| Cyrus S. Eaton |
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| 1883 births | |
| 1979 deaths | |
| colgate university alumni | |
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Cyrus Stephen Eaton ( December 27 , 1883 – May 9 , 1979 ) was a Canadian - American Financier , Industrialist and Philanthropist . Associated with the Rockefeller Family , his many financial interests included organizing the mergers that formed Republic Steel Corporation and the Chessie System . Born in Pugwash , Nova Scotia , he later made that village famous by giving its name to a series of International Conferences he sponsored that ultimately won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 . His 1950s efforts at rapprochement with the Soviet Union won him the 1960 Lenin Peace Prize . He was dubbed "the Kremlin's favorite capitalist". EDUCATION Cyrus Eaton grew up in an out of the way farming and fishing community in Nova Scotia, Canada, called Pugwash. As a boy, he was intellectually curious and precocious, and cultivated a wide range of interests, including reading, sports, music and the great out-of-doors. He was also ambitious. Early in life, nurtured by a religious family atmosphere, and especially by his mother’s hopes for him, he decided to be a preacher. An uncle, Charles Aubrey Eaton, whose fame as a Baptist clergyman was already widespread when Cyrus was still a boy, encouraged him, and showed him that a religious calling could lead one out of obscurity and into important positions in the world. Thus, at age sixteen, Cyrus left Nova Scotia in pursuance of higher education that would lead him into the ministry. He went first to study at Woodstock College in Woodstock, Obtario, and then to another Canadian Baptist educational institution, McMaster University, in Toronto, Ontario, where he exercised fully his aptitudes for social engagement and leadership. While there, he concentrated particularly in the study of philosophy, an interest that would engage him for the rest of his life. He was invited, during the summer break after his first year, to travel down the lakes to visit his uncle in Cleveland, Ohio, where the vigorous Dr. Eaton was engaged in delivering the evangelical Christian message to whomever he could get to listen, including the congregation of the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church. Euclid Avenue in that era was known as "millionaire's row," because the mansions lining it were home to the cream of Cleveland's industrial and financial elite. Dr. Eaton relished particularly the opportunity to remind its residents of the limitations and impediments that wealth could place in their way in the pursuit of salvation, and as it happened, among the congregation's many members was the famous, or infamous, oil tycoon, John D. Rockefeller, who despite his formidable reputation in business, was a deeply devout and committed Christian, and a particular friend of Dr. Eaton's. For Cyrus Eaton this stay in Cleveland, which included an opportunity of which he took full advantage to meet and know Rockefeller, would be a turning point in his life. Rockefeller's chief residence at this time was in New York City, but to please his wife each summer the family moved back to her favorite residence, Forest Hill, a country estate on a hill near Cleveland, with had a commanding view of Lake Erie. It was here the Rockefellers had raised their children. Besides expansive living quarters, the estate included a small lake, stables, bridle paths, and was a place where the Rockefeller children could play in safety. The Rockefeller's were an intensely private family, protected by their wealth to some degree, but also aware of being made vulnerable by it. Summer Hill was therefore a refuge, with round the clock security. There was a private golf course to which Rockefeller could repair to socialize on an informal basis with masculine company, and indulge his passion for the game. As a powerful man with whom few dared disagree, Rockefeller particularly appreciated the fearless directness of Charles Eaton, who pulled no punches as he gave advice on spiritual matters. Eaton became one of his boon golfing companions, and was a frequent dinner guest at Forest Hill during Rockefeller's summer sojourns. Inevitably, Cyrus was invited to come along with his uncle to one of these dinners, and the restrained, aloof Rockefeller, who had good reason to be proud of his judgment of men, was apparently impressed by the studious young Nova Scotian. When Rockefeller's wife, Cettie, learned Eaton was working for the summer in a local hotel, she disapproved of this choice of work on account of the temptations to which it would subject him, and she persuaded her husband to offer him employment. Since Rockefeller took on several young "apprentices" each summer to help with his business affairs while he was in Cleveland, it was easily arranged, and so over the course of the next few years, while he studied to finish his degree, Eaton worked summers at Forest Hill as Rockefeller's secretary, golfing companion and bodyguard, and got an insider's view of America's greatest capitalist in action. It was an experience that would eventually convince him to change his ambition in life and go into business. In later life, Eaton often expressed his admiration for John D. Rockefeller, and his feeling that he could not have had a better tutor for his entry into the rough and tumble world of industry and finance, a world in which he would eventually excel as few others have. It is likely that during Rockefeller's frequent breaks for golf, cards, or nourishment, he gradually opened up to the charming younger man. They certainly discussed business, and perhaps they would also discuss philosophy together. If so, Rockefeller probably expounded for him the "gospel Of Wealth," a philosophy of philanthropy espoused