“‘Why,’ I replied, ‘I can get at least a million from bankers in New York who don’t even know me!’
“‘That’s the reason they lend you,’ he gravely returned.”
Charles M. Schwab was born at Williamsburg, Pa., on February 18, 1862, and educated at St. Francis College at Loretto in the same state. His father owned a livery stable at Cresson Springs, where Carnegie had a summer bungalow.
One day the little Scotsman, who loved music, heard the boy singing, and told Schwab, Senior, to bring the lad to him when he was ready to go to work. At the age of eighteen Schwab entered the employment of the Carnegie Company as a junior in the drafting room.
Schwab attributes his success largely to the interest which Carnegie took in him. Carnegie, on the other hand, declared that Schwab was one of the two men to whom he owed the bulk of his fortune, the other being Captain William R. Jones, who was superintendent of the big Braddock plant when Schwab enlisted in the steel army.
At the age of twenty-four Schwab was appointed superintendent of the Homestead plant, which had just been acquired by Carnegie. When he arrived there, the organization was in a terrible condition. The long series of strikes which the original owners had had to contend with had not only caused them to give up the plant in despair and to accept Carnegie’s offer, but had resulted in bitter feeling on the part of the workmen. But Schwab’s smile and good nature soon won them over, and in a few months the organization had been restored and Homestead was making money for Carnegie.
In 1889 Schwab returned to Braddock on the death of Captain Jones, as his successor. Three years later occurred the bloody strike at Homestead, and Schwab was again sent back there to take charge. When the strike was over he was put in charge of both plants. He was the only man that ever managed two plants for Carnegie.
One day Carnegie told Schwab that it had been decided to make him vice-president of the Carnegie Company. But the young man replied:
“No, Mr. Carnegie, I am no good at carrying out another man’s orders, and that’s about all a vice-president has to do. As superintendent I am boss of the plants I manage; I prefer to remain that way.”
Next day Carnegie again sought out his superintendent. “Well, if you won’t be vice-president, I suppose we’ll have to make you president,” he said, and so he did.