The Steel Corporation is a true democracy. No position in it, however high or responsible, is beyond the reach of any employee who proves his ability to handle the job. Farrell, now president, started as a laborer in a wire mill. The late Thomas Lynch, for many years head of the Frick Coke Co., handled a pick in the coal mines of that concern. Charles M. Schwab and William Ellis Corey, two former presidents of the Corporation, both started from the very bottom, as did Alvah C. Dinkey, one-time head of the Carnegie company, and a number of others. Even Gary, although he did not become connected with the steel industry until in middle life and after he had made a marked success in the legal field, was not the son of a wealthy man, and won his way to fortune by hard work combined with unusual business ability. There is no open sesame to honor and advancement in the big company, nor for that matter in the steel trade as a whole; the keys to success are ability plus energy. “Nor could it be otherwise,” said one of the men who had himself climbed the ladder; “in steel making harmonious team work is essential to good results, and the natural leader rises to the top by the general recognition of his fellows.” Efficiency, that supreme factor in large output and big profits, has become a fetish in industry in recent years. In its final analysis, “The Spirit of the United States Steel Corporation” is efficiency, not applied merely to the mechanical processes of manufacturing, but to the human element behind these processes; the efficiency that abides in a healthy, well-housed, and contented workman. The Corporation has always taken a keen interest in matters affecting conditions of labor. It has lent its influence, its money, and the time of its officials to better these conditions, to provide more attractive homes and more sanitary and healthful conditions for its men, better educational facilities for their children, and wholesome amusement for all. For itself, the big company expects the benefit from the resultant increased efficiency and loyalty. For the worker, the most important gain is added self-respect. George G. Crawford, president of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., says on this point: “Summed up, the end of all social betterment work is the inculcation of self-respect. The worker possessing this attribute is worth more to himself, to his employer, and to society generally, than the man lacking it. Without self-respect, he remains a common drudge, his value at best stationary, but more likely receding. With it comes ambition and energy, and it is only the short-sighted employer who does not set high store on these qualities and encourage their growth. The lowest kind of labor is always to be had, but the men with ambition and the will to make good that ambition, the men of real value to themselves, are not so easy to find--and they are many times more necessary!”