It was fortunate for them as for
us.
My experience has been that no partnership of new men gathered
promiscuously from various fields can prove a good working
organization as at first constituted. Changes are required. Our Edgar
Thomson Steel Company was no exception to this rule. Even before we
began to make rails, Mr. Coleman became dissatisfied with the
management of a railway official who had come to us with a great and
deserved reputation for method and ability. I had, therefore, to take
over Mr. Coleman's interest. It was not long, however, before we found
that his judgment was correct. The new man had been a railway auditor,
and was excellent in accounts, but it was unjust to expect him, or any
other office man, to be able to step into manufacturing and be
successful from the start. He had neither the knowledge nor the
training for this new work. This does not mean that he was not a
splendid auditor. It was our own blunder in expecting the impossible.
The mills were at last about ready to begin[34] and an organization
the auditor proposed was laid before me for approval. I found he had
divided the works into two departments and had given control of one to
Mr. Stevenson, a Scotsman who afterwards made a fine record as a
manufacturer, and control of the other to a Mr.
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