During twenty years its management, under the able leadership of Judge Gary, has been steadily building up good will. It has endeavored to gain the favorable opinion, not of its customers alone, but of its competitors, its employees, and the public at large; and it has succeeded. Its policy of a square deal to all is as old as the Corporation itself; the events of the past year afford an illustration of one phase of this policy and its effect on good will that has a direct bearing on the present discussion. Throughout the year, during which a great advance in the price of steel occurred, the big company steadfastly refused to depart from the prices it had agreed on in March, 1919, with the Industrial Board appointed by the President of the United States. The fact that the Government itself had abrogated this agreement gave it ample warrant to do as other manufacturers were doing and to sell steel at prices from $10 to $50 a ton above those it charged. But in order to help deflate living costs to the public and to assist in the readjustment of business, which its management saw was inevitable, it rejected with open eyes the enormous profit it might have made and contented itself with moderate earnings. In addressing the stockholders of the Steel Corporation at the annual meeting of April 19, 1920, the chairman said: Inquiry has been made by some of our stockholders as to why, in view of the great demand, the cost of production, and the prices received by other manufacturers, we hold the selling prices of our commodities down to those which were fixed by agreement between the Industrial Board and steel manufacturers at Washington, March 21, 1919. It seems to us the problem of high cost of living is of convincing importance. When the increasing tendency is to insist upon payment of unreasonable sums for every commodity and for every service, so that the vicious whirl of advancement seems to be unending, we think there is a moral obligation on the part of everyone to use all reasonable efforts to check this carnival of greed and imposition, even at some sacrifice.... It should be the effort of all to establish and maintain a reasonable basis of prices; certainly to prevent further advances. By this policy it has built up in a single year good will of incalculable value which will show on future earnings. And even though good will may be eliminated in discussing the investment value of steel, if for no other reason than that it is too immense to permit of computation, the steel stockholder knows that it is behind his investment all the time. CHAPTER XIV THE GREAT STEEL STRIKE During the World War, there began to gather on the industrial horizon a cloud no bigger at first than a man’s hand, but one that grew fast in size until it broke in a storm the effects of which made themselves felt in every corner of the globe.