"A rare bird," Winston Churchill called him, "a past master of monopoly who has made an immense fortune by 'private greed,' and who, without in any way relinquishing it, has become a convinced Socialist." He was speaking of Steven Hardie, a brawny Scot who looks like a hard-boiled egg and is a steel-tough taskmaster with a canny eye for profits. Glasgow-born Steven Hardie parlayed his World War I separation pay into one of Britain's biggest industrial fortunes. His British Oxygen Co. monopolizes British industrial gas production; his Metal Industries Ltd. is Europe's biggest...
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