“‘Oh, I shust laff.’”
One of the old Carnegie “boys,” Schwab is like the former iron master in his wonderful ability to infuse into those who work with him some of the enthusiasm with which he is so richly endowed, and to get from them loyalty and devotion. To this attribute, as much as to anything else, Schwab owes his great success.
It is impossible to get an accurate concept of Schwab’s personality without coming directly into contact with him. Many men have declared that “C. M.,” as he is known to his friends, is “the best salesman that ever stepped in shoe leather.” And this is not an exaggeration. There is something about him—fascination, personal magnetism, call it what you will—that captivates almost everyone with whom he comes in contact. His infectious laugh disarms hostility and criticism. His great ability compels admiration.
Numerous anecdotes illustrating Schwab’s magnetism are told in the steel trade; the following is typical:
Several years ago, when Bethlehem Steel was a little known company, its head visited a prominent New York banker to seek his aid in putting out a bond issue. He told the banker all about the great future in store for Bethlehem as he saw it—prophetically, as it has turned out—and his hearer was fired with enthusiasm regarding the proposed issue. He asked Schwab to go back to his office and dictate to a stenographer the statements he had made regarding the security behind the bonds and the future of Bethlehem Steel for the purpose of making up a prospectus. With that, he declared, the bonds would sell like hot cakes.
When the banker received the typewritten prospectus he was dissatisfied and rang Schwab up on the ’phone. The steel man’s arguments were not nearly so convincing in black and white as when given in his inimitable style, and the money magnate declared that the other had not included in the written statement the facts related in the conversation. So Schwab paid him another visit and went all over the matter again. The banker said:
“Yes. You’ve got it all down here. But it doesn’t sound the same. I tell you what we’ll do. You talk the bonds into a phonograph and we’ll use the records to sell them.”
And here is another Schwab anecdote told by himself:
“On one occasion, when Bethlehem was still a struggling company, I went to see a Philadelphia banker whom I knew very well and told him I needed a great deal of money. He said:
“‘I can let you have half a million.’