Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1902 — KRUPP DIES OF APOPLEXY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

KRUPP DIES OF APOPLEXY.

Great Gunmaker Kxplrea Suddenly at His Home in Huegel. Frederick A. Krupp, the great gunmaker and the wealthiest man in Germany, died suddenly from apoplexy Sat-

urday afternoon at his villa at Huegel. He had l>een 111 for several days. Moderate estimates of the fortune of the deceased place it at 1125,000,000, and his annual income during his recent years of prosperity at $10,000,000. Friedrich Alfred Krupp was the third of the house of Krupp to be known

ns a groat manufacturer of guns. He was the grandson of Friedrich Krupp, the founder of tin “industrial kingdom.” The world’s greatest purveyor of the tools of war, he was at the same time, by the very immensity of his operations, one of the greatest promoters of peace. Friedrich Alfred Krupp succeeded bis father, the great Krupp, in the control of the great establishment at Essen fourteen years ngo. On his pay rolls there are more than 55,000 men employed in making cannon and other munitions of war. Thirty-four governments have made purchases there, mid more than 35,000 guns of various sizes are frowning on mankind as the result of his operations. This grandson of Friedrich Krupp had on the day, of his death an annual income of 20,000,000 marks —4,500,000 more than the German Emperor—and there wasn't a king in nil the world that had so many people directly depending upon him for their livelihood. The Krupp fortunes did not come easily. For twenty years after the foundry was started there was work enough for only nine men, and sometimes not enough to pay them. Friedrich Krupp’s father, who was the first real head of tlye gun works, had to melt down the family silver to pay wages. Having sold his patent on a new process for manufacturing silver spoons and silver-plated spoons in England, he devoted the money to tests along the line of creating a Bessemer steel of his own invention. All the world knows that his experiments were eventually crowned witli the most extraordinary success, but at the start his progress wak discouragingly slow. He pluckily weathered the jpird times of the revolution of 1848, though many of his workmen “earned more and lived better than I.” All his efforts were in one direction—the making of steel guns by Bessemer process. The day of Sedan, when 2,000 Krupp guns battered down one empire to create another, settled the case once and for all time in favor of Krupp.

The town of Essen, In which the Krupp employes live, is one of the model towns of the world, and it was planned and built under the direct supervision of Krupp and his father. "Model houses," separate from one another, are provided for the laborers, and there are schools, baths, libraries nnd hospitals under his direction. Wages are paid in part on the co-operative system, Friedrich Krupp having provided a complete system < f pensions for employes invalidated by sickness or old age.

F. A. KRUPP.

LUKE WHEELER.

CAPTAIN EDWARD WILLIAMS.