United States Steel: A Corporation with a Soul. Arundel Cotter
and rich enough to expand to meet the growing demand for the metal without danger of over-stretching its resources, he painted with his words something which the banker thought it would be a proud thing to father. Morgan saw before him unlimited possibilities, not of money making alone—for this was by no means the ruling passion of his being—but of creating an organization that should leave an indelible impress for good on industrial history, a business so great that its actions could not fail to force themselves upon the attention of the world and to command imitation on the part of other industries. A business, moreover, so powerful that it would not need to resort to the dubious practices of the old days to succeed.
The great steel concern that Schwab discussed corresponded very closely to the company that Gary had long been urging Morgan to assist in creating by the expansion of the Federal Steel Co. Immediately after the dinner Morgan drew Schwab aside and the latter then went more fully into the subject of a vast steel merger than he had been able to in the confines of an after-dinner oration. Finally the financier asked Schwab if he thought Carnegie would sell, and upon receiving an affirmative reply Morgan requested the terms. A few days later Schwab reported that Carnegie’s price was $303,450,000 in bonds and $188,556,160 in stock of the suggested new company. After a prolonged consultation with Gary, Robert Bacon (one of his partners), and others, Morgan accepted these terms.
As a nucleus of the proposed steel corporation, then, we have the Carnegie and the Federal companies. But Gary’s plans had provided for the manufacture of a number of products made by neither of these two concerns, and Schwab, in his talk, had pictured an industrial organization that would turn out from its mills every kind of steel product, that would be able to supply its customers with everything made of the metal from a nail to a railroad car. Morgan was not a man of half measures. There was no need to make two bites of a cherry, even though it was a mighty big cherry. Having once decided to finance the formation of the new company he thought it might as well be comprehensive in its products, and so negotiations were immediately set on foot with the controlling interests in the leading concerns making wire, tubes, tin plate, etc., with a view to bringing them all into the consolidation.
The Morgan interests had financed the organization of the National Tube Co., the principal figure in which was Edmund C. Converse, so the tube company naturally was taken in. The other concerns and interests which it was proposed to unify into the new corporation were the American Steel & Wire Co., the chief figures in which were the late John Warne Gates, Alfred Clifford, William Edenborn, and others; the four companies forming the so-called Reid-Moore group, controlled by Daniel G. Reid and William H. Moore—namely the National Steel Co., American Tin Plate Co., American Sheet Steel Co., and American Steel Hoop Co.
By the early part of February, 1901, the negotiations were concluded and the plans for the organization of the United States Steel Corporation were announced. They provided for the amalgamation of these eight companies, the smallest of which had a capitalization of $33,000,000 and the largest of more than $300,000,000. Before the plans were finally put through, however, two more units were added to the list, the Lake Superior Consolidated Iron Mines, dominated by the Rockefeller interests, and the American Bridge Co., at the head of which was Percival Roberts, Jr. The absorption of the Lake Superior Consolidated Co., with its vast ore holdings and steamship fleet, was deemed necessary to ensure the Steel Corporation an adequate ore reserve. The American Bridge Co., which secured most of its supplies of steel from the Carnegie company, seemed to fit naturally into the plans for the consolidation.
Thus there were ten large companies taken in, merged to form the United States Steel Corporation. They had an aggregate capital of $867,550,394, as follows:
| COMPANY | COMMON STOCK | PREFERRED STOCK |
| American Bridge Co. | $30,527,800 | $30,527,800 |
| American Sheet Steel Co. | 24,500,000 | 24,500,000 |
| American Steel Hoop Co. | 19,000,000 | 14,000,000 |
| American Steel & Wire Co. | 50,000,000 | 40,000,000 |
| American Tin Plate Co. | 28,000,000 | 18,325,000 |
| Carnegie Steel Co. | 160,000,000 | A160,000,000 |
| Federal Steel Co. | 46,484,300 | 53,260,900 |
| Lake Superior Consolidated Iron Mines | 29,424,594 | … … |
| National Steel Co. | 32,000,000 | 27,000,000 |
| National Tube Co. | 40,000,000 | 40,000,000 |
| Total. | $459,936,694 | $407,613,700 |
A Bonds. All other figures in this column represent preferred stock.
The American Bridge Co., as its name implies, was a fabricator of bridge material and structural steel generally. It was not a steel company in the strict sense. It obtained a large proportion of its supplies of steel from the Carnegie company and fabricated this material. It had a capacity of approximately 600,000 tons yearly. The company was incorporated in May, 1900, as a consolidation of a number of smaller concerns and had a surplus of $4,030,331. Holders of its preferred stock received $110 in preferred stock of the new corporation for each $100 of their holdings, while the common stockholders received $105 in U. S. Steel common for each $100 of their holdings.
Four companies, as has been stated, formed the “Reid-Moore” group. The American Tin Plate Co. was chartered in December, 1898. Like all the concerns forming this group it was considerably over-capitalized. Nevertheless, its earnings in the first year of its existence were approximately $3,600,000 or 20 per cent. on its preferred capital, and in 1900 they exceeded $5,750,000, or about 32 per cent. on the preferred capital. At its formation it acquired thirty-nine different plants, embracing 279 mills, manufacturing tin and terne plates. Its preferred stockholders received $125 in U. S. Steel preferred stock for each $100 of their holdings and its common stockholders $120 in preferred and $125 in common stock of the new corporation for each $100 of their holdings.
The National Steel Co., another of the Reid-Moore concerns, was the maker of raw material for the other three members of the group. Its production was largely confined to semi-finished products and it had a capacity of about 1,700,000 tons of steel a year. It had some ore holdings in the Mesaba Range as well as a twenty-year contract for a one-sixth interest in the ore production of the Oliver Iron Mining Co. The company was chartered early in 1899 and in the first year of its existence earned approximately $8,750,000, or more than 32 per cent. on its preferred stock. Of this amount, however, $3,617,000 was written off for depreciation. At the time it was merged into the Steel Corporation it had surplus and undivided profits of $6,910,995. Holders of both its common and preferred stock for each $100 of their holdings got $125 in the corresponding stock of the new corporation.
The American Steel Hoop Co., third of the group, was formed a month or two later than the National Steel Co. It was a consolidation of nine concerns manufacturing chiefly bars, hoops, bands, cotton ties, and skelp, and had an annual capacity of about 700,000 tons. Its earnings were not as large as those of the others of the group, its first nine months’ operations yielding a return at the annual rate of slightly under 7 per cent. on the preferred capitalization. Its accumulated surplus on April 1, 1901, was $1,660,311. The two classes of its stock were exchanged at par for