lay on the platter in front of him. - -The fact that McCormick seldom made a social call was not due to his own -choosing, but because of the many worries and compulsions of his life. -Once, when confiding in an intimate friend, he said, "It pains me very -much to think how little I am known by my neighbors, but I seem to be -always too busy to meet them." He was not at all, as many have thought -because of his strenuous life, a man of harsh and rough exterior. There -was nothing rough about him except his strength. He was irreproachable -in dress and personal appearance. He did not drink, smoke, nor swear. -And his manners and language, on formal occasions, were those of a -dignified gentleman of the old school--a Calhoun, or a Van Buren. - -He was not a hard-natured man, except when he was battling for his -rights and his principles. He would often turn from an overwhelming mass -of business to play with one of his children. He was as ready to forgive -as he was to fight. He never cherished resentments or personal grudges. -He knew that life was a conflict of interests and policies; and when he -forgave, his forgiveness was free and full, and not a formal ceremony. -It was as honest and as spontaneous as his wrath. He was one of the few -men who could freely pray, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive -those who trespass against us." - -His fame and honors and intimacies with people of rank never made him -less democratic in his sympathies. He always had a profound respect for -the man or woman who did useful work, if the work was done well. Once, -when a poor woman went to him for advice about some trifling thing that -she had invented, he turned from his work and explained to her, with the -utmost patience and courtesy, the things that she wished to know. With -his trusted employees, too, he was usually kindly and sometimes jovial. -"I had only one brush with him in thirty-five years," said one of his -cashiers. "The last time that I saw him, he met me on the street and -said, 'Hello, Sellick, have you got lots of money? Can you give me a -hundred thousand dollars to-day?' 'Yes, sir,' I answered. 'Well, I'm -glad I don't need it,' he said with a laugh." - -The loyalty of his workmen and his agents was always a source of pride -to McCormick. It was one of the favorite topics of his conversation. He -would mention his men by name and tell of their exploits with the -deepest satisfaction. On one occasion, when a body of agents made a -united demand for higher salaries, there was one agent in Minnesota who -refused to take part in the movement. "I don't want to force Mr. -McCormick," he said. "I have worked for him for nearly thirty years, and -I know that he is a just man, and that he will do what is right." Not -long afterwards, McCormick was told of this man's action, and he -immediately showed his appreciation by making the agent a present of a -carriage and fine team of horses. - -There was one man who was wholly in McCormick's power--a negro named -Joe, who, by the custom that prevailed in the South before the Civil -War, was a slave and the property of McCormick. They were of the same -age, and had played together as boys. Joe grew up to be a tall, -straight, intelligent negro, and his master was very fond of him. He is -mentioned frequently in McCormick's letters, usually in a considerate -way. Years before the Civil War McCormick gave Joe his freedom, and some -land and a good cabin. Now and then, even in the stress and strain of -his business-building, he would stop to write Joe a short letter of good -wishes and advice. There was no other one thing, perhaps, which proved -so convincingly the essential kindliness of his nature as his treatment -of Joe. - -In his family relations, too, McCormick was a man of tenderness and -devotion. When his father died, in 1846, he was struck down by sorrow. -"Many a sore cry have I had as I have gone around this place and found -no father," he wrote to his brother William. And as soon as he was -solidly established in Chicago, his first act was to send for his -mother, and to give her such a royal welcome that she could hardly -believe her eyes. "I feel like the Queen of Sheba," she said to her -neighbors when she returned to Virginia; "the half was never told." - -McCormick helped his younger brothers--William and Leander, by making -them his partners. William died in 1865--a great and irreparable loss. -He was a man of careful mind and rare excellence of character, -especially able in matters of detail--a point in which Cyrus McCormick -was not proficient. The two men were well suited as partners. Cyrus -planned the work in large outlines, and broke down the obstacles that -stood in the way; while William added the details and supervised the -carrying out of the plan. Leander, who also held a high place in the -business in its earlier days, withdrew from it later, and died in 1900. - -[Illustration: CYRUS HALL McCORMICK, 1883 - -His Last Portrait] - -Until 1858 McCormick had thought himself too busy to be married. But in -that year he met Miss Nettie Fowler, of New York, and changed his mind. -It was soon apparent that his marriage was not to be in any sense a -hindrance to his success, but rather the wisest act of his life. Mrs. -McCormick was a woman of rare charm, and with a comprehension of -business affairs that was of the greatest possible value to her husband. -She was at all times in the closest touch with his purposes. By her -advice he introduced many economies at the factory, and rebuilt the -works after the Great Fire of 1871. The precision of her memory, and the -grasp of her mind upon the multifarious details of human nature and -manufacturing, made her an ideal wife for such a man as Cyrus H. -McCormick. As he grew older, he depended upon her judgment more and -more; and as Mrs. McCormick is still in the possession of health and -strength, it may truly be said that for more than half a century she has -been a most influential factor in the industrial and philanthropic -development of the United States. - -Four sons were born, and two daughters--Cyrus Hall, who is now President -of the International Harvester Company; Robert, who died in infancy; -Harold, Treasurer of the International Harvester Company; Stanley, -Comptroller of the Company; Virginia; and Anita, now known as Mrs. -Emmons Blame. - -Mr. McCormick was a most affectionate husband and father. He took the -utmost delight in his home and its hospitalities; and invariably brought -his whole household with him whenever the growth of his business obliged -him to visit foreign countries. In the last few years of his life it -gave him the most profound satisfaction to know that his oldest son -would pick up the McCormick burden and carry it forward. "Cyrus is a -great comfort to me," he said to an intimate friend. "He has excellent -judgment in business matters, and I find myself leaning on him more and -more." - -The truth is that there was a tender side to McCormick's strong nature, -which was not seen by those who met him only upon ordinary occasions. He -was in reality a great dynamo of sentiment. He was deeply moved by -music, especially by the playing of Ole Bull and the singing of Jenny -Lind, who were his favorites. He was as fond of flowers as a child. "I -love best the old-fashioned pinks," he said, "because they grew in my -mother's garden in Virginia." Often the tears would come to his eyes at -the sight of mountains, for they reminded him of his Virginian home. -"Oh, Charlie," he said once to his valet, as he sat crippled in a -wheel-chair in a Southern hotel, "how I wish I could get on a horse and -ride on through those mountains once again!" - -McCormick was not in any sense a Gradgrind of commercialism--a man who -enriched his coffers by the impoverishment of his soul. He made -money--ten millions or more; but he did so incidentally, just as a man -makes muscle by doing hard work. Several of his fellow Chicagoans had -swept past him in the million-making race. No matter how much money came -to him, he was the same man, with the same friendships and the same -purposes. And it is inconceivable that, for any amount of wealth, he -would have changed the ground-plan of his life. - -It is strictly true to say that he was a practical idealist. He -idealized the American Constitution, the Patent Office, the Courts, the -Democratic Party, and the Presbyterian Church. He was an Oliver Cromwell -of industry. All his beliefs and acts sprang from a few simple -principles and fitted together like a picture puzzle. There was religion -in his business and business in his religion. He was made such as he was -by the Religious Reformation of Europe and the Industrial Revolution of -the United States. He was all of one piece--sincere and -self-consistent--a type of the nineteenth-century American at his best. -He was not sordid. He was not cynical. He was not scientific. He was a -man of faith and works--one of the old-fashioned kind who laid the -foundations and built the walls of this republic. - -He felt that he was born into the world with certain things to do. Some -of these things were profitable and some of them were not, but he gave -as much energy and attention to the one as to the other. In 1859, for -instance, he had a factory that was profitable, and a daily paper and a -college that were expensive. He was struggling to extend his trade at -home and in Europe, to protect his patents, to prevent the war between -the North and South, and to maintain the simplicity of the Presbyterian -faith. To contend for these interests and principles was his life. He -could not have done anything else. It was as natural for him to do so as -for a fish to swim or a bird to fly. Once, towards the end of his life, -when he was sitting in his great arm-chair, reflecting, he said to his -wife, "Nettie, life _is_ a battle." He made this announcement as though -it were the discovery of a new fact. All his life he had been much less -conscious of the battle itself than of the _cause_ for which he fought. - -In 1884 McCormick died, at that time of the year when wheat is being -sown in Spain and reaped in Mexico. The earth-life of "the strong -personality before whom obstacles went down as swiftly and inevitably as -grain before the knife of his machines," was ended. His last words, -spoken in a moment's awakening from the death-stupor, were--"Work, -work!" Not even the dissolution of his body could relax the fixity of -his will. And when he lay in state, in his Chicago home, there was a -Reaper, modelled in white flowers, at his feet; and upon his breast a -sheaf of the ripe, yellow wheat, surmounted by a crown of lilies. These -were the emblems of the work that had been given him to do, and the -evidence of its completion. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE REAPER AND THE NATION - - -When Cyrus H. McCormick died in 1884 he had provided hunger-insurance -for the United States and the greater part of the civilized world. In -that year his own factory made 50,000 harvesting machines, and there -were in use, in all countries, more than 500,000 McCormick machines, -doing the work of 5,000,000 men in the harvest fields. The United States -was producing wheat at the rate of ten bushels per capita, instead of -four, as it had been in 1847, when McCormick built his first factory in -Chicago. And the total production of wheat in all lands was -2,240,000,000 bushels--enough to give an abundance of food to -325,000,000 people. - -Chicago, in 1884, was a powerful city of six hundred thousand -population. It had grown sixty-fold since McCormick rode into it by -stage in 1845. It had 3,519 manufacturing establishments, giving work to -80,000 men and women and producing commodities at the rate of -$5,000,000 worth in a week. It was then what it is to-day--the chief -Reaper City and principal granary of the world. The wheat and flour that -were sent out from its ports and depots in the year that the inventor of -the Reaper died were enough to make ten thousand million loaves of -bread, which, if they were fairly distributed, would have given about -forty loaves apiece to the families of the human race. - -The United States, in 1884, had been for six years the foremost of the -wheat-producing nations. It had also grown to be first in mining, -railroads, telegraphs, steel, and agriculture. It was the land of the -highest wages and cheapest bread--an anomaly that foreign countries -could not understand. In the bulk of its manufacturing, it had forged -ahead of all other nations, even of Great Britain; and yet, although a -vast army of men had been drawn from its farms to its factories, it had -produced