Why did not the workmen generally share in this bonus distribution? It would have been impossible to make anything like an equitable distribution among the employees of every class, especially in view of the fluctuating character of a large mass of the labor employed in the industry. But the worker with his hands did share in profits in a more definite way. His wage was increased time and again and he received the benefits of these increases whether profits were large or small. This was more satisfactory to him. And in the stock subscription part of the plan, with its attached automatic bonus, he had an equal opportunity with the men above him in authority. But long before the Stock Subscription-Profit-Sharing Plan was perfected steps had been taken to coördinate the work of the Corporation and to bring about economies. First of these was the institution of a system of comparative cost sheets immediately after the Corporation began its existence. The earning of profits for stockholders was the first object of the big company, as it is in every business, and its formation had been undertaken largely with the idea that the magnitude of its operations would make greater economies possible, with a gain rather than a sacrifice of efficiency and quality. In the old steel days the calculation of costs had been more or less haphazard, at least in most instances. Too often the entire operating expense of steel making, from mining to the turning out of the finished product, had been “lumped” at the end of the year, and there was no means of arriving at the knowledge of just where profits, if there were any, were made, while if they were non-existent or unsatisfactory it was equally out of the question to fix the blame on any one department. Moreover, such secrets of economy as were discovered by those in charge of a furnace or mill were rigidly guarded as giving an advantage over competitors; all of which did not contribute to a general high average of efficiency and economy. The Corporation’s management first set to work to ascertain the exact cost of running each and every mine, furnace, or other department, the costs being tabulated for the information of the whole organization. The cost tables were made up in the most minute detail, the blast furnace cost sheets alone containing more than 8,000 different items, and by their aid the several departmental superintendents could see at a glance what item in their operations was below the average, was too costly, and could take the necessary steps to remedy matters. These tables also created a spirit of emulation, of friendly rivalry, between the various departmental units, which alone was a potent incentive toward economy. So immediate and so marked was the result of this system of cost checking that, according to Charles M. Schwab, a saving of $4,000,000 was effected in the blast furnace department alone in the first year of the Corporation’s existence!