“To further indicate the fabulous profits which the Dingley duties make possible to our ‘infant’ iron and steel industries, I need only cite recent and familiar records. In the spring of 1899, when the Steel Trust was in process of formation, and when it became necessary for the influential men in the steel industry to prove what enormous profits the steel manufacturers were making, and thus to induce the investing public to put their money into Steel Trust stocks—then it was that Mr. Charles M. Schwab, president, wrote to Mr. Henry C. Frick, chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, the famous letter of May 15, 1899, now public property, in which Mr. Schwab used these words:’
“‘What is true of rails is equally true of other steel products.... You know we can make rails for less than twelve dollars per ton, leaving a nice margin on foreign business.’
“Mark you, that was in 1899, when the boom was at its zenith, when wages were highest, and when all the costs of production were far above all averages of recent boom years.
“To show how accurate Mr. Schwab was in these statements, and to show how trustworthy was his confident forecast of future profits, I need only cite the following speaking figures from the two annual statements which have been made public by the United States Steel Corporation, namely:
Total number of employees:
| 1902. | 1903. |
| 168,127 | 167,709 |
Total annual salaries and wages paid:
| $120,528,343.00 | $120,763,896.00 |
Net earnings:
| $133,308,763.72 | $109,171,152.35 |