by Rockefeller's own favorite capitalist, Andrew Carnegie . Like Carnegie, Rockefeller felt his financial success proved his "election," i.e. marked him out for a special role. And like him he believed deeply and sincerely that monetary success imposed on the rich man a responsibility to use wealth for the benefit of the less fortunate. As a student in small town Nova Scotia and Ontario, and in fact from his earliest boyhood when he had his first job as a watercarrier for railway construction crews near his hometown, Cyrus Eaton had seen the plight of the displaced worker in the new industrial society, and had undoubtedly been moved by the experience to a sympathetic identification with the laboring man. The preachings of his favorite Uncle, to which he earnestly listened, had been deeply influenced by the progressive movement in modern Protestant theology called the " Social Gospel. " This outlook downplayed to some extent the Christian fundamentalist's almost exclusive concern with the hereafter, and emphasized instead the responsibility Christians had to social amelioration in the here and now. It was this outlook that later led Charles Eaton out of the ministry and into politics, where he had a long and distinguished career as a Congressman from New Jersey, a career crowned by his participation as an American delegate in the San Francisco Conference for the founding of the United Nations. Apart from his Uncle's influence, these same progressive tendencies had shaped to a degree the style of education Cyrus was getting at university in Ontario. McMaster University sought to prepare young Christians for lives of Christian devotion. Yet it did not hide from religious or social controversy, for it believed in strengthening and tempering its students through the fullest possible exposure to modernism. William McMaster, a wealthy Canadian Baptist man of business who contributed the bulk of his fortune to the founding of this university, reasoned that only men seasoned by contending with the forces of modernism and material idolatry could truly assume roles of moral leadership in modern society. Perhaps this heady mixture of positive influences emanating from his family, his church, his university, and his employment with John D. Rockefeller balanced For Eaton the negative aspects of personal involvement in the competitive capitalist system as it existed in his day, and made acquisitiveness, the single most important and obvious goal of business activities, easier to rationalize. After all, success in business was far from undesirable, in the Baptist view of things, so long as it was accomplished in a spirit of service and benevolence. It is not hard to imagine that the encouragement of two such famous and successful men as Rockefeller and his Uncle Charles, converging from apparently opposite ends of the social spectrum, helped him bring his own ambitions into focus in such a way that he could really see himself doing far more good in the world by using his business abilities to create wealth and opportunities for employment for his fellow man, than by living the humble, unremunerative life of a preacher of the Gospel, however ennobling that might have been from a spiritual point of view. Christ-like self sacrifice was not a strong suit with realistic, business-like Baptists of that day. Whatever the exact mixture of influences was, after graduation from university in 1905 , Eaton decided to follow his natural inclination and go into business. AMERICAN AND CANADIAN BUSINESS CAREER After he graduated from McMaster, Eaton went to work as a trouble shooter for one of Rockefeller's utility companies, Eastern Ohio Gas And Power . Calling upon his considerable personal charm and tact, he started his career in business, in his own words, "by mollifying natural gas customers in the Cleveland area who were upset by the ditches cut in their lawns for the gas mains." He was learning the business from the ground up. Even then, however, the young, independent Eaton was bent on taking his own path. In 1906, Rockefeller interests were looking for further opportunities to market natural gas, which they had in abundance as a byproduct from oil wells throughout the Appalachian basin, and they planned to build an extensive network of pipelines to move this cheaper, safer substitute for Coal Gas into outlying areas. Eaton was learning the business so quickly that within a year he was travelling widely, negotiating for urban utility franchises on behalf of a syndicate of investors associated with Rockefeller interests. Because of his Canadian background, Cyrus was sent to Canada, and in 1907 one of his meetings was with the City of Brandon, Manitoba, Canada , which needed a year round source of power for street lighting because the current supply from a hydroelectric facility stalled each winter when the river froze over. On the day he finalized his negotiations with the mayor of Brandon for a franchise to supply the town with electric power from a new steam generated power plant, the Financial Panic Of 1907 struck. For a brief period, until the combined efforts of J. P. Morgan , Rockefeller, Judge Gary and others had stabilized the supply of American bank credit, money for investment was in extremely short supply. The situation temporarily deprived the syndicate Eaton represented of their borrowing power, and consequently shook their confidence in the future viability of this venture. However, the City of Brandon had issued a franchise, and they expected something to be done. This would not be the last time Eaton's Canadian background gave him an advantage in his business dealings over his American colleagues. Eaton seized the opportunity to obtain the now problematic franchise for himself as a consolation prize for his efforts. He quickly organized meetings with Canadian bankers, who were largely