in that year more than half a billion bushels of wheat--six -times as much as its crop had been in the best year of the sickle and -the scythe. - -So, in the span of his business life--from 1831 to 1884,--McCormick had -seen his country rise from insignificance to greatness, and he had the -supreme satisfaction of knowing that his Reaper had done much, if not -most, to accelerate this marvellous progress. As we shall see, the -invention of the Reaper was the right starting-point for the up-building -of a republic. It made all other progress possible, by removing the fear -of famine and the drudgery of farm labor. It enabled even the laborer of -the harvest-field to be free and intelligent, because it gave him the -power of ten men. - -[Illustration: THE WORKS OF THE McCORMICK HARVESTING MACHINE CO.] - -The United States as a whole, had paid no attention to the Reaper until -the opening of the California gold mines in 1849. Then the sudden -scarcity of laborers created a panic among the farmers, and boomed the -sale of all manner of farm machinery. Two years later the triumph of the -McCormick Reaper at the London Exposition was a topic of the day and a -source of national pride. And in 1852 the Crimean War sent the price of -wheat skywards, providing an English market for as much wheat as -American farmers could sell. - -But it was not until the outbreak of the Civil War that the United -States learned to really appreciate the Reaper. By the time that -President Lincoln had made his ninth call for soldiers, by the time that -he had taken every third man for the Northern armies, the value of the -Reaper was beyond dispute. By a strange coincidence, in this duel -between wheat States on the one side, and cotton States on the other, it -was a Northerner, Eli Whitney, who had invented the cotton-gin, which -made slavery profitable; and it was a Southerner, Cyrus H. McCormick, -who had invented the Reaper, which made the Northern States wealthy and -powerful. - -It was the Reaper-power of the North that off set the slave-power of the -South. There were as many Reapers in the wheat-fields of 1861 as could -do the work of a million slaves. As the war went on, the crops in the -Northern States increased. Europe refused to believe such a miracle; but -it was true. Fifty million bushels of American grain went to Europe in -1861, and fifty-six million bushels in the following year. More than two -hundred million bushels were exported during the four years of the war. -Thus the Reaper not only released men to fight for the preservation of -the Union. It not only fed them while they were in the field. It did -more. It saved us from bankruptcy as well as famine, and kept our credit -good among foreign nations at the most critical period in our history. - -After the Civil War came the settling of the West; and here again the -Reaper was indispensable. In most cases it went ahead of the railroad. -The first Reaper arrived in Chicago three years before the first -locomotive. "We had a McCormick Reaper in 1856," said James Wilson; "and -at that time there was no railroad within seventy-five miles of our Iowa -farm. The Reaper worked a great revolution, enabling one man to do the -work that many men had been doing, and do it better. By means of it the -West became a thickly settled country, able to feed the nation and to -spare bread and meat for the outside world." - -When McCormick was a boy, more wheat was raised in Virginia than in any -other State. But by 1860 Illinois was ahead, and by degrees the sceptre -of the wheat empire passed westwards, until to-day it is held by -Minnesota. What with the Homestead Act of 1862, and the offer of -McCormick and the other Reaper manufacturers to sell machines to the -farmers on credit, it was possible for poor men, without capital, to -become each the owner of 160 acres of land, and to harvest its grain -without spending a penny in wages. Thus the immense area of the West -became a populous country, with cities and railways and State -Governments, and producing one-tenth of the wheat of the world. - -The enterprise of these Western farmers brought in the present era of -farm machinery. It replaced "the man with the hoe" by the man with the -self-binder and steel plow and steam thresher. It wiped out the old-time -drudge of the soil from American farms, and put in his stead the new -farmer, the _business_ farmer, who works for a good living and a profit, -and not for a bare existence. Such men as Oliver Dalrymple, of North -Dakota, led the way by demonstrating what might be done by "bonanza -farms." This doughty Scottish-American secured 30,000 acres of the Red -River Valley in 1876, and put it all into wheat. It was such a -wheat-field as never before had been seen in any country. The soil was -turned with 150 gang plows, sown with 70 drills, and reaped with 150 -self-binders. Twelve threshing-machines, kept busy in the midst of this -sea of yellow grain, beat out the straw and chaff and in the season -filled two freight trains a day with enough wheat in each train to give -two thousand people their daily bread for a year. - -Led on by such pathfinders, American farmers launched out bravely, until -now they are using very nearly a billion dollars' worth of labor-saving -machinery. The whole level of farm life has been raised. It has been -lifted from muscle to mind. The use of machinery has created leisure and -capital, and these two have begotten intelligence, education, science, -so that the farmer of to-day lives in a new world, and is a wholly -different person from what he was when Cyrus McCormick learned to till -the soil. - -This elevation of the farmer is now seen to be our best guarantee of -prosperity and national permanence. It was the incoming flood of wheat -money that put the United States on its feet as a manufacturing nation. -The total amount of this money, from the building of the first McCormick -Reaper factory until to-day, is the unthinkable sum of $5,500,000,000, -which may be taken as the net profit of the Reaper to the nation. - -Thus the Reaper was not, like the wind-mill, for instance, a mere -convenience to the farmer himself. It was the link between the city and -the country. It directly benefited all bread-eaters, and put the whole -nation upon a higher plane. It built up cities, and made them safe, for -the reason that they were not surrounded by hordes of sickle-and-flail -serfs, who would sooner or later rise up in the throe of a -hunger-revolution and pull down the cities and the palaces into -oblivion. When the first Reaper was sold, in 1840, only eight per cent -of Americans lived in towns and cities; and to-day the proportion is -_forty_ per cent. Yet bread is cheaper and more plentiful now than it -was then; and there is the most genial and good-natured co-operation -between those who live among paved streets and those who live in the -midst of the green and yellow wheat-fields. There are no Goths and -Vandals on American farms. - -Instead of the tiny log workshop on the McCormick farm, in which the -first crude Reaper was laboriously hammered and whittled into shape, -there is now a McCormick City in the heart of Chicago--the oldest and -largest harvester plant in the world. In sixty-two years of its life, -this plant has produced five or six millions of harvesting machines, and -it is still pouring them out at the rate of 7,000 a week. If it were to -ship its yearly output at one time, it would require a railway caravan -of 14,000 freight-cars to carry the machines from the factory to the -farmers. - -[Illustration: McCORMICK REAPER IN USE IN RUSSIA] - -This McCormick City is one of the industrial wonders that America -exhibits to visiting foreigners, and it is so vast that it can only -be glanced at in a day. It covers 229 acres of land. In its buildings -there is enough flooring to cover a 90-acre farm, and if they were all -made over into one long building, twenty-five feet wide and one story -high, it would be very nearly forty miles long, as far as from Chicago -to Joliet. The population of McCormick City, counting workers only, is -7,000, whose average wages are $2.20 a day. - -Here you will find a mammoth twine-mill--the largest of its kind in any -country. Into this mill come the bright yellow sisal fibres from Yucatan -and the manila fibres from the Philippines. These fibres are cleaned and -strewn upon endless chains of combs, which jerk and pull the fibres and -finally deliver them to spindles--1,680 spindles, which whirl and twist -19,000 miles of twine in the course of a single day, almost enough to -put a girdle around the earth. Most of this work is done by Polish girls -and women, who are being displaced as farm laborers in their own country -by American harvesting machines. - -This plant is so vast that from one point of view it seems to be mainly -a foundry. Thousands of tons of iron--88,000 tons, to be exact,--pour -out of its furnaces every year and are moulded into 113,000,000 -castings. But from another point of view it appears to be a carpenter -shop. In its yard stand as many piles of lumber as would build a -fair-sized city--60,000,000 feet of it, cut in the forests of -Mississippi and Missouri. And so much of this lumber is being sawed, -planed, and shaped in the various wood-working shops that eight -sawdust-fed furnaces are needed to supply them with power. - -The marvels of labor-saving machinery are upon every hand, in this -McCormick City. The paint-tank has replaced the paint-brush. Instead of -painting wheels by hand, for instance, ten of them are now strung on a -pole, like beads on a string, and soused into a bath from which they -come, one minute later, resplendent in suits of red or blue. The -labor-cost of painting these ten wheels is two cents. Guard-fingers, for -which McCormick paid twenty-four cents apiece in 1845, are now produced -with a labor-cost of two cents a dozen. And as for bolts, with two -cents you can pay for the making of a hundred. Both bolts and nuts are -shaped by automatic machines which are so simple that a boy can operate -five at once, and so swift that other boys with wheelbarrows are kept -busy carrying away their finished product. - -There is one specially designed machine, with a battery of augurs, which -bores twenty-one holes at once, thus saving four-fifths of a cent per -board. Another special machine shapes poles and saves one cent per pole. -Such tiny economies appear absurd, until the immense output is taken -into account. Whoever can reduce the costs in the McCormick plant one -cent per machine, adds thereby $3,500 a year to the profits, and helps -to make it possible for a farmer to buy a magical self-binder, built up -of 3,800 parts, for less than the price of a good horse, or for as much -wheat as he can grow in one season on a dozen acres. - -The vast McCormick City has its human side, too, in spite of all its -noise and semi-automatic machinery. Cyrus McCormick was not one of those -employers who call their men by numbers instead of names, and who have -no more regard for flesh and blood than for iron and steel. He had -worked with his hands himself, and brought up his sons to do the same. -The feeling of loyalty and friendliness between the McCormick family and -their employees has from the first been unusually strong. In 1902, at -the suggestion of Stanley McCormick, gifts to the amount of $1,500,000 -were made to the oldest employees of the business, as rewards for -faithful service and tokens of good-will. Also, a handsome club-house -was built for the comfort of the men of the McCormick City, and a -rest-room for the women, under the mothering superintendence of a matron -and trained nurse. - -But this one McCormick City, immense as it is, does not by any means -represent the sum total of McCormick's legacy to the United States. As -the founder of the harvesting-machine business, he deserves credit for -an industry which now represents an investment of about $150,000,000. -With the sole exception of the Australian stripper, every wheat-reaping -machine is still made on the lines laid down by McCormick in 1831. New -improvements have been adopted; but not one of his seven factors has -been thrown aside. - -Fully two-thirds of this industry is still being done by the United -States, although four-fifths of the wheat is grown in other countries. -Our national income, from this one item of harvesting machinery, has -risen to $30,000,000 a year--more than we derive from the exportation of -any other American invention. No European country, apparently, has been -able to master the complexities and multifarious details which abound in -a successful harvester business. - -In 1902 the efficiency of the larger American plants was greatly -increased by the organization of the International Harvester Company, -which has its headquarters in Chicago. The McCormick City is the most -extensive plant in this Company, and McCormick's son--who is also Cyrus -H. McCormick--is its President. In this Company sixteen separate plants -are coordinated, four of these being in foreign countries. Its yearly -output averages about $75,000,000 in value; and in bulk is great enough -to fill 65,000 freight-cars. It has 25,000 workmen and 35,000 agents. -The lumber with which its yards are filled comes from its own -80,000-acre forest; the steel comes from its own furnaces and the iron -ore from its own mines. It is so overwhelmingly vast, this new -famine-fighting consolidation, that the value of its output for one hour -is greater than the $25,000 of capital with which McCormick built his -first factory in Chicago. - -So, it is evident that the McCormick Reaper has been an indispensable -factor in the making of America. Without it, we could never have had the -America of to-day. It has brought good, and nothing but good, to every -country that has accepted it. It has never been, and never can be, put -to an evil use. It cannot, under any system of government, benefit the -few and not the many. It is as democratic in its nature as the American -Constitution; and in every foreign country where it cuts the grain, it -is an educator as well as a machine, giving to the masses of less -fortunate lands an object-lesson in democracy and the spirit of American -progress. