USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Braddock > The unwritten history of Braddock's Field (Pennsylvania) > Part 12
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1916-17. We come now to the close of our review of this able ad- ministration of progress and achievement. Among other things, there was started in the summer of 1916, a mammoth 200,000,000-gallon (daily) pumping station near the foot of Thirteenth Street to take care of the work now being done by five smaller pumping stations scattered throughout the plant. This will give the plant a much more economical and efficient water supply system.
1916 marks two improvements that the management had long tried to get: a new general office building and the Pennsylvania subway at Bes- semer station. The new office was commenced July 31, 1916, and the Pennsylvania subway thrown open to the public June 12, 1916.(1)
In 1916 the "I" Furnace was rebuilt, with its electric skip hoist and automatic electrically operated bells, and is now the most modern blast furnace in the country. Three more of the same type are under construc- tion. Again, the foundry department has been developed in late years to a point where it has become the best foundry for moulds and stools in the country. Brass and general castings are also a product.
(1) In addition to this and countless other innovations for the comfort and con- venience of the men, a special safety engineer, John A. Oartel, has been commissioned to look after the safety of the men, under the direct supervision of Mr. Frank F. Slick. The safety department of the works has made a name for itself in the Carnegie Steel Company, and many innovations and suggestions from it have been adopted throughout the Company. The Slick-Bremner safety belt shifter (patented) has been taken up throughout the Corporation. Also, a trained nurse now looks after the health and hygiene of the families of workingmen, and everything imaginable is being done for . the moral, physical, and spiritual welfare of the Edgar Thomson workingman.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
I believe that the achievements(1) of this administration cannot be more strikingly portrayed (aside from the cursory review I have already given) than by the citation of figures on progress in the electrical depart- ment, for as every man knows electricity is the embodiment of speed, economy, and efficiency. These figures from one department alone, speak for themselves, and are a silent and absolute epitome of the progress of the plant under Chas. E. Dinkey .-
June 1, 1903, beginning of the Dinkey tenure of office.
Electrical department employees
50
March, 1917. 325
K. W. generator capacity
2,400
10,400
Motors installed (number)
140
1,253
Motor horsepower
5,940
56,246
Number of cranes
20
118
K. W. hours generated monthly .... 750,000
3,946,700
Needless to say, every record of production that the plant has ever made has been smashed time and again under the Dinkey administration. Sufficient steel rails have been produced to twice encircle the globe and run a half dozen lines from San Francisco to New York, in standard rail- way sections, or in light weight sections such as produced in No. 3 Mill, to lay a track clear to the moon, if that were possible, while the Blast Fur- naces have cast enough iron to reproduce in solid blocks of iron every sky- scraper and railroad depot in the city of Pittsburgh, or pave with two-inch iron plates, the Lincoln highway from coast to coast.
(1) It should also be noted that the most radical improvement in standard blast furnace lines of the last decade was made under this administration with the blowing in of Furnace "I" May 6, 1907 on her third lining. For that furnace the former 15-foot hearth was widened to 17 feet, and the lower bosh angle widened to over 78 degrees. From a technical standpoint, this was a pronounced departure in furnace construction, and was inaugurated by Mr. Dinkey and Mr. John F. Lewis against the advice of many blast furnace experts.
The new lines immediately proved their worth, however, in increased furnace productive capacity, while they also did away, to a great extent, with the probability of the burden "hanging", the angle for the support of the arch that sustains the "hang" being more nearly straight in the new type furnace. The new design has since proved such a success that it is being rapidly adopted in the steel and iron world.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
CHAS. E. DINKEY-THE MAN AND HIS METHODS.
When the caldron of industrial unrest in the Turtle Creek valley boiled over May 1, 1916, and thousands of strikers appealed to the Edgar Thomson men to join them in a sympathetic strike, the employees of that establishment turned a deaf ear to such pleas, and instead of joining the strikers' ranks flew to the defence of the plant, and volunteered by hun- dreds to serve as guards for the works. For the hate and resentment that had burned in other days was dead, replaced by a loyalty and sincere friendship for the management that would not countenance such a proposal. This is the secret of his success: that through the rank and file of Mr. Dinkey's organization runs a comradeship, a sympathy, and an under- standing that lightens the heaviest burdens for every man and signally increases the efficiency of the whole human machine. This accomplish- ment alone hints at a great executive.
