s required for the steel
business. Another young man, William L. Abbott, took his place. Mr.
Abbott's history is somewhat akin to Borntraeger's. He came to us as a
clerk upon a small salary and was soon assigned to the front in charge
of the business of the iron mills. He was no less successful than was
William. He became a partner with an interest equal to William's, and
finally was promoted to the presidency of the company.

Mr. Curry had distinguished himself by this time in his management of
the Lucy Furnaces, and he took his place among the partners, sharing
equally with the others. There is no way of making a business
successful that can vie with the policy of promoting those who render
exceptional service. We finally converted the firm of Carnegie,
McCandless & Co. into the Edgar Thomson Steel Company, and included my
brother and Mr. Phipps, both of whom had declined at first to go into
the steel business with their too enterprising senior. But when I
showed them the earnings for the first year and told them if they did
not get into steel they would find themselves in the wrong boat, they
both reconsidered and came with us. It was fortunate for them as for
us.

My experience has been that no partnership of new men gathered
promiscuously from various fields can prove a good working
organization as at first constituted. Changes are required. Our Edgar
Thomson Steel Company was no exception to this rule. Even before we
began to make rails, Mr. Coleman became dissatisfied with the
management of a railway official who had come to us with a great and
deserved reputation for method and ability. I had, therefore, to take
over Mr. Coleman's interest. It was not long, however, before we found
that his judgment was correct. The new man had been a railway auditor,
and was excellent in accounts, but it was unjust to expect him, or any
other office man, to be able to step into manufacturing and be
successful from the start. He had neither the knowledge nor the
training for this new work. This does not mean that he was not a
splendid auditor. It was our own blunder in expecting the impossible.

The mills were at last about ready to begin[34] and an organization
the auditor proposed was laid before me for approval. I found he had
divided the works into two departments and had given control of one to
Mr. Stevenson, a Scotsman who afterwards made a fine record as a
manufacturer, and control of the other to a Mr. Jones. Nothing,