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THE REAPER AND THE WORLD - - -We shall now see what the invention of the Reaper means to the human -race as a whole. We shall leave behind McCormick and the United States, -and survey the field from a higher standpoint. The selection of wheat as -the first world-food,--its abundance made possible by the Reaper--its -transportation by railroads and steamships--its storage in -elevators--the production of flour--the growth of wheat-banks, -wheat-ports, and exchanges--the new wheat empires--the international -mechanism of marketing--the conquest of famine and the stupendous -possibilities of the future! These are the subjects that group -themselves under the general title--_The Reaper and the World_. - -To find a world-food,--that was the beginning of the problem. All human -beings wake up hungry every morning of their lives; and consequently the -first necessity of the day is food. The search for food is the oldest -of instincts. It is the master-motive of evolution. It has reared -empires up and thrown them down. As Buckle has shown, where the national -food is cheap and plentiful, population increases more rapidly. And as -Sir James Crichton-Browne, in a recent book on "Parcimony in Nutrition," -maintains, the lack of food is a prolific cause of war, disease, and -social misery in its various forms. "Nothing is more demoralizing," he -says, "than chronic hunger." - -"For lack of bread the French Revolution failed," said Prince Krapotkin. -For lack of bread the opium traffic flourishes in India and China; the -secret of the prevalence of opium is that the natives use it to prevent -hunger-pangs in time of famine. Once let those countries have cheap -bread, and there may be no more opium sold there than there is to-day in -Kansas. For lack of bread came the war between Russia and Japan; what -the one nation wanted was a seaport for the grain of Siberia, and what -the other wanted was more land for the support of her swarming -population. For lack of bread have come most of the crimes of greed and -violence,--most of the social systems based on sordid self-interest, -most of the ill-humor that has postponed the coming of an era of peace -on earth and good-will among men. - -Now, of the three main foods of the human race, flesh, rice, and wheat, -wheat is the best suited to be a world-food. Flesh becomes too expensive -once the wild game of the forests is destroyed; and it is not suitable -for food in tropical countries. Rice, on the other hand, is not a -flesh-forming food, and so is not suited for food in cold countries. -Wheat is the one food that is universal, as good for the Esquimaux as -for the South Sea Islander. It is not easily spoiled, as milk and fruits -are; and it contains all the elements that are needed by the body and in -just about the right proportion. - -Wheat, to the botanist, is a grass--"a degraded lily," to quote from -Grant Allen. It was originally a flower that was tamed by man and -trained from beauty to usefulness. We do not know when or where the -prehistoric Burbank lived who undertook this education of the -wheat-lily. But we do know that wheat has been a food for at least five -thousand years. We find it in the oldest tombs of Egypt and pictured on -the stones of the Pyramids. We know that Solomon sent wheat as a present -to his friend, the King of Tyre; and we have reason to believe that its -first appearance was in the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates, near -where the ancient city of Babylon rose to greatness. - -[Illustration: Chart Showing Relative Distribution of Values by -Producing Countries in 1908 of World's Production of Five Principal -Grains. Approximate Value, $9,280,000,000] - -[Illustration: Chart Showing Relative Values in 1908 of World's -Production of the Five Principal Grains. Approximate Value, -$9,280,000,000] - -Wheat is not a wild weed. It is a tame and transient plant--a plant of -civilization. It could not continue to exist without man, and man, -perhaps, could not exist except in the tropical countries without wheat. -Each needs the other. If the human race were to perish from the face of -the earth, wheat might survive for three years, but no longer. So close -has this co-operation been between wheat and civilized man, that an -eminent German writer, Dr. Gerland, maintains with a wealth of evidence -that wheat was the original cause of civilization, partly because it was -the first good and plentiful food, and partly because it was wheat -that persuaded primitive man to forsake his wars and his wanderings -and to learn the peaceful habits of agriculture. - -In any case, whatever its earlier history may have been, wheat is to-day -the chief food of the civilized races of mankind. It is the main support -of 600,000,000 people. It has overcome its natural enemies--weeds, -fungus diseases, insects, and drought,--and attained a crop total of -3,500,000,000 bushels a year. To the intelligent, purposeful nations -that have become the masters of the human race, wheat is now the staff -of life, the milk of Mother Earth, the essence of soil and air and rain -and sunshine. - -But, although wheat was known to be the best food for fifty centuries, -it did not until very recently, until thirty or forty years ago, become -a world-food. Every community ate up its own wheat. It had little or -none to sell, because, no matter how much grain the farmers planted, -they could not in the eight or ten days of harvest gather more than a -certain limited quantity into their barns. All that one man could do, -with his wife to help him, was to snatch in enough wheat to feed ten -people for a year. Each family could do no more than feed one other -family and itself. This was the Tragedy of the Wheat. There was never -enough of it. It was so precious that none could be sure of it except -the kings and the nobilities. As for the masses of peasantry who sowed -the wheat and reaped it with hand-sickles, they would almost as soon -have thought of wearing diamonds as of eating white bread. - -Then, in 1831, came the Reaper. It was not invented in any of the older -countries, nor in any of the great cities of the world. For five -thousand years neither the peasants nor the kings had conceived of any -better way of reaping wheat than with the sickle and the scythe. The man -who had cut the Gordian knot of Famine was the son of a citizen-farmer, -Cyrus Hall McCormick by name, Scotch-Irish by race, American by birth, -and inventor by heredity and early training. - -This new machine, the Reaper, when it was full-grown into the -self-binder, was equal to forty sickles. With one man to drive it, it -could cut and bind enough wheat in one season to feed four hundred -people. In its most highly developed form, the combined harvester and -thresher, it has become so gigantic a machine that thirty-two horses are -required to haul it. This leviathan cuts a fifty-foot roadway through -the grain, threshes it and bags it at the rate of one bag every -half-minute. And the total world production of Reapers of every -sort--self-binders, mowers, headers, corn-binders, etc.,--is probably as -many as 1,500,000 a year, two-thirds of them being made in the United -States. - -Because of this harvesting machinery, the wheat crop of the world is now -nearly twice what it was in 1879. The American crop has multiplied six -and a half times in fifty years. Western Canada, Australia, Siberia, and -Argentina have become wheat producers. The cost of growing one bushel in -America, with machinery and high wages, is now about half a dollar, -which is less than the cost in Europe and as low as the cost in India, -where laborers can be hired for a few pennies a day. With a sickle, the -time-cost of a bushel of wheat was three hours; with a self-binder, it -is now ten minutes. And so, because of these amazing results, the rattle -of the harvester has become an indispensable part of the music of our -industrial orchestra, harmonious with the click of the telegraph key, -the ring of the telephone bell, the hum of the sewing-machine, the roar -of the Bessemer converter, the gong of the trolley, the whistle of the -steamboat, and the puff of the locomotive. - -Next to the Reaper, the most important factors in this world-mechanism -of the bread, are the Railroad and the Steamboat. These arrived on the -scene just at the right time to distribute the surplus that the Reaper -produced. The Steamboat, and its humble relative, the barge, came first. -The Erie Canal of 1825, the Suez Canal of 1869, and the Sault Ste. Marie -Canal of 1881, were built largely for the carrying of the wheat. By 1856 -wheat was on its way from Chicago to Europe; and four years later the -first wheat-ship curved around Cape Horn from California. Ten years ago -an entirely new kind of ship, a sort of immense steel bag called a -"whaleback," was built to carry 250,000 bushels of wheat in a single -load. By this means a ton of wheat is actually carried thirteen miles -for one cent. There are to-day small barges on the canals of Holland, -large ones on the river Volga, and several thousand steamships on the -world's main water-ways, all carrying burdens of wheat. Enough is now -being transported from port to port to give steady work to fully three -hundred steamships and summer work to very nearly as many more. - -There was an exciting contest between the ship and the car in the -earlier days of transportation, to see which should carry the largest -share of the wheat. About 1869 the car won. In this year, too, the -United States was belted with a railway, east to west, which meant the -opening up of the first great wheat-empire. Other railways pushed out -into the vast prairies of the West, lured by the call of the wheat. They -were the pioneers of the world's wheat-railways. Wheat was their chief -freight and wheat farmers were their chief passengers. At the outset the -grain was shipped in bags. Then some railway genius invented the -grain-car, which holds as much as twenty or twenty-five wagons. And -to-day one of the ordinary moving pictures of an American railroad is a -sixty-car train travelling eastward with enough wheat in its rolling -bins to give bread to a city of ten thousand people for a year. - -The trans-Siberian railway, which is the longest straight line of steel -in the world, was built largely as a wheat-conveyor. So were the -railways of western Canada, Argentina, and India. Ever since the advent -of the Reaper wheat has been the prolific mother of railways and -steamships. While the rice nations are still putting their burdens on -ox-carts and on the backs of camels and elephants, the wheat nations -have built up a system of transportation that is a daily miracle of -cheapness, efficiency, and speed. This system is not yet finished. A new -line of steamships is about to be set afloat between Buenos Ayres and -Hamburg. The Erie Canal is being re-made, at a fabulous cost, so that a -steamer with 100,000 bushels of wheat can go directly from Buffalo to -New York. And an adventurous railway is now pushing its way north