The temper and disposition of the chief executive is transmitted down the line to the lowest paid men in the plant, and I have therefore in this little history gone somewhat into detail regarding the personal characteristics of the men in charge. Aside from this, however, I have wished to portray in this history, a close study of at least one great execu- tive. For the American business executive of the present day, like the intensified products of any other age, the artist of Angelo's time, the poet of the Elizabethan era, the philosopher of old Greece, must some day become a marvel for the world to ponder over.
Most biographers of steel masters call the subject a "genius", throw in a few flowery figures of speech, and let it go at that. And for many characters in the steel business that is a prudent course. But in a book intended for the instruction and inspiration of posterity I intend to follow a different tack, for here, at last, is a character that will bear scrutiny.
For a ready comprehension of his character in general, I would refer you to the mythology of the Greeks. Gifted though their deities were, endowed with superhuman energy and intelligence, they yet retained the vices and the virtues of mankind. On such a broad basis is built the character of Chas. E. Dinkey: though subjected from earliest childhood(1)
(1) Born Aug. 4. 1868, on a farm at Bowmanstown, Carbon Co., Pa. His father was Reuben Dinkey, surveyor. farmer, lumberman, and iron mine developer, who was the son of Jacob Dinkey and Susannah Stofflet. Mr. Dinkey's mother was Mary Eliza- beth Hontz, nee Hamm. ( Vid. "The Dinkey Family," -- S. A. Saeger).
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
to the gruelling discipline of labor, (1) and filled with an ambition that has driven him to success over every obstacle, by slow successive stages, (2) his thorough human-ness has not been twisted or perverted as is so often the case with men of achievement. He is, in fact, so intensely human that he seems to have condensed in his own individuality the feelings and the energies of twenty men, their varied hopes and fears, joys and sorrows. Whoever knows him well must also understand the psychology of the race.
All these varied and intensified emotions and vital forces he displays with the utter candor and abandon of a child. No suggestion of reserve has ever occurred to him, and with an astounding audacity he will do or say whatever occurs to him at any time or place. In this respect he bears a marked resemblance to his prototype, Captain Jones. While his anger is generally short lived, it is dangerous while it lasts, and those in the hurricane belt travel under close reefed sails.
High strung and acutely sensitive, he is decidedly of the artistic temperament, and for that matter is almost the exact counterpart both in appearance and temperament of a music master I had in childhood. He has a keen sense of the niceties of literature, painting, and dramatic art, although but little inclined to music or poetry. With this temperament, however, he combines the practical, hard common sense of the American man of business.
With the emotions of twenty men, however, he also has the percep- tion, judgment, vision, determination, and optimism of twenty men, and thereby hangs the tale. Backed by a tireless energy, these qualities have made him a great executive.
He always gives you the impression of being larger than the job- that, however complex and dangerous the situation may be, he is still its master.
He has a deep knowledge of human nature, and readily analyzes his man. Bluff and braggadocio are as unavailing as evasion and excuse, and for this reason nolle contendere is your best defense under criticism,
(1) The family was not rich, and as a boy he undoubtedly did his share on the farm. Reuben Dinkey died while the boy was still a mere child, and he then had to help support a struggling family. In November, 1880, when twelve years old, he was employed by Carnegie Bro. & Company as messenger at the E. T. Furnaces, where he worked until 1883.
(2) 1883 and '84, printing shop assistant and special student of chemistry at Western University of Pittsburgh; 1884 to '87, laboratory assistant; April 1, 1887, to July, 1889, chemist and superintendent steel foundry for Mackintosh Hemphill & Co .; July, 1889, to December, 1889, Ass't Sup't Blooming Mill, Homestead; December, 1889, to Dec. 31, 1893, machinery inspector at Edgar Thomson; Jan. 1, 1894, to Feb. 22, 1899, Assistant Superintendent Foundry; Feb. 23, 1899, to May 31, 1901, Superintendent E. T. Foundry; June 1, 1901, to May 31, 1903, Assistant General Superintendent; June 1, 1903, General Superintendent Edgar Thomson Works.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
such being the fairness and generosity of the man, that, like an English judge, if you offer no excuse for your misdeeds, he presently feels im- pelled to hunt for one himself.
