Baer, George Frederick

Baer, George Frederick (bâr), 1842–1914, American financier, b. Somerset co., Pa. Baer became legal adviser to J. Pierpont Morgan and held many posts as a key figure in the railroad-and-coal empire. He is remembered for his refusal to arbitrate in the strike of the anthracite-coal miners in 1902.

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Baer, George Frederick (1842–1914) lawyer, railroad executive; born near Lavansville, Pa. He worked as a printer's devil for, then later owned, a Somerset County, Pa., newspaper. He interrupted law studies to serve in the Civil War (1862–64). He served as legal counsel for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, and later was president of the organization that managed all the Reading holdings. An associate of the financier J. P. Morgan, he gained notoriety in 1902 when, taking a hard line on a United Mine Workers strike, he argued that propertied classes rather than labor unions were best fitted to look after workers' interests. He left a fortune of $15 million when he died.