The Corporation could easily have obtained the same prices as did its competitors and would have reaped enormous profits as a result, but it contented itself with a reasonable return and the consumer and the public at large have benefited from its course.
Important among the policies of the Corporation, in its dealings with the public, has always been publicity. The organization of the big company was marked by open dealing, all details of the proposed merger being published widespread before the deal was carried through. And ever since the Corporation began its existence the policy of keeping the public and its stockholders informed as to its actions and business has been adhered to. The results of the Gary dinners were promptly given to the public press; and there is testimony in the record in the Government case that the Department of Justice of Washington was always kept fully informed. Moreover, no complaint was ever made by any one of the “Gary dinners” until the Stanley Committee intimated an illegality, after which it has never been claimed there was any such dinner or meeting.
Almost since the date of incorporation it has been the custom to issue quarterly a report of earnings showing the results of the operations of the three months covered. These reports are issued on the last Tuesday of the month following the quarter covered in the report. On the tenth of each month a statement of the unfilled tonnage on the Corporation’s books is issued from the head office, and in other ways the stockholders are kept informed as to what is going on in their company.
Rails on Cooling Bed
Annual meetings of the Steel stockholders form a decided contrast to those of many other companies. One is accustomed to look upon the annual meetings of corporations as mere formalities attended by a few officials with perhaps a lone stockholder not holding office; and reticence in discussing the company’s business or policies is the general thing. But the Steel meetings are always well attended, and stockholders are encouraged to discuss fully the affairs of their company, and to criticize to their heart’s content. Chairman Gary is ready and willing to explain at length on any issue raised, and the whole effect of these meetings is one of openness, of candor.
Pouring Ingots
How ready the management of the big company is to meet criticism half-way is illustrated by the events at the annual meeting in 1911 when a stockholder moved that a committee be appointed to investigate the condition of the steel workers in the Corporation’s mills and to report thereon, suggesting such remedies for evils they might find as seemed wise. The mover particularly criticized the twelve-hour day and the seven-day-a-week schedule of labor. It was questionable whether the mass of stockholders present, having absolute confidence in the desire of Judge Gary to give at all times the fairest possible treatment to the worker, would have carried such a motion, but Judge Gary himself, holding proxies for the majority of the stock, voted all this stock in favor of an investigation, and a committee was appointed. Thus did the management of the Corporation give proof of its readiness to face investigation and to answer fully and satisfactorily any honest criticism, just or unjust.
The attitude of the Corporation’s management in the matter of publicity, it seems to the writer, is simply that the company’s vast size and the number of its stockholders, as well as the army of men it employs and its influence upon industrial conditions generally, render it in a sense a public institution, one in which there is an enormous amount of warranted public interest, and that this interest should be satisfied. That so great a company must work in the open, all its actions being able to bear the full glare of daylight.