UTILITIES: Eaton to the Wars

Cyrus Stephen Eaton is a well-dressed, frosty-eyed financier of 56. He left his native home in bleak Pugwash, Nova Scotia, to study for the Baptist ministry. In Cleveland in 1925 he dramatized his power to refinance Trumbull Steel Co. by proving to its officers that Cleveland Trust Co. would honor his check for $20,000,000. By 1930 he was instrumental in forming the No. 3 steel Company (by mergers built on Republic), was sitting on the boards of 20 great corporations (utilities, steel, paints, hotels). That year he helped undermine the foundation of...

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