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 100 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS presence. A visit to England in 1868 was an epoch in his life. What is known as the Bessemer Process of steel production was then agitating the business world. Mr. Carnegie, recog- nizing that steel was rapidly supplanting iron in the old coun- try, promptly returned to the United States, and introduced the new methods into his mills. He thereby entirely revolu- tionized the iron industry in the western hemisphere, and se- cured for a time what was practically a monopoly. Vast as were his commitments, the big manufacturer con- tinued to expand. Alarmed interests threatened to combine against what they were pleased to call his ** encroachments *' : they would isolate him. Little did they know the man with whom they had to deal. So far from being intimidated, Car- negie 's fighting blood was stirred. If the mine-owners would not sell him iron ore and coal at the right prices he would buy and work iron and coal fields of his own : and, further, if the railroads discriminated against him, he would build and oper- ate railroads of his own. He did not threaten in vain. He followed up his words with inmiediate action. In 1889 Mr. Carnegie invited Henry Clay Frick, who at that time dominated the coke-making industry, to join forces with him. Mr. Frick consented. The outcome was that the Car- negie concern soon owned and controlled mines producing 6,000,000 tons of ore annually ; 40,000 acres of coal land, and 12,000 coke ovens; steamship lines for transporting ore to Lake Erie ports ; docks for handling ore and coal, and a rail- road from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh ; 70,000 acres of natural gas territory, with 200 miles of pipe line ; nineteen blast furn- aces and five steel mills, producing and finishing 3,250,000 tons of steel annually. The pay roll of the year exceeded $18,000,000. In 1890 was formed the Carnegie Co., with a paid-up capital of $160,000,000. The parent company in- cluded over twenty subsidiary companies. To trace the growth of the Carnegie Co., and to follow it up to its present development into the United States Steel Corporation, would fill a big volume. Suffice it here to state that accorjiing to Poor's Manual of Industries, 1913, the re- ttirnsfoj the United States Steel Corporation, December 31,