corporations, was the ultimate outgrowth of that lively afternoon
in San Antonio.

In 1900 the Carnegie Steel Company was making one-quarter of all
the Bessemer steel produced in the United States. It owned in
abundance all the properties which were essential to its
completed output--coal, limestone, steel ships, railroads, and
steel mills. In twenty-five years, from 1875 to 1900, this
manufacturing enterprise had paid the Carnegie group profits
aggregating $133,000,000, profits which, in the closing years of
the century, had increased at a stupendous rate. In 1898 Carnegie
and his associates had divided $11,500,000, in 1899 their
earnings had grown to $25,000,000, and in 1900 the aggregate had
suddenly jumped to $40,000,000. Of this latter sum Carnegie
received $25,000,000, Phipps $5,500,000, Frick $2,600,000, and
Schwab $1,300,000. And Carnegie's little group could see no limit
to the growth of their business and the expansion of their
personal fortunes. Yet at that very moment Carnegie was planning
to play the part of a Charles V with the large empire which he
had pieced together--to abdicate his throne, retire from business
life, and spend his remaining days in quiet.

Many influences were impelling him to this decision. His triumph,
stupendous as it had been, also had had its alloy of sorrow.
Indeed this little Scotsman, now at the crowning of his glory,
was one of the loneliest figures in the world. Practically all
the forty men with whom he had been closely associated had
vanished from the scene. He had quarreled with his playmate and
lifelong partner, Henry Phipps, and was in the worst possible
business and personal relations with Frick. He had no son to