John J. Albright - Table of Contents
Steel Plant a Certainty
Mr. J. J. Albright Gives a Very Definite Assurance in Regard to the
Plan.
The following article is printed verbatim from the December 30, 1899 edition of The
Buffalo News
An important step in the history of the Great Buffalo steel plant at Stony Point was taken at Scranton yesterday. The stockholders of the Lackawanna Steel and Iron Company held a meeting and voted to increase their capital from $3,750,000 to $25,000,000.
Just what that move meant the stockholders would not say after the meeting, but the understanding in Scranton, the same as in Buffalo, is that it meant putting the company in shape to go ahead with the great plant at Buffalo.
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Mr. J. J. Albright, one of the principal stockholders in the concern talked very frankly and very convincingly with a NEWS reporter concerning the matter this forenoon.
"I don't know what I can say beyond what has been said in the way of giving assurance that the steel plant certainly will be built at Buffalo," said Mr. Albright.
"But will anything of a tangible nature be done in the near future?" was asked.
"It seems strange to me," he said, "that the people seem unable to understand that a work of this magnitude cannot be done in a week for a month. It is not a plant that can be constructed under a temporary shed. Imagine the miles of plans that must be made. Think of the great stretch of machinery that must be planned for and the drawings that must be made. Why, if all the mechanical engineers and draftsmen in the country were employed upon this work it could not be done in a week many people seem to think. The work is progressing as rapidly as possible."
"But when will the work on the plant begin?"
"I cannot go into details. There are naturally many things in such an enterprise as that which cannot be talked about in the newspapers."
"But is not the company losing a great deal by not being able to take advantage of the high price of iron and steel?"
"The company that is back of this enterprise is not building this plant because of the present advance in the price of steel and iron. They are building for the years that are to come. They are building a great plant that will be one of the permanent concerns of the country."
Mr. Albright was asked to explain just what significance the meeting of the stockholders of the Lackawanna Steel Company at Scranton had yesterday.
"They met for the purpose of increasing their capital just as had been advertised," he said. "A circular letter was printed in the New York papers some time ago stating that this would be done. That is all there was to that meeting so far as I know."
"Will the plant be moved from Scranton to Buffalo?"
"That is one of the things I cannot talk about. But it seems to me that the
fact that a million and a half of dollars have been expended here preparatory to
building the big steel plant ought to be sufficient assurance to the people that
the work will be completed. I regret very much that so much nonsense has been printed
to some of the papers about the Rockefellers and other things in connection with
this enterprise. It does nobody any good and it injures Buffalo on the outside.
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