from -the wheat-fields of western Canada to the unknown water of Hudson Bay, -whence the wheat will be carried by boat to London and Liverpool. - -To-day it is not the long haul of wheat, but the short haul, that is -more expensive. It is cheaper to carry wheat from one country to another -than from the barn to the nearest town. The average distance that an -American farmer has to haul his grain is nine and a half miles, and the -average cost of haulage is nine cents per hundred pounds. Thus it has -actually become true that to carry wheat ten miles by wagon costs more -than 2,300 miles by steamship. Such is the tense efficiency of our -wheat-carrier system that a bushel of grain can now be picked up in -Missouri and sent to the cotton-spinners of England for a dime. - -Associated with this transportation problem was the matter of storage. -There was no sort of a building known to man, fifty years ago, in which -a million bushels of wheat might be conveniently kept. An entirely new -kind of building had to be invented. All the wheat barns were -overflowing. All the warehouses were outgrown. The difficulty was to -make a huge building that could be quickly filled and emptied. Then, at -the precise moment when he was needed, an inventor, F. H. Peavey, -appeared with a device for elevating grain--an endless carrier to which -metal cups were fastened. From this idea the _elevator_ was born. - -[Illustration: MAMMOTH WHEAT-FIELD IN SOUTH DAKOTA WITH TWENTY -HARVESTERS IN LINE] - -The first city that appreciated the usefulness of this new, unlovely -building was Chicago. It became not only the home of the Reaper, but -also the main storehouse of the wheat. It erected one after another of -these mastodonic buildings until to-day thirty-six of them stand along -the water-front, roomy enough to hold the entire crop of Holland, -Sweden, Greece, Egypt, Mexico, and New Zealand. What these immense -grain-bins have done for the prosperity of Chicago would require many -books to tell completely. It was largely because of them that Chicago -outgrew Berlin and became the central metropolis of North America, with -twenty-six railways emptying their freight at her doors and seven -thousand vessels a year arriving at her harbor. - -At present Chicago has swung from wheat to corn and oats, and enabled -Minneapolis to become the greatest actual wheat-storage city of the -world. In Minneapolis the owning of elevators has become a profession. -There are not only forty-four elevators in the city itself, but also -forty elevator companies that have built more than two thousand -elevators in the wheat States of the Northwest. The Jumbo of all -elevators is here--a stupendous granary that holds 6,000,000 bushels, as -much as may be reaped by two thousand self-binders from seven hundred -square miles of land. - -Of all American cities, there are only five others that can put roofs -over 10,000,000 bushels of grain. Duluth-Superior stands at the head of -these, with twice the storage capacity of New York. This double city, -with the picturesque location, Duluth on her Minnesota hillside and -Superior on her Wisconsin plain, has in recent years overtaken all -competitors and is now the leading wheat-shipping port in the world. -Buffalo comes next as an elevator city, having twenty-eight towering -buildings of steel operated by the energy of Niagara Falls. Even this -famous cataract helps a little in the making of cheap bread. New York -follows closely after Buffalo; with Kansas City and St. Louis running -neck and neck at quite a distance behind. It is an odd fact that there -is not one elevator on the Pacific coast. Because of the rainless -weather, the wheat is put into bags and piled outdoors until the day of -shipment. This is an expensive method of handling, as the bags cost four -cents apiece and no machine has as yet been invented that will pick up -and handle a sack of grain. - -The American elevator has now been very generally adopted as the ideal -wheat-bin. Two Roumanian cities, Braila and Galatz, have suggested an -improvement by using concrete instead of steel. And one Russian city, -Novorossisk, on the Black Sea, has introduced a most original feature in -the building of elevators by erecting a very large one a quarter of a -mile back from the dock, because of the better view that this site -affords of the harbor. - -London has no elevators, and never has had, although it buys more wheat -than any other city. It has six million mouths to feed, so that the -grain is devoured as fast as it arrives. To give bread to London would -take the entire crop of Indiana or Siberia. Neither are there any -elevators of any importance in Paris, Berlin, or Antwerp. Whatever wheat -arrives at these cities is either hurried to the mill or re-shipped. -Wheat is too precious in Europe to be stored for a year or for two -years, as may happen in Minnesota. Rotterdam has one elevator only and -of moderate size. Neither Odessa nor Sulina have any of the large -proportions, for the reasons that in Odessa the labor unions have an -unconquerable prejudice against elevators, and in Sulina the grain is -held only a short time and then forwarded elsewhere. This Sulina, as a -glance at the map of Europe will show, is the loneliest of all the -wheat-cities. It stands on a heap of gravel at the mouth of the -Danube--an oasis of human life in a vast marshy wilderness. The -children born there have never seen a railway; but 1,400 ships leave the -stone docks of Sulina every year laden with enough wheat to feed London, -Paris, and Berlin. To find the exact reverse of Sulina, we must go to -Buenos Ayres--the premier wheat-city of South America and the gayest of -them all. Built up at first by the cattle trade, and now depending -mainly upon wheat, this superb city has become the topmost pinnacle of -South American luxury and refinement. It has several new elevators, -erected by the railway companies. - -After the Reaper, the Railway, the Steamship, and the Elevator, came the -Exchange. This, too, came first in Chicago, in its modern form. There -was one little grain Exchange in the Italian city of Genoa, several -centuries ago, and England points back to 1747 as the year when her -first Corn Exchange was born. But it was the Exchange in Chicago, -started by thirteen men in 1848, that first came into its full growth -and became an arena of international forces. - -A wheat Exchange is to-day much more than a meeting-place for brokers. -It is a mechanism. It is a news bureau--a parliament--a part of the -whispering-gallery of the world. It not only provides a market where -wheat can at once be bought and sold, but it obtains for both buyer and -seller all the news from everywhere about the wheat, so that no bargain -may be made in the dark. Before Exchanges were organized there were -times when a farmer would drive twenty miles to the nearest town with a -load of wheat, and find no one to buy it. Even in Chicago, in the early -forties, a farmer ran the risk of not being able to trade his wheat for -a few groceries. - -At present, when a buyer or a seller of wheat arrives at an Exchange, he -goes at once to consult the weather map of the day. From here he passes -to a series of bulletin-boards, which inform him of the arrival or outgo -of wheat at many cities. One board tells him the visible supply of wheat -in the world, so that he can easily ascertain, if he wishes to do so, -_how much bread the human race ate last week_. Other boards have -telegrams and cablegrams of disaster--frost in Alberta, hail in -Minnesota, green bug in Texas, rust in Argentina, drought in Australia, -locusts in Siberia, monsoon in India, and chinch bug in Missouri. Good -news is here, too, as well as bad. There may be reports of a -record-breaking crop in Roumania, an opulent rain in Kansas, a new -steamship line from Kurrachee to Liverpool, and the plowing of a million -acres of new land in western Canada. And also there are, of course, the -records of the latest sales and prices in other Exchanges. - -Thus the farmer can not only find a ready buyer for his wheat. He can, -by means of a newspaper or a telephone, know what price he ought to -receive, as all the news gathered by the Exchanges is freely given to -the public. Such is the perfection of the news mechanism that has been -built up around the marketing of the wheat, that before a Dakota farmer -starts out for town with a load of grain, he can go to the telephone -under his own roof and learn the prices at various cities and the -world-conditions of the wheat trade. - -The paper which best deserves to be called the official journal of the -wheat is the _Corn Trade News_, of Liverpool; and the building which -best deserves to be called the international headquarters of the wheat -business is the handsome new Baltic Exchange, near by the Bank of -England in London. This Baltic market is so practically international, -in fact, that it is never closed. Whoever wishes to buy or sell wheat -may do so here at any hour of the day or night. There are no days in -this building and no seasons, for the reason that it is always noonday -and harvest-time in some part of the world. In this Baltic Exchange, -too, there is now a nucleus for a Wheat Parliament, organized under the -name of the Corn Trade Association. This society has undertaken to put -the wheat business in order, by establishing standard contracts, -collecting samples of all wheats, arbitrating disputes, and condemning -all dishonesties of whatever sort. - -As wheat Exchange cities, London, Liverpool, and Chicago outclass all -others. Neither Italy nor France have any central or dominating market. -In Paris, Antwerp, Hamburg, and Amsterdam the Bourses, as the Exchanges -are called, are public buildings, and the members of each Bourse -represent the local situation and nothing more. One of the most -ambitious and speculative of the European Exchanges is the one at -Budapest, which stands beside a dainty little park where the brokers eat -their lunch in fine weather; and the youngest of all Exchanges is the -one that was born in Buenos Ayres in 1908, representing a surplus of a -hundred million bushels a year. - -Besides the brokers, in their Exchanges, there must also be inspectors -in the marketing of the wheat. In some countries these inspectors are -government officers, as in Germany and Canada; and elsewhere they are -local officials or private employees, as in the United States. A carload -of wheat, passing from Dakota to New York, will probably have from three -to six inspections. - -[Illustration: HARVESTING IN ROUMANIA] - -Also, the insurance agent takes his place in the circle of -co-operation when the wheat begins to move from barn to bakery. He -insures the wheat in the elevators, on the cars, or in the steamships. -He may even insure it against hail and tornadoes while it is growing. It -is so precious, this brown seed, that we watch over every step of its -progress. - -It is the bankers' busy season, too, when the wheat begins to move. The -marketing of the grain ties up more money than any other yearly event. -"It threatens us with disaster every fall," said one of the Secretaries -of the Treasury, when making a plea for a more elastic currency. "We -ship half a million dollars a day during harvest," said the president of -a Chicago bank. "We drew more than five millions of currency from the -East and sent thirty-eight millions to the country during September and -October of last year," said a third financier, who spoke for Chicago as -a whole. In short, the movement of the wheat means a matter of five -hundred millions to American bankers; and it is the most important -occurrence of the year to the bankers of Russia, Canada, Argentina, and -Australia. Many a bank, as well as many a railroad, was founded upon -the moving of the wheat. - -The broker, the banker, the inspector, and the insurance agent--these -four render a useful service to the wheat that has left home; but there -is a fifth man about whose usefulness there is the widest possible -difference of opinion--the speculator. From one point of view, the -speculator is the driving-wheel of the whole wheat trade. By his energy -and his impetus he steadies and equalizes the conflicting forces, and -gives the entire mechanism a continuous movement. From another point of -view, he is a gambler, reckless and parasitical, who interferes with the -natural laws of supply and demand, and snatches an unearned toll from -the wheat bins of the world. - -Some of the wheat nations not only permit speculation in wheat, but -practically encourage it by allowing more privileges to the speculator -than to the ordinary business man. Others