He never asks you to repeat or explain. He listens intently ; nothing distracts him from the subject in hand; his thoughts are never scattered, hesitating, or confused: they are centered on the single idea under dis- cussion like the rays from a sun-glass. His mind works at lightning speed ; before you have finished the sentence he has anticipated the paragraph, and bored in to the heart of the whole thing with the precision and power of an electric drill.
He has a keen sense of the economy of time, words, and effort. When speaking, he does not drawl, hesitate, or beat about the bush, and when discussing any subject his mind does not stray among words, phrases, or formalities, or, for that matter, dwell upon the reputation or prestige of himself or any other man, but his desire is wholly and simply to get to the heart of the subject as quickly as possible and reach a decision by the shortest route, so that the thing may be laid aside. For he has not now, nor ever did have, any love for work itself; but like U. S. Grant, plunges headfirst and vigorously into every project that it may the quicker be done, for an incomplete affair annoys him.
He does not waste his own or his subordinates' time, generally re- volving matters in his mind until he has reached a decision. In this way, despite the countless doubts that must assail him on many projects, he appears always to his officers as the most positive man of decision, so that his men understand what he says to be final, and his orders to be executed with the speed and precision of military commands.
However, if he decides to discuss a subject at all, he encourages his subordinates to speak their minds freely and openly, and although he can hardly use the methods for this end that Tacitus attributes to the old German princes, (1) he attains the same result by always receiving their opinions politely and sympathetically, and not at such times oppressing them with the superiority of his office, or the divergence of his own beliefs.
Furthermore, if he believes a man to excel in anything, whether in a commercial line or in any of the arts, he encourages his development in every way. He nourishes the growth of every man's individuality and
(1) "Having feasted, and being thoroughly intoxicated .... they frankly disclose their hearts and most secret purposes .... On the day following the several sentiments are revised and canvassed .... " Tacitus, "Germany," (Of the First Century).
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
pride, deferring (as Gregory the Great(1) advised) to the personality of each man, handling each according to his character, sometimes even per- mitting a man to perform things in an awkward manner in order that such a one may learn through his own experience how the task should be done. Nor does he take pleasure in pointing out the mistakes of his inferiors, or impressing them with his own superior knowledge, nor damn with faint praise, but if he approve at all does it whole heartedly and pos- itively. It has been said of him that if there is any good in a man, he can find it and draw it out as the magnet does the steel.
Again, if he notices a man growing expert in any line, he constantly modifies his attitude toward that man, deferring more and more in his opinions to him according to the state of the man's development, presently, perhaps, yielding entirely in specific matters, for he is not afflicted with any short sighted pride regarding his own prestige, but has solely in mind the accomplishment of the thing in itself, and the development of men in his organization who can do that thing well. (2)
Clear and incisive thinker that he is, he bitterly resents the in- trusion of the talkative rambler, and likewise is exasperated by verbose or involved writing, sounding words, or cant phrases, especially in business communications. In literature he is more liberal: the prose imagery of De Quincey and the balanced sentences of Gibbon hold an intimate appeal for him, and in lighter moments he will quote a sonorous phrase that has caught his fancy.
He has a broad power of generalship, and a true sense of proportion and perspective, naturally placing events in their proper light, so that he is not troubled by trifles, nor overlooks large and important features of any project.
He has enormously developed his powers of concentration and application. He sticks to one thing until it is done, then turns to the next. Hanging in his office is his motto: "Do it Now."
His physical energy and endurance are prodigious. As a brilliant executive his services are constantly in demand not only for most of the local enterprises that come and go, such for instance as the Braddock Hos- pital campaign and the Braddock Jubilee celebration, but also for various
(1) Gregory I (540-604 A. D.) "The proud and presumptuous are to be ad- monished in one way, in another the humble and diffident. The presumptuous when too confident despise and revile others-The humble and timid think what they do is very contemptible, and therefore despair .... The proud and presumptuous think all their own special thoughts and deeds the best .... " Pastoral Care.
