Elbert H. Gary (1846–1927) lawyer and industrialist

Born in Illinois, Gary worked on his father’s farm and served in the Union Army during the Civil War. He then worked briefly as a teacher before deciding to study law. Gary graduated from Union College of Law in Chicago and served as a court clerk for three years before beginning his career as a corporate lawyer. He entered politics when he was elected mayor of Wheaton, Illinois, and later served as a county judge in DuPage County. From that time, he acquired the title Judge Gary, which he used throughout his professional life.

His work with corporate clients piqued an interest in the STEEL INDUSTRY, and he organized the American Steel and Wire Co. Coming to the attention of J. P. Morgan, he joined the Federal Steel Company in 1898 and moved to New York. He was asked to organize the U.S. STEEL CORP. in 1901 after Morgan purchased Carnegie Steel. He became chairman of the board of directors and personally directed the expansion of the company into the largest steel producer in the world, a position he would keep for the next two years. He also helped develop the steel-producing town of Gary, Indiana, which was named after him. As chairman of the company, he organized the famous Gary dinners at which steel executives from other companies were invited to discuss matters of mutual interest and concern. The first was held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City in 1907 and was attended by 49 steel company executives who were invited to achieve gentleman’s agreements about prices and production, not price fixing, as Gary always maintained. The dinners later became evidence in Justice Department antitrust suits against the industry as examples of collusion among steel executives to fix prices and control production.

Gary’s reputation within the industry was one of a fair employer who paid high wages and promoted safety for his employees. He also was a proponent of employees owning stock in their employers’ companies, although he was opposed to labor unions. His greatest coup was a favorable ruling by the Supreme Court in 1920 adjudging that U.S. Steel did not violate the SHERMAN ACT, as the Justice Department had contended in a suit filed years before. The ruling was favorable in part because he had always been forthcoming about the company’s policies, dating back to the Roosevelt administration when the president tacitly agreed not to prosecute the company for its part in many potential antitrust problems caused by the Panic of 1907 and J. P. Morgan’s activities. He remained active in the company until his death in 1927.

Further reading

• Allen, Frederick Lewis. The Lords of Creation. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1935. 
• Tarbell, Ida. The Life of Elbert H. Gary: The Story of Steel. 1925. Reprint, New York: Greenwood Press, 1965.