are resolutely stamping it -out, as a nuisance and a crime. The nations that have voted "Yea" on -speculation are Great Britain, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, France, and the -United States; and the nations that have voted "Nay" are Germany, -Holland, Belgium, Australia, Switzerland, Greece, and Argentina. Canada -has been divided on the question, since the Province of Manitoba broke -up the Winnipeg Grain Exchange by legislation in 1908. - -In the end, as organization increases, speculation will decline. Chicago -will try to push prices up and London will try to pull them down; but -there will be fewer violent fluctuations. Better methods of farming and -a more reliable system of news-gathering will eliminate the element of -chance to such an extent that the wheat trade will offer less and less -scope for speculation and no inducements at all to the reckless plunger. -Already the frantic methods of marketing wheat have been outgrown in the -Exchanges of Liverpool and London. In neither of these places is there -any Wheat Pit, or any maelstrom of frenzied brokers. Without any -shouting or jostling or wild tumult of any kind, the English brokers are -buying two hundred million bushels of wheat a year, and controlling the -situation to a greater extent than any other body of men. This, too, -without any restrictive legislation. - -Before wheat was made plentiful by the Reaper, it was possible for a -daring man to establish a corner or monopoly; but no one has succeeded -in doing this for more than forty years. The last wheat corner that did -not fail was in 1867. Since then every would-be cornerer has been caught -in his own trap. The wheat-machinery of the world has now become so vast -that no individual can master it. Whoever has tried it has found that he -was being cornered by the wheat; for as soon as he had raised the price -to an artificial level, the grain has flowed in upon him and covered him -up. The price of wheat to-day may be temporarily deflected by schemes -and conspiracies, but not for long. Ultimately it is decided by the -state of the crop and the state of public opinion in the thirty-six -countries that grow wheat and eat bread. - -Within the last thirty years, since the Reaper has come into universal -use, the area of the world's wheat-field has doubled. New countries -have arisen, that were only waste places before. The habitable earth has -grown immensely larger. There is more room for both wheat and men to -grow, and less scope for the forestaller and the monopolist. Just as the -Reaper was the advance-machine of civilization across the prairies of -the West, so it is to-day opening up new territories and developing new -resources. - -Northwestern Canada, for instance, was a dozen years ago supposed to be -a barren wilderness of snow and ice, in which none but the hunter and -the fur-trader might earn a living. Then several adventurous Minnesotans -went across and planted wheat. It grew--forty bushels to the acre, and -the acres, there were two hundred million of them, were waiting for the -plow and almost to be had for the asking. Since then, more than three -hundred thousand American farmers have swept across the line and joined -in the greatest wheat-rush of this generation. Twelve hundred grain -elevators have been built along the line of the Canadian Pacific; and -Chicago self-binders rattled through the yellow wheat last Summer two -thousand miles north of St. Louis. - -In Argentina, too, and Australia, where the wheat ripens just in time to -decorate the Christmas trees, there is to be seen the same conquest of -nature. Desolate plains are being tamed by the plow and exploited by the -harvesters. In the semi-arid belt that lies east of the Rocky Mountains, -new kinds of wheat, less thirsty, are being taught to grow. In Russia -and Siberia a vast tract of twenty-five million acres has been rescued -from idleness in the last fifteen years. And even in the valley of the -Euphrates, where wheat, so it is believed, was born, a new railway is -now being constructed which, when it is finished, will carry oil and -wheat. - -By thus opening up new regions to settlement, the wheat-farmer not only -thwarts the monopolist and makes the world a larger place to live in, he -does more: he compels the gold to come out of its vaults in the great -cities and to flow to the outermost parts of the earth. For every -eighteen thousand pounds of wheat that go to the city, there will go -back to the farmer one pound of gold. For every loaf of bread upon a -Londoner's table, there will go a cent and a half to the man behind the -Reaper. And so, the sale of every wheat-crop means that the gold will -come throbbing out into the arteries of business, like the blood from -the heart, and on its way back and forth nourish the whole body of the -nation. - -It is in the very nature of the wheat trade to benefit the masses and -not the few. The more wheat that grows, the less danger there is of an -aristocracy of wheat. More wheat means more luxury in the farm-house, -more traffic on the railway, and more food in the slums. It means busier -factories and steel-mills, because the farmer, when he receives his -wheat-money, becomes the customer of the manufacturer. Thus it was not -at all accidental that the wealth of Buenos Ayres came with the -exportation of wheat, or that the commercial awakening of Canada -followed the opening up of her western prairies, or that the industrial -supremacy of the United States dates from the immense wheat harvests -that began in 1880 to push the whole country forward with the power of -$500,000,000 a year. As one of McCormick's competitors, J. D. Easter of -Evanston, once declared, "It seems as though the McCormick Reaper -started the ball of prosperity rolling, and it has been rolling ever -since." - -[Illustration: HARVESTING HEAVY GRAIN, SOUTH AMERICA] - -If we wish to know what the Reaper will eventually do for these new -wheat countries, we have but to glance back over the short history of -our ten prairie States. Here, by the use of both science and machinery, -the New Farmer has reached his highest level of success. By 1884 these -ten States had twenty million thriving settlers, riding on forty-two -thousand miles of railway, raising as much wheat in a day as New England -could in a year, and storing their profits in twenty-five hundred banks. -Incredible as it may seem to Europe and Asia, it is true that even the -poorhouses in Iowa and Kansas were used last year as storehouses for -wheat. And it is true that in the co-operative commonwealth called -Kansas, at the last assessment, there were found to be forty-four -thousand pianos and six million dollars' worth of carriages and -automobiles. This in a State where there are no Grand Dukes and where -every man works for a living! - -If the lords of Siberia wish to know what may be done with that -famine-swept vastitude they may come and see that bed of an ancient sea, -which in thirty years has been transformed into the world's greatest -bread-land--the Red River Valley. Here the banks are not only packed -with millions, but hundreds of millions, belonging to the shirt-sleeved -proprietors of the soil. Here, in the yellow days of August, a man may -travel for days and see no limit to the ocean of waving, shimmering -wheat, that ripples around him in a vast sky-bounded circle. -Wheat--wheat--wheat! Nothing but wheat! It is a Field of the Cloth of -Gold, that adds nothing to the glory of kings, but much to the glory of -the common people. Drop the German Empire down upon this valley and its -expanse of dizzying, swirling wheat, and the wheat would not be wholly -eclipsed. There would still be enough grain around the edges to make a -golden fringe. - -The children born and bred in this Red River Valley have never seen, -except in pictures, a sickle or a flail. Their only conception of a -harvest time is that a battery of red self-binders, with reels whirling -and knives clacking, shall charge upon the wheat as though each acre -were a battalion of hostile infantry, and make war until the land is -strewn with heaps of fallen sheaves. Famine, to these children of the -wheat, seems as remote a danger as the cooling of the sun. Even the one -young State of North Dakota, not yet of age, is now growing food for -herself, and for twelve million people besides. - -So, the urgent world-problem is to teach other nations the lesson of the -Red River Valley. There is not yet enough bread so that we may put a -loaf at every plate. To feed the whole race according to the present -American standard of living would require ten thousand million -bushels--three times as much as we are raising now; and the demand is -fast outgrowing the supply. Sooner or later the Chinese will learn to -eat at least one loaf a week apiece, and when they do, it will mean -that the world's wheat crop must be increased ten per cent. - -More wheat and a more efficient organization of wheat agencies--that is -the programme of the future. Already one unsuccessful effort has been -made to hold an international Wheat Congress; and the second attempt may -end more happily. Now that the world has become so small that a -cablegram flashes completely around it in twelve minutes; now that there -are forty-four nations united by The Hague Conferences and fifty-eight -by the Postal Union; now that war has grown to be so expensive that one -cannon-shot costs as much as a college education and one battleship as -much as a first-class University,--it is quite probable that the march -of co-operation will continue until there is a Congress, and a central -headquarters and a Tribunal, which will represent nothing less than an -international fellowship of the wheat. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD - - -We have now seen the machinery by which the wheat is cut, moved, stored, -financed, and marketed. Its next and last step, as wheat, is to the -Flour-mill, whence it goes to the bakeries, the groceries, and the homes -of six hundred million people. Here, too, there have had to come new -methods since the advent of the Reaper. - -In the Dark Ages of the sickle and the flail, two flat stones did well -enough for a flour-mill. Even the bread that was found in the ruins of -Pompeii had been made of wheat that was merely crushed. Later came the -mill run by horse-power or by the energy of a little stream. Such were -the first American mills. The mill that was operated by George -Washington at Mount Vernon, for instance, was run by water-power and -produced flour that sold for thirteen dollars a barrel. Rochester, N. -Y., was the first American "Flour City"; but the modern flour-mill did -not come until it was compelled to come by the deluge of Reaper wheat -that flooded the markets in 1870. - -As usually happens in the case of inventions, it came where it was not -expected. It made its arrival in the Hungarian city of Budapest in 1874. -The "new process," as it was called, was based upon the use of steel -rolls instead of stones. It was as superior to the old-fashioned way as -the Reaper had been to the sickle or as the thresher was to the flail. -It was amazingly quick and produced a better flour. By reason of these -new mills, Budapest became at a bound the foremost "Flour City" of the -world, and held its place against all comers until 1890. - -Then the prestige passed to Minneapolis--a young city on the head-waters -of the Mississippi, the recent home of the prairie-dog and the buffalo. -Shortly before the Civil War, a youthful lawyer named William D. -Washburn drifted westwards from Maine until he came to Minneapolis, at -that time a tiny village on the frontier. He found no clients here, and -no law; but he did find a ledge of limestone rock jutting across the -Mississippi and making the only large water-fall in all that region. So -he threw aside his legal education and became the organizer of a -water-power company and the owner of a little flour-mill. Soon the long -line of Reapers reached Minneapolis and swept on westwards into the -richest wheat lands that had ever been known. The wheat overwhelmed -the slow old-fashioned mills, so the ex-lawyer in 1878 adopted the -Budapest system and built a roller-mill that was the quickest and -most automatic of its kind. Other millers had by this time come to -Minneapolis--Pillsbury, Crosby, Christian, and Dunwoody; and all -together they pushed the flour business until in twelve years they had -become the main millers of the world. - -[Illustration: INDIANS REAPING THEIR HARVEST, WHITE EARTH, MINNESOTA] - -To-day the river of wheat is deepest at Minneapolis. Its twenty-two -great mills roll 120,000,000 