untouched by the American financial panic. They readily lent Eaton and a partner named George Abbott the capital they needed to build a generating plant. A dependable supply of coal was secured from nearby Saskatchewan , to be transported in on the new instrument of Canadian unity, the Canadian Pacific Railway , and soon the new company, The Brandon Gas And Power Company , was generating both power to light Brandon's streets and profits to finance new deals. Shortly thereafter, Eaton resigned his position with East Ohio, and later in life he would remark, with some regret, that if he had stayed with this employment, and had moved to New York when Rockefeller asked him, he would eventually have probably become president of Standard Oil. Such a position would have insured for him a simpler and more peaceful existence than his was to be. Though his relations with the Rockefellers, both business and personal, remained good, Eaton was apparently determined to find his own way, and from then on he was on his own. Interestingly, the newly successful businessman had not forgotten his ideals nor his religious commitments. For an entire year, while the congregation looked for a permanent preacher, Cyrus Eaton led the congregation of Lakeview Baptist Church, and did so very creditably it was said. In 1907, he married Edna House, daughter of a distinguished Cleveland lawyer and Judge, and granddaughter of a genuine Civil War hero who was present at the capture and surrender of Robert E. Lee. In 19?? they began a family. Eventually, he took American citizenship and seemed to have melted completely into the American way of life, concentrating on his family, business affairs and church. By 1912 , using profits from his first operation and investment finances attracted to him by his dynamic leadership, he had expanded his interests in utilities to include a multitude of holdings in several Canadian provinces and northwestern American states. But for him this was only the beginning. He believed that based on the power and importance of the Great Lakes region as a source of raw materials, as a transportation hub, and as a center of the country's industrial and manufacturing capability, cities such as Cleveland, Ohio , and Chicago, Illinois , could also soon challenge eastern preeminence in the financial services sector. He believed he had experienced how the dominance of Wall Street often frustrated local and regional ambitions. Decentralizing the control of the sources of investment would better serve the growth of regions. Therefore, in 1921 , mounting his own bid for more regional control of investment capital, he purchased a partnership in Otis and Co., an established securities and investment banking firm with headquarters in Cleveland, and branches across the country. This company would be the center of his financial life for over thirty years, and it would provide a base for his ambitions to consolidate a portfolio of regionally integrated industrial and financial holdings that would rival the largest in the United States. Eaton went a long way toward realizing his ambitions, for by approximately 1927 , through a holding company he and a group of other investors formed in 1921 called Continental Shares , he held, along with a major position in the large utility-traction conglomerate United Light And Power , dominant stock market positions in a number of industries related to the flourishing automobile industry. Sherwin Williams Paint , the major American supplier of auto coatings, and Goodyear and Firestone , among the world's largest tire manufacturers, both located in Ohio, were virtually under the control of his syndicate of investors. By 1928 he had begun to carry out the final stage in a campaign to become a dominant player in each important segment, including energy, of the chain of supply for the auto industry. The final target was steel. Specifically, he was interested in the light steel used, among other things, in auto manufacture. His plans led to a series of rapid purchases and mergers of small and medium sized steel companies that would culminate in the founding of Republic Steel , a company that would eventually prove a worthy rival of the largest in the country. The Stock Market Crash of the 1930s caused Eaton a major, though temporary, setback, and the conditions that prevailed during the slow recovery of his and America's fortunes forced him to scale back his financial and industrial ambitions permanently. As well, it was during this period of the late 20's and early 30's that Eaton first gained a broad and well deserved reputation in the English speaking world for financial daring and for controversial decision making. In later years he would skillfully turn this reputation from celebrity to notoriety, and use it to assist him in focusing public attention on important issues, such as détente with Russia, nuclear disarmament and the dangers inherent in American militarism. Not for nothing had he studied philosophy and cultivated the classics, and at various times in his later life he strode confidently into alien arenas of public debate where he displayed courage, conviction, knowledge of important issues and talents for leadership, on an impressive scale. Eaton's many financial interests included organizing the mergers that formed Republic Steel Corporation and the Chessie System . He assumed the helm of the Chesapeake And Ohio Railway (C&O) in the mid-1950s when his colleague Robert Ralph Young of the Alleghany Corporation had to step down from the C&O to make a bid for the New York Central Railroad . Once the C&O had obtained control of the Baltimore & Ohio , and the Chessie System had been created, he largely retired to take care of his philanthropic interests. He died in the Chessie's headquarters city of Cleveland, Ohio . |
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