(2) He has the big executive's knack of effecting an automatic, self-winding organization that can stand on its own legs and run under its own power. This knack, by the way, is one of the dividing lines between the big and the small executive.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
banking and industrial concerns. (1) Notwithstanding these heavy de- mands on his abilities, he still has energy to spare, and must needs join a dozen or so societies, (2) clubs, (3) and fraternal orders.(4) These not suf- ficing, he hies himself away every year to the wilds of the Rockies or the Canadian woods, where he sleeps on the ground or the snow, and tramps for miles in strenuous hunts for big game. (5) He has a great reverence for the grandeur of Nature, and in such surroundings he is at last at home.
His mental energy, like his emotions, is 20-man-power. He is an omniverous reader, and remembers what he reads. . He knows something about every subject under the sun. He is keenly curious about everything in the universe, and desires to know at once all about anything that may come to his notice. He preserves toward life, in fact, the fresh and un- sullied interest of a child that is just learning to read well. With such a spirit, it is impossible to avoid reaching the very highest plane of educa- tion.
As a result of this broad development, each man believes that in C. E. Dinkey he has found a brother spirit, and the analyses of his charac- ter that I hear generally remind me of the three blind men describing the elephant.(6) The astronomer insists that he is interested in stars, the chemist in chemistry, while the workman is positive that he is interested in steel. None seems to grasp the idea that he might be interested in them all.
(1) President, Board of Trustees, Braddock Carnegie Free Library; Director in the following: Braddock National Bank, Bessemer Trust Co., North Penn Coal Co., Western Allegheny Railroad, North Penn Supply Co., Finance Committee, Masonic Hall Association of Braddock. This article was hardly finished before Governor Brum- baugh appointed him to the Welfare Committee of Pennsylvania. At the moment of going to press his successful prosecution of the local Liberty Loan and American Red Cross campaigns furnishes another example.
(2) Alumni Society, University of Pittsburgh; American Institute of Mining Engineers; American Iron & Steel Institute; Major, United Boys Brigade of America; Philadelphia Speedway Association; Mckinley Commemorative Association, Hon. Mem- ber Major A. M. Harper Post 181, G. A. R.
(3) Americus Republican Club; Pittsburgh Athletic Association; Edgewood Country Club; Duquesne Club (Pittsburgh); Pittsburgh Country Club; German Club (Pittsburgh); Lewis & Clark Club; Braddock Rifle Club.
(4) Braddock's Field Lodge 510, F. & A. M .; B. P. O. Elks 883, Braddock: Shiloh Chapter 257, Royal Arch Masons; Tancred Commandery No. 48, Knights Temp- lar, Pittsburgh; Gourgas Lodge of Perfection, Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania Council Princes of Jerusalem, Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh Chapter of Rose Croix; Pennsylvania Consistory; Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry; Syria Temple, Ancient Ac- cepted Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, for North America; Arab Patrol, A. A. O. N. M. S .; Royal Order of Scotland.
(5) His home and the steel works club house are filled with moose, bear, deer. elk, and caribou trophies of these hunts.
(6) One blind man felt the elephant's side, and thought he must be like a barn: another found his trunk, and thought he must resemble the snake, while a third was at a leg and thought he must be like a tree .. Buddhist Folk Lore.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
He is a perpetual optimist, with the occasional fits of depression that are the earmarks of that type. He will entertain a steady hope for the success of some project long after everyone else has given up. The morning after an election, for instance, it is impossible to convince him that his favorites have lost. With this same stubborn, blind hope, and continual trying and experimenting, if it is humanly possible the project actually will finally go through. He is a thorough going pragmatist in the philosophical terminology of that word:(1) if there is no chance he makes one.