bushels into flour as an ordinary year's -work. While the swiftest mill in Athens, in the age of Pericles, -produced no more than two barrels a day, there is one mill of incredible -size in Minneapolis that fills _seventeen thousand_ barrels in a -twenty-four hours' run--enough to give bread to New York State and -California. What the Greeks did in a day the Minnesotans do in ten -seconds. Five million barrels of this Minneapolis flour is each year -scattered among foreign nations, a fact which informs us that flour is -now not a local product, but part of the real currency of nations. No -doubt the people who dwell by the Sea of Galilee, whose fathers were -once miraculously fed upon seven loaves of bread and a few fishes, are -now being fed miraculously upon loaves of bread made from the flour of -Minneapolis. - -The making of the bread--that is the final step in this movement of the -wheat. As yet, this is a local process, though not wholly so. Certain -ready-to-eat foods are now being made from wheat and boxed in such a way -that they may be sent from one country to another. If we trace back the -original of a loaf of bread of ordinary size, we shall find that it was -made from two-thirds of a pound of flour, which was rolled from one -pound of wheat, containing about twelve thousand grains that were grown -on forty-eight square feet of land and reaped by a self-binder in two -seconds. When the wheat was cut in the old-fashioned way, with a -hand-sickle, every loaf of bread required eighty seconds' labor instead -of two. - -In a public test made last year in the State of Washington, wheat was -cut, threshed, ground into flour, and baked into biscuits in -twenty-three minutes. This is an evidence that all the machinery for -handling grain has now been brought up to the same high level of speed -and efficiency as the self-binder. It also helps us to understand the -daily marvel of cheap bread--the fact that a hundred loaves of bread are -now delivered one by one at an American workingman's door for the cost -of a seat at the opera or a couple of song-records by Caruso. - -So plentiful is this bread that the loaves baked from American flour in -1907 would have made a wall of bread around the earth, or have given -thirty loaves apiece to every human creature; and so cheap has it become -in these latter days that even in the United States it is not more than -three cents a day per capita. The unskilled laborer who receives $1.50 a -day, earns his bread in the first ten minutes, every work day morning. -And the total tax he pays to the men who make the self-binders is not -more than one tenth of a cent per loaf. - -Three-sevenths of the people of the world are now on a wheat basis. They -are the lesser fraction in point of numbers, but the larger in point of -prosperity and progress. A wheat map of the globe would be very nearly a -map of modern civilization. As yet, there are many peasants who grow -wheat and cannot afford to eat it. But the number of bread-eaters is -steadily increasing, probably at the rate of four or five million a -year. - -The nation that eats most bread per capita is Belgium. After her come -France, England, and the United States. As the Belgians, with their -scanty acres, cannot grow more wheat than would support them for nine -weeks, they are compelled to import nearly fifty million bushels a year; -and it is this continual influx of grain that has done most to make -Antwerp the third busiest port in the world and the home of forty -steamship lines. - -France is second as an eater, and third as a grower, of wheat. But it is -not an important factor in the international market, as there is usually -almost an even balance between what it grows and what it eats. It has -very little either to buy or to sell. Its crops are steady and large, -and by intensive cultivation the thrifty French are obtaining the same -amount of grain from less and less land. - -There are two countries only, Great Britain and Holland, that impose no -tariff upon either wheat or flour. Neither the British nor the Dutch -will tolerate a bread tax. Both countries have barely enough land to -grow one-quarter as much wheat as they need, although there was a period -in the early history of England when it was nicknamed "the Granary of -the North," because of its many wheat-fields. To-day the bread on three -British tables out of four is made of wheat brought in a British ship -from some foreign country; and the total amount of wheat consumed in the -United Kingdom is so great that it requires an army of 93,000 men with -self-binders to cut it and tie it into sheaves. If it had to be reaped -with sickles, it would be a ten-day harvesting for half the able-bodied -men in the two islands. - -Germany eats less wheat than Great Britain, and raises more than twice -as much. The Germans are skilled wheat-farmers. They grow as much on -half an acre of poor soil as Americans grow on a whole acre of good -soil. The Italians eat very nearly as much as the Germans, and raise a -larger crop by dint of great labor on the tiny farms and terraced -hillsides of Italy. Both countries tax the bread of the poor by a tariff -of thirty-eight to forty-eight cents a bushel on foreign wheat. The -Austrians and Hungarians, in spite of a climate of extremes and sudden -changes, manage to supply themselves with more than ten billion loaves -of bread by the tillage of their own fields, and usually have some flour -to sell to the neighboring countries. The Spanish cannot quite feed -themselves; in addition to the wheat they grow, they are obliged to buy -about a hundred ship-loads a year. Denmark comes out even. Portugal buys -her bread for four months of the year. Greece, Norway, and Sweden raise -half enough wheat. The Swiss can get no more from their valley-farms -than will feed them for ten weeks. And the peasants of Russia and -Roumania, who raise wheat in abundance, have unfortunately not yet risen -to that luxurious level of life in which white bread is the every-day -food of the people. Although Russia has more wheat to sell than any -other nation, a Russian eats one-third as much wheat as a Belgian, and -there is a famine somewhere in the vast Russian Empire almost every -winter. - -[Illustration: A HARVEST SCENE UPON A RUSSIAN ESTATE] - -Africa is not yet a wheat-eating continent. Egypt, which was, in the -Golden Age of the Pharaohs, the wheat-centre of the world, now grows -less grain than Oregon; Algeria raises less than Ohio; and Tunis, from -the fields that surround the ruins of ancient Carthage, produces less -grain than Tennessee. India is slowly shifting from rice to wheat. Many -of the fields that once grew indigo are now yellow with grain. At -present India is the most uncertain factor in the situation, as it may -have eighty million bushels to sell or none. As it is one-third as large -as the United States, and crowded with three times the population, -there is always need of its grain at home. As yet, the Reaper has not -been allowed to extend its benefits to India. Most of the grain is -reaped in the old slow, wasteful way. It is sown by hand, cut by -sickles, stored in pits, and transported on the backs of camels. Little -Japan is falling into line as a bread-eating country, growing now as -much wheat as California. And even China, which is not as a whole on the -wheat-map of the world, has recently begun to grow wheat in Manchuria -and to build flour-mills at Hong-Kong. - -So, the human race will soon be able to feed itself. It has learned how -and needs only to use to the full the agencies that are already invented -and established. Beginning with the McCormick Reaper in 1831, there has -been constructed a world mechanism of the bread, which promises to -wholly abolish Famine and its brood of evils. The crude machine that was -hammered and whittled into shape in a log workshop on a Virginian farm, -has now become a System--a _McCormick System_, that cuts ten million -bushels of ripe wheat a day and transports it hither and thither as -handily as though the whole round earth were girt with belt-conveyors. - -That young Virginian farmer who awoke from his dream and made his dream -come true, made it possible for a few in each country to provide enough -food for all. He found a cure for Hunger, which had always persisted -like a chronic disease. He heaped the plates on the tables of thirty-six -nations. He took a drudgery and transformed it into a profession. He -instructed the wheat-eating races how to increase the "seven small -loaves" so that the multitudes should be fed. He picked up the task of -feeding the hungry masses--the Christly task that had lain unfulfilled -for eighteen centuries, and led the way in organizing it into a system -of international reciprocity. - -To-day there is no longer in most countries any tragic note in the Epic -of the Wheat. There is no sweating peasant with a hoe. The plowman may -even sit, if he wishes, upon the sliding steel knife that slices the -soil into furrows, or upon the steel harrow that combs the clods into -soft, loose earth. The sower is no heavy-footed serf, scattering his -grain in handfuls upon the surface of the soil, where the birds of the -air may devour it. He, too, rides upon a machine with steel fingers that -plant the living seed securely in the living earth. And when, at the -call of the sun and the rain, the black field becomes green and ripens -from green to gold, its yellow fruitage is swept down and into barns, -not by a horde of stooping laborers, but by the Grand March of the -Harvesters, the drivers of painted chariots, who ride against the grain -and leave it behind them in bound sheaves. - -Henceforth civilization may be based upon higher motives than the Search -for Food. The struggle for existence may become the struggle of the -nobler nature for its full development. The gentle need not be -eliminated by the strong. Instead of contending with one another in an -unbrotherly competition, men may move upward to the higher activities of -social self-preservation and organized self-help. By mastering the -problem of the bread, they have opened up such opportunities for -education, for travel, for happier homes, for the prosperity and -friendship of the nations, as no previous generation has ever had. And -it is here, it is in this larger and kindlier civilization, that is now -made possible by the Reaper and the wheat-mechanism which has grown up -around it, that we shall find the full spiritual value to the world of -that stout-hearted bread-winner of the human race whose life began among -the hills of Old Virginia one hundred years ago. - - -THE END - - - - -INDEX - - - A - - Adams, John, 15 - - Adriance, John P., 103, 119 - - Advertisements of Reaper, 54, 81-83, 112, 134 - - Africa not a wheat-eating country, 242 - - Agencies established for sale of Reapers (about 1844), 63 - - Agents, Cyrus H. McCormick's plan in regard to, 83, 84, 86 - - Agriculture, Department of, 87 - - Albert, Prince, 125, 132 - - Algeria, 242 - - Allen, Grant, 205 - - _America_, yacht, 131 - - Amsterdam, 222 - - Antwerp, no grain stored in, 217; - Bourse in, 222; - third busiest port in world, 239 - - Appleby, John F., 115 - - Argentina, 209, 212, 225, 228 - - Arkwright, inventor, 53, 131 - - Armagh massacre of 1641, 22 - - Athens, mills at, 236 - - Atkins, Jearum, 106 - - Augusta County, Virginia, 3 - - Australia, wheat crop of, 209; - legislation against speculation in, 225; - development of, 228 - - Australian stripper, 200 - - Austria in 1809, 4; - farm laborers received no wages in, 123; - climate and wheat production in, 241 - - Austrian Emperor decorated Cyrus H. McCormick, 135 - - Ayrshire, Scotland, 86 - - - B - - Babylon, 206 - - Baggage Case, 1862-1885, 100-102; - _see also_ Pennsylvania Railroad - - Baltic Exchange, London, 221 - - _Baltic_, holder of ocean record, 131 - - Baltimore and Ohio Railway, 49 - - Baltimore Convention of 1861, 158, 166 - - Bankers concerned in moving of wheat, 223, 224 - - Barbary pirates, 4 - - Barclay, Col. A. T., 40 - - Barge, invention of, 210 - - Battleship turret, improver of, 95 - - Bavarians in the Tyrol (1809), 4 - - _Beagle_, H. M. S., Darwin's voyage in, 51 - - Bear, Henry, 66 - - Behel, Jacob, 115 - - Belgian method of reaping, 6 - - Belgians, King of the, 125 - - Belgium, legislation against speculation in, 225; - consumption of bread per capita in, 239, 242 - - Berlin, 214, 217 - - Berthelot, 51 - - Bessemer converter, 17, 49, 69, 210 - - Bismarck, 136 - - Black Death in England, 124 - - Blackie, 1 - - Blame, Mrs. Emmons, 183 - - Blanchard, inventor, 95 - - Blue Ridge Mountains, 2, 36 - - Board of Trade, none in Chicago when Cyrus H. McCormick