£100,000 A YEAR.

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 July 1908, Page 1

£IOO,OOO A YEAR.

America is the country of great salaries. The world gasped when it heard that Mr Schwab, when selected to manage tho Steel Trust, was to receive £40,000 a year. Now Mr Schwab lias been eclipsed by Mr J, Hays Hammond, an American mining engineer, who has been engaged for five years by tho Guggenheim Exploration Syndicate at a yearly salary of £IOO, 000. An exchange to which we are indebted for this information, regards it as reliable, but mentions that Mr. Hammond's salary has been put at twico this figure by some journals. The exchange remarks that to persons of small ideas it must seem impossible for a professional man to earn £IOO, 000 a year. But a consideration of Mr Hammond's record to date explains his enormous salary. He was the greatest of the pioneers of gold mining on the Rand, generalising accurately as to the future of the field. He acquired skill in what Wall street calls the art of finance, and when he went to New York he stood out as the sessor of qualities which command immense prices in that centre of contending financial interests. ''Half a dozen markfit coups within the five years of Mr Hammond's engagement, and the amount of his salary would be insignificant compared with the' wealth that would flow to his employers through his action. Conversely, half a dozen accurate decisions respecting the true character of poor mining properties offered as good ones to the syndicate, and tho savings through avoidance of loss, would justify his salary." To a firm like tho Guggenheim Exploration Syndicate, which has to work with an eye on the "bull" or the "bear" side of tho market, a man with the judgment and knowledge of Mr Hammond is worth £IOO,OOO a year, or more. Brilliant talent is attracted where the reward is greatest and while the prizes of the French nation used to go to the army, the prizes in America now go to tho captains of finance and commerce. "Ask the people ol the United States whether they would wish to deprive anyone of the chance to reach tho pinnacle attained by Ham m ond. They would answer "No" emphatically."