James E. Homans, editor

“ Carnegie is not credited with having invented or contributed any innovation to any practical branch during his long connection with the iron industry. On the contrary, he is on record as having strongly opposed vital, improvements, such as building the Universal Slabbing Mill at Homestead, Coleman's Bessemer project in 1871, and Frick's acquisition of the Oliver ore-fields. ”

“ He also cabled VVhitelaw Reid, who was trying to bring about a settlement of the strike, that no compromise would be considered by him, and that he would rather see grass growing over the Homestead works than advise Mr. Frick to yield to the strikers. “The Romance of Steel” says: “The workmen had a conviction, almost a religious belief, that no outsiders had a right to come in and take their places during a strike. Andrew Carnegie himself had said, a few years before: ‘There is an unwritten law among the best workmen, “Thou shalt not take thy neighbor's job.” ”

“ Usually the profits alone sufficed to liquidate the debt. In 1887 an automatic ejecture was added to it, so that no junior partner need be kept in the association any longer than his favor lasted. It was an excellent device, keeping the young “geniuses” in an humble frame of mind and spurring them to further effort, but it was never intended to apply to partners whose interests were paid up, such as Frick and Phipps. In 1892 Carnegie made a futile attempt to revise it and include all partners. ”

“ Carnegie had availed himself of the opportunity to acquire Kloman's interest in the Kloman, Carnegie Company, which had remained a separate concern. Kloman had become interested in a project for mining and smelting ore in Michigan. Its ore proved deficient in quality and the company failed, involving Kloman. Lest the affairs of the other partners in Kloman, Carnegie and Company also become involved through pressure of Kloman's creditors, Carnegie made a written offer to restore Kloman to full partnership if he would make a voluntary assignment and get a judicial discharge. ”

“ By 1863 his speculative activities had netted him considerable capital. In that year, also, he was promoted to Scott's old position as local superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, with offices at the Outer Depot, Pittsburgh, and with his brother, Tom, nine years his junior, as his assistant. His entry into the iron business occurred in 1865, when he and Thomas N. Miller, his most intimate friend, organized the Cyclops Iron Company. It was intended as a rival mill to the Kloman-Phipps Iron City Forges, but through the inexperience of its projectors proved a failure. ”

“ Carnegie found himself in the iron business more by accident than preference, and the future iron king reproached Miller in a letter for getting him in the “most hazardous enterprise I ever expect to have anything to do with.” In fact, his success in the speculative field had inspired him with the desire for a financial career. However, he extricated himself. The year before he had furnished his brother Tom the money, $8,925, with which to purchase a one-sixth interest in the Kloman-Phipps mill ”

“ Carnegie, who now fanned the conflagration, and prudently retired to Scotland. From there, on 10 June, 1892, he wrote to Frick: “Of course, you will be asked to confer, and I know you will decline all conferences. You will win and win easier than you suppose, owing to the present condition of markets.” On 17 June, 1892, he emphasized his uncompromising attitude by writing: “Perhaps if Homestead men understand that non-acceptance means non-union forever, they will accept.” ”

“ Being interested in manufacturing keeps us within touch of the world and its affairs.” In 1882, when Carnegie had acquired an interest in the coke business of Frick and Company, he first became familiar with the ability of Henry C. Frick. ”

“ Carnegie desperately anxious to sell out, and his methods of accomplishing it stand as a monument to his resourcefulness. About a year before Frick resigned as head of the Carnegie Steel Company, he appointed a committee to report on a project for building a tube works at Conneaut, the Lake Erie terminus of the Bessemer Railroad. There being little freight from Pittsburgh to the Lake port, the ore trains returned for the most part empty ”

“ Louis “Post-Dispatch” said: “One would naturally suppose that if he had a grain of manhood, not to say courage, in his composition, he would at least have been willing to face the consequences of his inconsistency. ”

“ It added to the Carnegie group the best steel works in the country, paying for itself within one year. In 1892 all the Carnegie interests, except coke, were consolidated as the Carnegie Steel Company, Ltd., and Frick was elected its chairman. Under this magician of steel its profits multiplied. He devoted his attention to perfecting economies of operation, and the changes he effected revolutionized the iron industry. ”

“ So on 1 Jan., 1873, Coleman took up the option on Braddock's field, and on the 13th of the same month the firm of Carnegie, McCandless and Company was organized with a capital of $700,000. Carnegie put altogether $250,000 into the venture and acquired the largest individual interest. Coleman put into it $100,000, and Kloman, Phipps, McCandless, Scott, Stewart, Shinn, and Thomas Carnegie each supplied $50,000. Thus was started the great enterprise which afterwards became famous as the Edgar Thomson Steel Works. ”