came, 70 - - Bonanza farms, 194 - - Bull, Ole, 184 - - Bonar, 1 - - Bonner, Henry, publisher, 21 - - Bottgher, 53 - - Bourses, or European Exchanges, 222 - - Bowyer, Col. John, 40 - - Braila, Roumania, 216 - - Bradshaw, Prof., 40 - - Brains, John, 59 - - Bread, making of, 237, 238; - record time from standing grain to, 238; - cheapness of, 238 - - Bread tax, 240, 241 - - Brokers, wheat, 219, 222, 224 - - Brooks, Absalom, 58 - - Brown, A. C., 66 - - Brown, Senator, of Miss., 93 - - Bryant, 76 - - Buckle, 204 - - Budapest, Bourse in, 222; - "new process" mills in, 235, 236 - - Buenos Ayres, 218, 222, 229 - - Buffalo, N. Y., 69, 216 - - Bulwer, Sir Henry Lytton, 130 - - Burson, W. W., 115 - - Bushnell, Reaper manufacturer, 103, 120 - - Butler, E. K., 143, 148 - - Butler, Gen., 36 - - - C - - Cablegrams, 233 - - Calhoun, 164, 178 - - California, 51, 82, 190, 243 - - Calvin, John, 156, 157, 168 - - Canada, grain inspectors in, 222; - grain speculation in, 225 - - Canada (western), wheat crop of, 209; - railways of, 212, 213; - development of, 227, 229 - - Canadian Pacific Railway, 227 - - Canal, first, in Chicago, 75 - - Carlyle, 155 - - Carnegie, Andrew, 56 - - Carpenter, "Pump," 114, 115, 117 - - Carson, Miss Polly, 40, 41 - - Carthage, ruins of, 242 - - Cash, John, 35 - - Cavaliers of Virginia, 20 - - Chalons, Emperor Napoleon's estate, 134 - - Chautauqua idea, originator of, 120 - - Chicago, 4, 30, 31, 37, 50, 67, 68, 70-78, 83, 85, 97, 106, 137, - 144, 146, 151-153, 162, 166, 188, 189, 192, 196, 201, 214, - 215, 218, 219, 222, 223 - - Chicago fire of 1871, 30, 151-153, 182 - - China, opium traffic of, 204; - future use of wheat in, 232, 243 - - Chopin, 1, 51 - - Christian, Minneapolis miller, 236 - - Cincinnati Democratic Convention, 171 - - Circus, first, in Chicago, 71 - - City and town dwellers, proportion of, 195, 196 - - Civil War, _see_ Secession, War of - - Clay, Henry, 15, 164 - - _Clermont_, Fulton's steamboat, 7 - - Cleveland, Ohio, 73 - - Collins Line, 131 - - Colt's pistol, 130, 131 - - Columbus, Reaper traced back to, 17 - - Congress, first recognition of Chicago by, 72; - Lincoln elected to, 72; - patent suits carried to, 91, 92; - how inventors have been treated by, 95 - - Cooper, Peter, 11, 155 - - Corn stored at Chicago, 215 - - Corn Trade Association, London, 221 - - _Corn Trade News_, of Liverpool, 221 - - Corners in wheat, 226 - - Cort, 53 - - Cotton-gin, 52, 97, 191 - - Covenanters, Scotch, 19, 23, 157 - - Cradle, 5, 27, 45 - - Crichton-Browne, Sir James, 204 - - Crimean War, 190 - - Criminals in period of 1809, 8 - - Cromwell, 173, 185 - - Crosby, Minneapolis miller, 236 - - Cross of the Legion of Honor given Cyrus H. McCormick by Emperor - Napoleon III., 135 - - Crystal Palace, London, 127 - - - D - - Dalrymple, Oliver, 193, 194 - - Darwin, 1, 51 - - Davis, H. Winter, 99 - - Davy, 131 - - Debates between Lincoln and Douglas, 100 - - Deere, John, 49, 131 - - Deering, William, 115, 116, 118, 121, 150 - - De Lesseps, 70 - - Denmark, 241 - - Department store, free trial given by, 80 - - Des Moines, Iowa, 6, 86 - - Dickerson, E. N., 91, 98 - - Diet of Worms, 156 - - Diseases prevalent in 1809, 7 - - Divider, origin of, 32, 46 - - Douglas, Stephen A., 91, 99, 100 - - Driving-wheel of Reaper, 34 - - Drunkenness in 1809, 7 - - Duluth-Superior, 215 - - Dunfermline, Scotland, Andrew Carnegie's birthplace, 56 - - Dunwoody, Minneapolis miller, 236 - - Duties imposed on American machines entering Europe, 136 - - - E - - Eager, Samuel, 58 - - Easter, J. D., 230 - - Eastern States, labor and money in (about 1839), 58 - - Ebrington, Lord, 127, 128 - - Edward, King, 132 - - Egypt once wheat-centre of world and present production in, 242 - - Egyptian tombs, wheat found in, 206 - - "1800-and-starve-to-death" period, 51 - - Elastic currency, demands for, 223 - - Electric engine, builder of, 95 - - Electrical experiments, 50 - - Elevators, grain, 214-217 - - Embargo (1809), 8-10 - - Emerson, Ralph, 45, 46, 98, 103, 119 - - Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 97 - - England, riots in (1809), 3, 4; - U. S. flag flouted by, 4; - at war with Scotland, 18, 19; - with Ireland, 19; - Scotch-Irish ready for war with, 20; - conditions in (1831), 50; - price of labor in, 123; - labor conditions and farm machinery in, 124; - Corn Exchange in, 218; - speculation in, 224; - consumption of bread in, 239; - no tariff on wheat or flour in, 240; - has lost place as "granary of the North," 240; - contrasted with Germany, 241 - - Erie Canal, 210, 212 - - Ether, use of, 69 - - Euphrates, valley of, 228 - - Europe, introduction of Reaper into, and trade with, 123-138; - cost of growing wheat in, 209; - American wheat exported to, 210; - wheat stored in, 217 - - Exchanges, grain, 218-222 - - - F - - Factories in 1831, 48, 49 - - Factory, rebuilding of, after fire, 31, 152, 182; - present size of, 47, 196-200; - in Virginia, poor transportation from, 64; - McCormick's plan to build his own, 67; - Chicago chosen as site of, 77, 137, 202; - largest in Chicago, 77; - in 1860, 106; - output of, 137; - at time of Chicago fire, 151; - in 1884, 188 - - Famine of 1846 in Ireland, 71 - - Famines, local, 51; - in Russia, 242 - - Farm laborers drawn by 1849 gold rush, 82, 83, 190 - - Farm machinery, none in 1809, 5, 11; - invention of, 17; - profession of making, 22; - none in 1831, 49; - farmers not using (about 1839), 57, 58; - fixed prices for, 81; - field test as method of marketing, 87; - McCormick's system of selling, 89; - introduction of, in England, 124; - sale of, boomed after 1849, 190; - present era of, 193-195 - - Farmers, increase of (1810-1820), 11, 21; - their opinions of early types of mowers and reapers, 43; - McCormick's confidence in, 80; - advertising among, and testimonials from, 82; - McCormick stood well with, 85; - his business methods with, 85; - McCormick hurt by petitions of protest from, 94; - credit extended to, 193; - farm machinery used by, 193-195 - - "Farmer's Register," 43 - - Fassler, Jerome, 119 - - Federal bankrupt law of 1842, 71 - - Field, Cyrus W., 155 - - Field tests, 87-89, 134, 135 - - Fingers on cutting blade, origin of, 33 - - Fire department, Chicago, 1846, 72 - - Fiske, John, 21 - - Fitch & Co., 66 - - FitzGerald, 1 - - Fixed price, Reapers sold at, 80, 81 - - Flesh food, 205 - - "Flour Cities," 234, 235 - - Flour, manufacture of, 234-237 - - Flour-mills, 234-237 - - Food, first necessity, 203, 204; - relation between population and, 204; - three principal articles of, 205 - - Foreign trade in Reapers, 123, 124, 131-138 - - Fowler, Miss Nettie, _see_ McCormick, Mrs. Cyrus H. - - France, U. S. flag flouted by, 4; - price of labor in, 123; - no central wheat market in, 222; - speculation in, 225; - consumption of bread in, 239, 240; - wheat grown in, 240; - intensive cultivation in, 240 - - Frederick of Holstein, Prince, 128 - - Frederick, Virginia, 3 - - Fredericksruhe, Bismarck's estate, 136 - - Free library, none in 1831, 50 - - Free trial of Reaper, 80 - - French Academy of Science elected Cyrus H. McCormick a member, 136 - - French Revolution, 156, 204 - - Froude, 21 - - Fulton, Robert, 7, 11, 21, 53, 95 - - Fulton's steamboat, 7 - - - G - - Galatz, 216 - - Galena, Ill., 76 - - Galilee, Sea of, people who dwell by the, 237 - - Gammon, E. H., 116 - - Garrison, William Lloyd, 51 - - Gas not used in Chicago when Cyrus H. McCormick came, 70 - - Genoa, 218 - - Gerland, Dr., 206 - - Germany in 1809, 4; - price of labor in, 123; - reasons why Reapers are not made in, 136; - grain inspectors in, 222; - legislation against speculation in, 225; - compared with Red River Valley, 231; - compared with Great Britain, 240; - intensive cultivation in, 241 - - Gilkerson, David, 58 - - Gladstone, 2, 51 - - Glanders, a contagious disease, 5 - - Glessner, Reaper manufacturer, 103, 120 - - Gold put in circulation by wheat, 228, 229 - - Gold rush to California, 1849, 82, 190 - - Goodyear, 53, 95 - - Gorham, Marquis L., 115, 117 - - Grain-car, invention and use of, 211, 212 - - Granville, Lord, 131 - - Gray & Warner, 66 - - Great Britain, _see_ England - - Greece, 225, 241 - - Greeley, Horace, 72, 129, 155, 167 - - Gutenberg, 53 - - - H - - Hague, The, Conferences, 233 - - Hall, Dr. John, 169 - - Hall, Patrick, 22, 23 - - Hamburg, 222 - - Hancock, candidate for President, 171 - - Hand-labor, Reaper invented in era of, 48, 49 - - "Hard Times" measures in Legislature, 71 - - Harding, George, 91, 99 - - Hargreaves, inventor of weaving machinery, 53 - - Harper, Henry, publisher, 21 - - Hart, Eli, & Co., 52 - - Harvest season only opportunity of testing Reaper, 61, 92 - - Haussemann, Baron, 1 - - Hayes, President, 165 - - Hayes-Tilden controversy, 165 - - Heathcoat, inventor of weaving machinery, 53 - - Henry, Joseph, 21, 50 - - Herald Square, New York, 6 - - Hewitt, Abram S., 155 - - Hite, James M., 63 - - Hitt, Dr. N. M., 37 - - Hobbs lock, 131 - - Hoe press, 49, 69, 131 - - Holland in 1809, 4; - legislation against speculation in, 225; - no tariff on wheat or flour in, 240 - - Holloway, D. P., 96 - - Holmes, 1, 51 - - Holmes, H. A., 115 - - Homestead Act of 1862, 193 - - Hong-Kong, flour-mills at, 243 - - Houghawout, John W., 40 - - Houghton, Lord, 1 - - Howe, 69, 95, 131 - - Hudson Bay, 213 - - Hulled corn, use of, 69 - - Hungary, speculation in, 224; - climate and wheat production of, 241 - - Hunger, evils due to, 204, 205 - - Huntley, Byron E., 103, 119 - - Hussey, Obed, 87, 88, 119 - - Huxley, 51 - - Hyatt, inventor, 95 - - - I - - Illinois, 64, 65, 69, 100, 151, 193 - - Immigrants supplied with Reapers on credit, 85, 86 - - India, opium traffic of, 204; - cost of wheat production and labor in, 209, 242; - railways of, 212; - area and population of, 242, 243; - wasteful methods practised in, 243 - - Indian Confederacy of Tecumseh, 4 - - Indian Massacre (1764) in Rockbridge County, Virginia, 2 - - Indiana wheat crop, 217 - - Indigo displaced by wheat in India, 242 - - Inspectors of grain, 222, 224 - - Insurance agents for wheat, 222-224 - - Intensive cultivation, 240, 241 - - _Interior, The_, 162, 163, 172 - - International Harvester Company, 183, 201 - - Inventors not encouraged, 6; - how treated by Congress and the Patent Office, 95; - rights of, as stated by Webster, 95 - - Iowa, 50, 63, 69, 230 - - Ireland, Scotch Covenanters in, 19, 21; - famine of 1846 in, 71 - - Irish immigrants in Chicago, 71 - - Iron furnace operated by Cyrus H. McCormick, 55-57 - - "Iron Man," Atkins's self-rake Reaper, 106, 107 - - Iron, price of, about 1833, 55, 56 - - Italy, no central wheat market in, 222; - wheat consumption and production in, 241 - - - J - - Jacquard, inventor of weaving machinery, 53 - - Jails, conditions in, 8, 9 - - Jamestown colony, 36 - - Janesville, Wis., 114 - - Japan, object of, in war with Russia, 204; - more wheat consumed and raised in, 243 - - Jefferson, President, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16 - - Jenks, Joseph, of Lynn, 5 - - Johnson, Reverdy, 91, 98 - - Johnson, Senator, of Maryland, 96 - - Jones, William H., 104, 120 - - - K - - Kansas, 51, 85, 204, 230, 231 - - Kansas City, 216 - - Kay, inventor of weaving machinery, 53 - - Kelly, inventor, 95 - - Kentucky, Scotch-Irish in, 20 - - Kinglake, 1 - - Kinzie, John, 77 - - Knox, John, 18, 58, 156, 157, 169 - - Koh-i-noor diamond, 125, 126 - - Krapotkin, Prince, 204 - - Kurtz, Jacob, 58 - - - L - - Land sales from 1810 to 1820, 11 - - Law-school, first in, Chicago, 71 - - Lexington Female Academy, 40 - - _Lexington Union_, 54 - - Lexington, Virginia, 37, 39, 40 - - Licenses to manufacturers of McCormick's Reaper, 66, 98, 112, 116, - 120 - - Lilley, General, 140 - - Lincoln, Abraham, 1, 2, 51, 72, 91, 99, 100, 191 - - Lind, Jenny, 184 - - Liverpool, 221, 222, 225 - - Livingstone, 70 - - Locke, Sylvanus D., 112, 115 - - Locomotives, early, 49, 50, 192, 210 - - London Exhibition of 1851, 124-127, 130, 131, 190 - - London, no grain elevators in, 217; - wheat consumption of, 217; - Baltic Exchange in, 221, 222; - methods of wheat marketing in, 225 - - "Low-down" binder, 118 - - Luther, Martin, 156, 157, 173 - - - M - - Mackenzie, expert Reaper operator, 128 - - Mail-order houses, free trial given by, 80 - - Manchuria, wheat raised in, 243 - - Manitoba, Province of, 225 - - Mann, inventor, 108 - - Manny and Emerson, of Rockford, Ill., 98, 103, 119 - - Manufacturers licensed to build McCormick's Reapers, _see - under_ Licenses - - Marsh, C. W., 45, 46 - - "Marsh Harvester," 109, 110 - - Martineau, Miss, 76 - - Mary, Queen of Scots, 18 - - Masses benefited by wheat trade, 229 - - Massie, William, 60 - - Mazzini, 51 - - McChesney, Adam, 28 - - McClung, Billy, 159 - - McClurg, Alexander C., publisher, 21 - - McCormick, Miss Anita, _see_ Blame, Mrs. Emmons - - McCormick Centenary, 45 - - McCormick City, 196-202 - - McCormick Company, present, 98 - - McCormick, Cyrus Hall, 2, 3, 11-13, 16-18, 21, 22, 25-28, 30-35, - 37-48, 51-68, 71-85, 87-105, 109-113, 115-119, 121-124, - 129-191, 193, 195, 198-202, 208, 230, 244, 246 - - McCormick, Mrs. Cyrus H., 182, 183 - - McCormick, Cyrus H., Jr., 163, 183, 184, 201 - - McCormick, Davis, 29 - - McCormick family, 13, 17, 22-25, 64, 66, 78 - - McCormick, Harold, 183 - - McCormick home in Rockbridge County, Virginia, 2, 3, 13-16, 25, - 35-37, 40, 48, 62 - - McCormick, Leander, 37, 123, 140, 143, 181, 182 - - "McCormick Plan," 167 - - McCormick, Robert, 13-17, 22, 25, 28-31, 40, 45, 104, 181 - - McCormick, Mrs. Robert, 23-25, 181 - - McCormick, Robert, son of Cyrus H. McCormick, 183 - - McCormick, Stanley, 183, 200 - - McCormick System, 243 - - McCormick Theological Seminary, 162, 163 - - McCormick, Thomas, 22 - - McCormick, Miss Virginia, 183 - - McCormick, William, 37, 123, 143, 181, 182 - - McDowell, Col. James, 40 - - Mechi, John J., 127-129, 131 - - Mecklenburg, Virginia, 20 - - Melville, Andrew, 169 - - Mendelssohn, 1, 51 - - Mexican War, Chicago organized regiment for, 71 - - Michigan white ash used in manufacture of Reapers, 74 - - Miller, Lewis, 104, 120 - - Milwaukee, 73 - - Minneapolis, 215, 235-237 - - Minnesota, 51, 193, 217 - - Mississippi River, 50 - - Missouri, 63 - - Moore, James, 40 - - Morgan, Junius, 131, 155 - - Mormons, 69 - - Morse, 21, 95, 131 - - Morton, Dr., 69 - - Mount Vernon flour-mill, 234 - - Mower, Miller's, 120 - - - N - - Napoleon, 4, 10 - - Napoleon III., Emperor, 134, 135 - - Nebraska, 51 - - New Albany, Ind., Seminary, 162 - - New England, 230 - - "New process" flour-mills, 235 - - New York City, 4, 6, 8, 9, 37, 52, 119, 160, 216 - - Newspapers in 1831, 50 - - Newton, John, 59 - - Niagara Falls, power from, 216 - - North Dakota, 85, 232 - - Northwestern Theological Seminary, 162 - - Norway, speculation in grain in, 225; - wheat production in, 241, 242 - - Novorossisk, Russia, grain elevator at, 216, 217 - - - O - - Oats stored at Chicago, 215 - - Odessa, 217 - - Ogden, William B., 75-78 - - Ohio, 64, 67, 242 - - Oklahoma, 69 - - Oliver, James, 49 - - Opium traffic, 204 - - Oregon, 242 - - Oriental method of chaffering and bargaining, vogue of, 81 - - Osborne, David M., 103, 120 - - - P - - Pacific coast, no grain elevators on, 216 - - Page, Prof., 95 - - Palissy, 53 - - Papers in 1831, 48 - - "Parcimony in Nutrition," 204 - - Paris Exposition (1855), 133 - - Paris, no grain stored in, 217; - Bourse in, 222 - - Parker, J., 63 - - Pasteur, 51 - - Patent, Cyrus H. McCormick's first, on Reaper, 59; - expiration of original, 91; - suits over extension of, 91-98 - - Patent Law, 91 - - Patent Office, 91-93, 95, 185 - - Patents for Reaper and mower inventions, 34, 41; - suits over, 45, 90-98; - for self-binders, 118 - - Patton, Dr. Francis L., 172 - - Paupers in period of 1809, 8 - - Paved streets, none in Chicago when Cyrus H. McCormick came, 70 - - Peabody, George, 131, 155 - - Peavey, F. H., 214 - - Pennsylvania Railroad, 158; - _see also_ Baggage Case - - Pericles, mills in time of, 236 - - Peterborough, N. H., 50 - - Photography, 49 - - Pillsbury, Minneapolis miller, 236 - - Pittsburg, Pa., 74 - - Platform on Reaper, origin of, 33 - - Plow, hillside, 45, 81 - - Plow, iron, thought to poison soil, 5; - invention of, 49 - - Plow, self-sharpening, 45 - - Poe, 1, 51 - - Police force of Chicago in 1847, 70 - - Polish female laborers, 197 - - Pompeii, bread found in ruins of, 234 - - Poorhouses used as storehouses for wheat, 230 - - Portugal, 241 - - Post-office, Chicago, in 1847, 70 - - Postage in 1831, 50 - - Postage stamps, 70 - - Postal Union, 233 - - "Prairie Ground," American display at London Exhibition of 1851, 126 - - Prairies, need of Reapers to harvest on the, 65, 73; - uncultivated before advent of Reaper, 67 - - Prairie States, ten, 230 - - Presbyterian Church, 158, 185, 186 - - Princeton University, 172 - - Protestant Reformation, 156, 185 - - Proudhon, 1, 51 - - Publicity, Cyrus H. McCormick believed in policy of, 81 - - Puddling-furnace, 17 - - Pyramids, wheat pictured on, 206 - - - R - - Railway from Chicago to Galena, 76 - - Railways in 1831, 49; - extending westward, 67; - none reaching Chicago when Cyrus H. McCormick came, 70; - Chicago becomes a centre for, 73; - preceded by Reaper in West, 192; - distribution of food-stuffs by, 210, 211; - building of trans-continental, 211; - across Siberia, 212; - in western Canada, Argentina, and India, 212; - as wheat-conveyors, 212; - converging at Chicago, 214; - in Prairie States, 230 - - Ready-to-eat foods, 237 - - Reaper, McCormick, 13, 17, 28-48, 52-67, 73-76, 78-86, 88, 89, 92, - 95-98, 100, 103-108, 110-113, 115, 117, 119-124, 126-135, 137, - 138, 147, 166, 169, 170, 188-193, 195, 196, 200-203, 208, 210, - 212, 214, 226, 227, 230, 243-246 - - Reapers of all makes, total annual production of, 209 - - Reciprocating blade, origin of, 32 - - Red River Valley, 194, 231, 232 - - Reed, Col. Samuel, 40 - - Reel, origin of, 33, 46 - - Republican party, 100 - - Revolutionary War, 3, 20 - - Rice, 205, 212, 242 - - Riots in 1837, 52 - - "River and Harbor Convention," Chicago, 71, 72 - - Rochester, N. Y., 234 - - Rockbridge County, Virginia, McCormick farm in, 2 - - Rotterdam, wheat stored in, 217 - - Roumania, 242 - - Roumanian cities use concrete grain elevators, 216 - - Rubber manufacture, inventor of, 53 - - Ruff, John, 38, 40 - - Russia, farm laborers received no wages in, 123; - in war with Japan, 204; - development of, 228; - wheat production, consumption, and exportation in, 242; - famines in, 242 - - Russian army in Sweden (1809), 4 - - Russo-Japanese War, 204 - - - S - - Sailors become farmers, 11 - - St. Louis, Mo., 73, 216 - - Sales system of Cyrus H. McCormick, 47, 78 _et seq._ - - Saratoga, N. Y., 7 - - Sault Ste. Marie Canal, 210 - - Sauvage, inventor of screw propeller, 53 - - School attended by Cyrus H. McCormick, 26 - - Scotch-Irish, the, 17-23, 25, 29 - - Scotland, 18, 74 - - Screw propeller, inventor of, 53 - - Scribner, Charles, publisher, 21 - - Scythe, invention of, 5 - - Secession, War of, 100, 166-168, 191, 192 - - Self-binders, 110-115, 117, 118, 121, 208-210, 238 - - Self-rake Reapers, 106, 107, 110, 114 - - Self-sizing device, Gorham's invention of, 117 - - Seneca, quoted, 154 - - Serfs, 15, 124 - - Servia, conditions in (1809), 4 - - Sevres porcelain, 53 - - Seward, William H., 91, 98, 155 - - Sewerage, none in Chicago when Cyrus H. McCormick came, 70 - - Sewing-machine, 17, 49, 69, 131, 210 - - Seymour, Morgan & Co., 66, 116, 119, 120 - - Sheffield steel used in manufacture of Reapers, 74 - - Sherwood farm, near Elgin, Ill., 111 - - Shipping, Chicago becomes centre for, 73, 215 - - Siberia, Russia seeking seaport for, 204; - wheat crop of, 209, 217; - railway across, 212; - development of, 228; - might take lesson from Red River Valley, 231 - - Sickle, its use in 1809, 5 - - Side-draught construction of Reaper, 33, 34 - - Side-delivery machine, first practical, 46 - - Skulls, pyramid of, 4 - - Slaves, work of, 191 - - Smith, Abraham, 60, 62 - - Smith, Joshua, 57 - - Smith, Sidney, 130 - - Social conditions in 1809, 7-9 - - Solomon, 206 - - South Carolina, 97 - - Spain, in 1809, 4; - wheat imported by, 241 - - Spaulding, George H., 115 - - Speculators, grain, 224, 225 - - Spencer, Herbert, 51 - - Spring, Charles, 143 - - Stanton, Edwin M., 91, 99 - - Staunton, Virginia, 2, 40, 57, 58, 60 - - Steamboat, invention of, 210 - - Steele, Eliza, 37 - - Steele, John, 37, 40 - - Steele's Tavern, Virginia, 37 - - Stewart, A. T., 21, 81 - - Stock-yards not located at Chicago when Cyrus H. McCormick came, 70 - - Storage of wheat, 213, 214 - - Suez Canal, 70, 210 - - Sulina, 217, 218 - - Surveying, Cyrus H. McCormick's study of, 27 - - Sweden in 1809, 4; - speculation in grain in, 224; - wheat production in, 241, 242 - - Switzerland, 225, 242 - - - T - - Taylor, Dr., 40 - - Taylor, Hon. William, 39, 40 - - Tecumseh, 4 - - Tehuantepec Inter-Ocean Railroad, 144 - - Telegraph, 49, 50, 70, 131, 210 - - Telephone, 210 - - Temperance society at Saratoga, 7 - - Tennessee, Scotch-Irish in, 20; - first Reaper purchased in, 63; - comparison of grain production of, 242 - - Tennyson, 1, 51 - - Texas, Scotch-Irish in, 20; - not in the Union in 1831, 51 - - Theatres in early Chicago, 70, 71 - - Thompson, J. Edgar, 101 - - Tilden, 76, 165 - - _Times_, Chicago, 166 - - _Times_, London, 130 - - Town and city dwellers, proportion of, 195, 196 - - Town laborers become farmers, 11 - - Trans-Siberian railway, 212 - - Transportation charges on wheat, 213 - - Transportation of Reapers from Virginia farm, 64 - - _Tribune_, of Chicago, founded, 71 - - Trolley, introduction of, 210 - - Tunis, 242 - - Turks in Servia (1809), 4 - - Tutwiler, Colonel, 63 - - Twine-mill in McCormick factory, Chicago, 197 - - Twine self-binders, 115-118, 121 - - Tyre, King of, 206 - - Tyrol, riot in (1809), 4 - - - U - - Ulster, county of, 19, 21, 22 - - Union Army in Rockbridge County, Virginia, 36 - - Union Pacific Railway, 144 - - United States, in 1809, 4 _et seq._; - Scotch-Irish in, 18-21; - papers printed in (1831), 48; - railways in (1831), 49; - extent and development of (1831), 50; - Buffalo chief grain market of, 69; - London Exposition display from, 126; - inventions credited to, 130; - reasons why Reapers were invented in, 136, 201; - McCormick's place in history of, 153; - production of wheat in, 188, 189; - manufacturing and labor in (1884), 189; - Reaper little used in, until after 1849, 190; - Reaper appreciated in, 191; - industrial supremacy of, 195, 229; - harvesting machinery industry in, 201; - wheat crop of, 209; - cost of production of wheat in, 209; - railway across, 211; - grain inspection in, 222; - speculation in, 225; - cultivation of semi-arid land in, 228; - consumption of bread in, 239; - area and population of, compared with India, 242, 243 - - - V - - Van Buren, Martin, 76, 178 - - Vermont hay crop, relative value of, 5 - - Victoria, Queen, 125, 132 - - Virchow, 51 - - "Virginia Reapers," 64 - - Virginia, Scotch-Irish in, 20; - main wheat State in 1831, 51, 193; - supremacy passing to Ohio, 67 - - - W - - Wages of harvesters at time of introduction of Reaper, 38 - - Wallace, Andrew, 40 - - Wallace, Henry, 106, 107 - - _Wallace's Farmer_, 106 - - Walton, N. Y., 76 - - Warder Reaper manufacturer, 103, 120 - - Warehouses at Reaper agencies, 83, 84 - - Warfare, expenses of modern, 233 - - Washburn, William D., 235, 236 - - Washington, George, 5, 6, 11, 15, 17, 20, 81, 234 - - Washington State, 238 - - Watson, Peter H., 91, 99 - - Watt, 131 - - Weaving machinery, inventors of, 53 - - Webster, Daniel, 15, 76, 95, 164 - - Weed, Thurlow, 72 - - West, orders for Reapers from the, 63; - transportation to the, 64; - McCormick visits the, 65; - need of quicker method of cutting grain in the, 65, 66; - Chicago helped by use of Reaper in, 73; - McCormick's policy developed the, 86; - Reaper preceded railway in the, 192; - wheat crop of the, 193; - railways in the, 211; - Reaper advance-machine of civilization in, 227 - - Wet grain, adaptation of the Reaper to cut, 33, 61, 62 - - "Whaleback" grain ships, 210 - - Wheat, 51, 67, 69, 70, 73, 188-196, 201, 203, 205 _et seq._ - - Wheat Congress, international, 233 - - Wheat-ships, 210-213 - - Whiteley, William N., 45, 46, 120, 150 - - Whitney, Eli, 52, 97, 191 - - Whittier, 51 - - Willmoth, improver of battleship turret, 95 - - Wilson family from Ayrshire, Scotland, 86 - - Wilson, Hon. James, 86, 87, 192 - - Winnipeg Grain Exchange, 225 - - Wire self-binders displaced by twine self-binders, 115-117 - - Wisconsin, 50, 63, 114 - - Withington, Charles B., 109-115 - - Wood, Jethro, 49, 53 - - Wood, Walter A., 103, 112, 120 - - Woodworth, inventor, 95 - - World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, 124 - - Wright, Joseph A., 134 - - Written guarantees given with McCormick Reapers, 79 - - - Y - - Yellow fever in the McCormick family, 16 - - - - - * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber's note: - -Simple typographical errors were corrected. - -Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant -preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. - -Page 91: "Beverdy Johnson" corrected to "Reverdy Johnson." - -Page 256: "see Blaine" corrected to "see Blame." - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYRUS HALL MCCORMICK*** - - -******* This file should be named 41953.txt or 41953.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/1/9/5/41953 - - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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