I am
certain, ever affected the success of the steel company more than the
decision which I gave upon that proposal. Upon no account could two
men be in the same works with equal authority. An army with two
commanders-in-chief, a ship with two captains, could not fare more
disastrously than a manufacturing concern with two men in command upon
the same ground, even though in two different departments. I said:

"This will not do. I do not know Mr. Stevenson, nor do I know Mr.
Jones, but one or the other must be made captain and he alone must
report to you."

[Footnote 34: The steel-rail mills were ready and rails were rolled in
1874.]

The decision fell upon Mr. Jones and in this way we obtained "The
Captain," who afterward made his name famous wherever the manufacture
of Bessemer steel is known.

The Captain was then quite young, spare and active, bearing traces of
his Welsh descent even in his stature, for he was quite short. He came
to us as a two-dollar-a-day mechanic from the neighboring works at
Johnstown. We soon saw that he was a character. Every movement told
it. He had volunteered as a private during the Civil War and carried
himself so finely that he became captain of a company which was never
known to flinch. Much of the success of the Edgar Thomson Works
belongs to this man.

In later years he declined an interest in the firm which would have
made him a millionaire. I told him one day that some of the young men
who had been given an interest were now making much more than he was
and we had voted to make him a partner. This entailed no financial
responsibility, as we always provided that the cost of the interest
given was payable only out of profits.

"No," he said, "I don't want to have my thoughts running on business.
I have enough trouble looking after these works. Just give me a h--l
of a salary if you think I'm worth it."

"All right, Captain, the salary of the President of the United States
is yours."

"That's the talk," said the little Welshman.[35]

[Footnote 35: The story is told that when Mr. Carnegie was selecting
his younger partners he one day sent for a young Scotsman, Alexander
R. Peacock, and asked him rather abruptly:

"Peacock, what would you give to be made a millionaire?"

"A liberal discount for cash, sir," was the answer.

He was a partner owning a two per cent interest when the Carnegie
Steel Company was merged into the United States Steel Corporation.]

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