THE UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION 143 



National Steel company were large producers of steel billets, 

 ingots, bars, plates, and slabs, — products not yet in their 

 final form, and constituting the materials for other branches 

 of the iron and steel industry. The second group, including 

 the National Tube, American Steel and Wire, American Tin 

 Plate, American Steel Hoop, and American Sheet Steel com- 

 panies, were, as their titles indicate, producers of finished steel 

 goods. They obtained most of their materials from the pri- 

 mary producers of steel, and converted them into wire, pipes, 

 tin plates, sheets, cotton ties, and structural material. These 

 two groups of companies, from their location and from the 

 nature of their products, had large dealings together. The 

 Federal Steel company furnished the western plants of the 

 American Steel and Wire company with most of their wire 

 rods, and furnished steel billets to the Ohio plants of the 

 National Tube and American Bridge companies. The Car- 

 negie Steel company found its principal market among the 

 finishing mills of the Pittsburg district, including representa- 

 tives of all the members of the second group of producers. 

 The National Steel company supplied a portion of the demands 

 of the Tin Plate, Sheet Steel, and Steel Hoop companies, whose 

 financial control was identical with its own. Between these 

 companies, until the fall of 1900, there was no reason for com- 

 petition. The mills of the Carnegie company in Pittsburg 

 were five hundred miles distant from the principal plants of 

 the Federal Steel company in Chicago. The National Steel 

 company, although its mills were, properly speaking, within 

 the Pittsburg district, was not yet strong enough to come 

 into serious conflict with the Carnegie Steel company. As 

 for the finishing companies, their products were so entirely 

 distinct as to afford no ground for competition. So long as 

 the active demand for steel, which had begun in the whiter of 

 of 1898-99, should continue, there seemed to be little danger 

 of conflict. Ever}^ company was fully occupied, and had no 

 need to go outside its own province to keep its mills running. 

 The harmony of interests among the various companies, 

 however, was unstable, depending, as it did, upon a restric- 

 tion of each producer within his own field. With the reaction 

 in the steel market which began in the spring of 1900 and con- 



