My eyes were kept full upon him.  There was a silence that could be felt.  The great bully hesitated, but I knew whatever he did, he was beaten.  If he left it was because he had treated the meeting discourteously by keeping his hat on, he was no gentleman; if he remained and took off his hat, he had been crushed by the rebuke.  I didn’t care which course he took.  He had only two and either of them was fatal.  He had delivered himself into my hands.  He very slowly took off the hat and put it on the floor.  Not a word did he speak thereafter in that conference.  I was told afterward that he had to leave the place.  The men rejoiced in the episode and a settlement was harmoniously effected.

When the three years’ scale was proposed to the men, a committee of sixteen was chosen by them to confer with us.  Little progress was made at first, and I announced my engagements compelled me to return the next day to New York.  Inquiry was made as to whether we would meet a committee of thirty-two, as the men wished others added to the committee—­a sure sign of division in their ranks.  Of course we agreed.  The committee came from the works to meet me at the office in Pittsburgh.  The proceedings were opened by one of our best men, Billy Edwards (I remember him well; he rose to high position afterwards), who thought that the total offered was fair, but that the scale was not equable.  Some departments were all right, others were not fairly dealt with.  Most of the men were naturally of this opinion, but when they came to indicate the underpaid, there was a difference, as was to be expected.  No two men in the different departments could agree.  Billy began: 

“Mr. Carnegie, we agree that the total sum per ton to be paid is fair, but we think it is not properly distributed among us.  Now, Mr. Carnegie, you take my job—­”

“Order, order!” I cried.  “None of that, Billy.  Mr. Carnegie ’takes no man’s job.’  Taking another’s job is an unpardonable offense among high-classed workmen.”

There was loud laughter, followed by applause, and then more laughter.  I laughed with them.  We had scored on Billy.  Of course the dispute was soon settled.  It is not solely, often it is not chiefly, a matter of dollars with workmen.  Appreciation, kind treatment, a fair deal—­these are often the potent forces with the American workmen.

Employers can do so many desirable things for their men at little cost.  At one meeting when I asked what we could do for them, I remember this same Billy Edwards rose and said that most of the men had to run in debt to the storekeepers because they were paid monthly.  Well I remember his words: 

“I have a good woman for wife who manages well.  We go into Pittsburgh every fourth Saturday afternoon and buy our supplies wholesale for the next month and save one third.  Not many of your men can do this.  Shopkeepers here charge so much.  And another thing, they charge very high for coal.  If you paid your men every two weeks, instead of monthly, it would be as good for the careful men as a raise in wages of ten per cent or more.”