Except for this perpetual optimism, his philosophy of life is clear- ly portrayed in the old Graeco-Roman school of Stoicism. . This is the more striking because he seems to have little interest, if any, in the vagaries of metaphysics, and must have concocted his own code. His is no Billiken (2) philosophy of "things as they ought to be," but a stern realization of things as they are and life as it is. He never complains, and the idea of receiving sympathy is highly distasteful to him. Both his sayings, in fact, and the general conduct of his life, recall so vividly the writings of Aurelius (3) that I am incorporating some of the most striking passages here in the text, being so highly apropos and descriptive of my subject:
"Attend immediately to the matter before thee .... Have freedom of will and undeviating steadiness of purpose, not to look to anything for a moment but to reason. .. . Not to busy oneself about trifling things. ... Unchangeable resolution in the things determined after due consider- ation .... Begin the day by saying to thyself, "I shall meet with the busy- body, the ungrateful, the ignorant, the deceitful, the envious, the unsocial. All these qualities they have by reason of their ignorance .... Every mo- ment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity and justice .... Do every act as though it were thy last .... Let nothing be done without a purpose .... Whatever happens happens justly, and if thou examine carefully thou wilt find a cause .... Do not act as though thou wert going to live 10,000 years ....
(1) Pragmatism, an anti-intellectualistic philosophy revived by Wiliam James about 1898. The theory may be roughly summarized as one that supports the reali- zation of the idea, and that actualities are in our own hands for shaping; that the- ories may be made facts, and the world what we think it is and what we choose to make it.
(2) Billiken-A household statuette of an Oriental god much in vogue about 1906 and 1907. The deity was labeled, "The God of Things as They Ought to Be."
(3) Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, noblest of the Roman emperors and chief exponent of the culmination of the Stoic philosophy. His reign was marked by jus -. tice and moderation and although he was sole ruler of the civilized and known world, his ."Meditations" are remarkable for their modesty, melancholy, and deep sincerity.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
Receive honor without arrogance and be ready to let it go .... Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them or bear with them."
He loves life, motion, color, action, and whatever is forceful and dramatic. He takes more than a passing interest in animals, especially of the domestic types.(1) Children always please him, and he is invari- ably delighted by an invasion from his own family. (2)
Though faithful and unflinching in his resentments as Captain Jones, he is equally resolute in his friendships, and to many a man has been a fidus Achates.
He never shows envy for the fortune of any man, and never was there a man with less petty malice in his soul, or less of jealousy. Weak, womanish, cowardly, indecisive characters, charlatans, and quack reform- ers are his detestation.
His mental life has a basis of facts: he distinguishes clearly between what men say of a thing and that thing in itself: that twenty men calling a house a castle does not make that house a castle. For the most part ut- terly indifferent to the opinions of men, whether in praise or blame, he realizes entirely that the world cannot honor or humiliate a man, but only the intelligence and virtue of a man can honor him, or his ignorance and crimes disgrace him.
He has highly developed a sense of humor, which at all times lightens the strain of duty. What is more rare, he appreciates the joke just as much if he is at the wrong end of the affair. (3)
Blandly cordial, pleasant, and approachable, he is usually pleased to mask beneath a plausible air of superficiality a nature that is as deep as the proverbial well. He is pre-eminently long-headed, and plans for ten, fifteen, twenty years ahead, so that men often think conditions occur for- tunately by mere chance, when he had so designed them to happen long before.
He is eternally willing and eager to learn-any time-any place, and will hear the lowest paid workman on the plant, in hope of getting some new idea.
Trained and disciplined as his mind is, he has always been to his
(1) All species appeal to him, especially dogs of the larger, smooth coated breeds.
(2) Married Lelia Ada Boyd, daughter of Robert Boyd of Mt. Lebanon, Pa., June 15, 1899. They have two children, Margaret Elizabeth Eurana and Charles Eugene, Jr.
(3) Hearing that Mr. Dinkey is starting on another hunting trip, S. B. Shel- don, a Duluth steel man, sends him a pop-gun, photograph of a moose, and detailed instructions as to the killing of that brute. This absurd donation has been re- ligiously preserved.
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THE UNWRITTEN HISTORY OF BRADDOCK'S FIELD.
men a developer, and not an exploiter. (1) Surrounded by men most of whom do not approach him in mental brilliance or caliber, his daily life calls for the constant exercise of patience and forbearance, and these qualities are more and more marked as the years roll by. For his own sat- isfaction, he will occasionally relieve himself by a deep and velvety irony, which often as not passes unnoticed. Gibbon, the "lord of irony," could teach him little of that art.
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