As his reward Schwab, at the age of thirty-four, was made President of the Carnegie corporation.
Only sixteen years before he had entered the steel works as a stake driver at a dollar a day.
When the Carnegie group began operations in the early seventies, American steel, as a British writer remarked, was a "hot-house product"; yet in 1900 the Carnegie partners divided $40,000,000 as the profits of a single year.

They had demonstrated that the United States, despite the high prices that prevailed everywhere, could make steel more cheaply than any other country.

Foreign observers have offered several explanations for this achievement.

American makers had an endless supply of cheap and high-grade ore, cheaper coke, cheaper transportation, and workmen of a superior skill.

We must give due consideration to the fact that their organization was more flexible than those of older countries, and that it regulated promotion exclusively by merit and gave exceptional opportunities to young men.