A Trainload of Ingots in Molds
CHAPTER XII
QUESTIONS OF POLICY
Almost since the date of its organization the activities of the Steel Corporation have been guided by a definite set of policies. At the beginning, when the Corporation was going through what might be described as its “tooth-cutting” period, this was, perhaps, not the case, as there was, as suggested elsewhere in these pages, a lack of concordance on its Board on many questions, particularly in regard to relations with competitors, with employees, and the general public. But the policies advocated from the very beginning by the chairman eventually were accepted in full by all concerned, and they have for many years ruled the Corporation’s actions.
Ingot on Way to Rolling Mill
Broadly speaking, the Corporation’s policies might be divided under five heads—relations with competitors, prices, publicity, relations with employees and, finally, with stockholders.
No better proof can be offered of the wisdom and success of the big company’s methods of treating its competitors than the fact that, in its hour of trial, when the Government of the United States was seeking to disintegrate it, its competitors, the men who met and fought it for industrial success, came forward practically in a body to its defense and testified that its dealings with them and with the public had always been fair and honorable.
The era that preceded the birth of the Corporation was one of unrestrained, bitter, and often unfair, competition in the steel trade. Too many manufacturers then worked, to paraphrase a well-known piece of advice, on the principle of: “Sell steel, honestly if you can, but sell steel.”