Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-16
cARNEole's WAY
Great ironmaster Enlisted in His
Service Skilled Men and Brought
Out the Best That Was In Them
BY CHARLES NJ. sCHWAB
IN "The Nafion's Business

|
In 1.-THE Nations Business
| TT is nearly forty years since / first knew
- MIR. Carnegie. As a boy met him when
| he sojourned in the Allegheny Mountains for
his summer outings, and / little thought at
| that time, when | did trivial services for
hlm' that fate in later years would so inti
mately throw our lives together
Even in those early days his personality
was such as to inspire one, whatever his
station. to better efforts and to an appreci-
| alton of the finer things in life-not by what
| he may have written or spoken, but just
| by the tender attitude of strong person
| ality.
Never before, perhaps, in the history of
| industry has man who did not understand
| the business in it's working details who
| made no pretense of being a technical steel
manufacturer, or a special engineer, build up
such great and wonderfully successful en-
terprisc as did Mr.. Carnegie. 1t was not
because he was skilled chemist, or a skilled
mechanic a skilled engineer. or skilled
metallurgist: it was because he had the fac
ulty of enlisting people who were skilled
in those arts
While it may be an easy thing to enlist the
interest of such men. it is quite different
thing to got their best efforts and loyal sup
port. In that Mr.. Carnegie was paramount
over all men that have ever known.
FEliE tremendous results which Mr.. Car
- ncgic secured were always obtained
through snirit of aDprova and never of
criticism. Mr.. Carnegie was always one to
take You by the hand and encourage and
approve. 1t was the rarest thing in the
/ world to hear him criticize the actions of
others. esnerally in a business sense.
How every man responds with his best
Efforts under such conditions In my wide
association i'll life. meeting with many and
great men in various parts of the world, T
have vet to find the man. however great or
exalted his station who did not do better
work and put forth greater effort under a
spirit of approval than he would ever do
under spirit of criticism.
Many years ago when I was manager of
the Hraddock works. at Il time when money
was not too plentiful in the Carnegie com
pany. ! had asked permission to nut up
new converting mill and it had been built
1t was everything I expected if to he
everything ] promised Mr. Carnegie it should
be. and he came out to Braddocll TO see it.
As | was showing him ABOUND tho works
and explaining the now mill he looked into
my face and said: Charlie. there is some
thing wrong about this I can see by your
y VI.
is something wronr with this mill"
| said: "No. Mr.. Carnegie. it is inst
exactly what I told You it would be and
w" have reduced our cost to tho noint that 7
said We would. But if 7 had it all to tlo
again there is ono thing which has Just
recently been discovered that I would intro
ducc here. and that 7 am sure would result
in further economy"
He said "Wc'l. what does that mean?
Can you change this work?''
7 said: "No. II would mean tearing this
down and rebuilding it,
"WIy.' he said. ''then that's the right
thing to do. It's only, Il fool who will not
nrotit by anything that NAV have been over
looked and discovered after the work is
done. Tear it down and do it again
And although that converting mill had
been running two months we did tear il
down and we did rebuild it. and the return
unon the capital tins expended repaid the
g"cat firm many fold.
TNiAT spirit was characteristic of Mr..
l.. Carnegie. He did not sav in criticism.
''Whv didn't think of this before?' IF
h" h"d been that tvnc of man who would
"av that sort of thing to me or to any
managrr he would never have learned of this
now idea that had dpvponod. and as a re-
'r't the firm would not have rpancd the
benefit of the better mill But that is the
way Mr.. Carnegie insnired us all
Another phase of his character was thor
oughncsS. and that NAV be illustrated hr
this. which shows how his mind worked all
around subject. In those oldcn davs when
rnrhanS wo had profit statement which
showed that the firm had made FIVE or six
hmndrcd thousand dollars in a month. or nos
sihlv more. and would 90 to him with pride
""a sav. Mr.. Carnegie. wo have made
SI0O,OOO this month" it would not be n
spirit Of qualification alone that he mani
fcstcd.
He would say ''Show me your cost
sheets It is moro interesting to know how
rheaplv and how we'll YOU have done this
thing than how much money YOU have made
because the one is temDorary result due
possibly to special conditions of trade but
the other means pcrmancncy that will go
on with the works as long as they last"
~ RING the great war the ono spirit that
~ seemed to animate every man. no matter
how great his station in ifc-and indeed
the greater or the more aristocratir that was.
the more he tried to live un to it-was the
spirit Of democracy Mr.. Carnegie all the
years of his life was the simple democrat
that we preach of today. He never had Il
particle of snobbishneSs in his character, nor
| could he tolerate it in others
He numbered among his friends not alone
| the great and the rich and the powerful of
| the world but the honest working man and
| woman in any canacity who was truly doing
| the best possible in straightforward way
! to accomplish something.
Among Mr.. CarncgieS best friends were
those he made in business. He had no weak
sentiment as to business, but he believed that
| it was hest ACCOMPLISHED under happy condi-
| tions. A certain picture used to hang on the
| wall in the directors room of the Carnegie
| mill.
1t seems that some criticism was made that