Farrell was succeeded as head of the Steel Products Co. by Eugene P. Thomas, who since 1906 had assisted him in building up that company’s world business. Thomas was born in Atlanta, Ga., on May 11, 1876. He began as a newspaperman, but after a brief experience in that profession entered the steel trade. He was one of the pioneers of foreign trade in steel, having gone to England as a salesman for the company with which he was then connected, Lorain Steel, in 1899. Before he had attained his thirty-fifth year he was head of the greatest export organization in the United States. As already explained, American steel manufacturers had made little systematic or sustained effort to capture foreign trade prior to the organization of United States Steel. Such campaigns for world business as had been undertaken had not been conducted, as a rule, in such a manner as to give the steel maker of this country a good name abroad. The people of the steel-consuming countries--as distinct from those producing their own steel--preferred to deal with German, British, or Belgian mills, and for obvious reasons. The great steel-producing countries of the old world, under normal peace conditions, are unable to consume more than a comparatively small proportion of the output of their mills; internal or home consumption is small. Hence, the exportation of the greater part of the steel these countries make is a pressing necessity and no effort is spared to secure foreign outlets for their product, to cultivate a world-wide good will.