ge Works
was without a competitor in America. But America was buying most of her
iron in Birmingham.

In Eighteen Hundred Sixty-eight, Andrew Carnegie made a trip to Europe,
taking his mother with him. He was then thirty-one years old and a man
of recognized worth and power. The pride of the mother in her son was
modest yet profound, and his regard for her judgment, even in
bridge-building and railroad affairs, was sincere and earnest. Besides,
she was a good listener, and by explaining his plans to his mother, Andy
got them straight in his own mind.

The trip to Europe was for the double purpose of seeing whether old
Dunfermline was really the delightful spot that memory pictured, and of
getting the latest points in bridge-building and iron-making. Timber was
scarce in England, and iron bridges and iron boats were coming as an
actual necessity.

Sir Henry Bessemer had invented his process of blowing a blast of cold
air through the molten metal and thus converting iron into steel. The
plan was simple, easy and effective. The distinguishing feature of
Andrew Carnegie's mind has always been his ability to put salt on the
tail of an idea. He came back from England with the Bessemer process
well outlined in his square red head. Others had put the invention
through the experimental stage--he waited. That shows your good
railroadman. Let your inventors invent--most of their inventions are
worthless--when the thing is right we will take it on.

The Carnegie fortune owes its secret to the Bessemer steel rail. The
fishplate instead of the frog, and the steel rail in place of the good
old snakehead! "The song of the rail" died out to a low continuous hum
when Carnegie began making steel rails and showed the section-hands how
to bolt them together as one.

Andrew Carnegie was a practical railroadman. He knew the buyers of
supplies and he knew how to convince them that they needed his product.
Manufacturing is a matter of formula, but salesmanship is genius.
Moreover, to get the money to equip great factories is genius, and up to
the Nineties the Carnegie Mills were immense borrowers of capital.

Our socialistic friends sometimes criticize Andrew Carnegie for making
the vast amount of money that he has. We can't swear a halibi for him,
and so my excuse for the man is this: He never knew it was loaded--it
was largely accidental. In truth he couldn't help making the money. Fate
forced it on him. He has played this game of busi