“Mr. Carnegie,” he said, “you were mistaken.  You sold out for ten thousand dollars less than the statement showed to your credit.  It now shows not fifty but sixty thousand to your credit, and the additional ten makes seventy.”

The payments were in two checks, one for sixty thousand dollars and the other for the additional ten thousand.  I handed him back the ten-thousand-dollar check, saying: 

“Well, that is something worthy of you.  Will you please accept these ten thousand with my best wishes?”

“No, thank you,” he said, “I cannot do that.”

Such acts, showing a nice sense of honorable understanding as against mere legal rights, are not so uncommon in business as the uninitiated might believe.  And, after that, it is not to be wondered at if I determined that so far as lay in my power neither Morgan, father or son, nor their house, should suffer through me.  They had in me henceforth a firm friend.

[Illustration:  JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN]

A great business is seldom if ever built up, except on lines of the strictest integrity.  A reputation for “cuteness” and sharp dealing is fatal in great affairs.  Not the letter of the law, but the spirit, must be the rule.  The standard of commercial morality is now very high.  A mistake made by any one in favor of the firm is corrected as promptly as if the error were in favor of the other party.  It is essential to permanent success that a house should obtain a reputation for being governed by what is fair rather than what is merely legal.  A rule which we adopted and adhered to has given greater returns than one would believe possible, namely:  always give the other party the benefit of the doubt.  This, of course, does not apply to the speculative class.  An entirely different atmosphere pervades that world.  Men are only gamblers there.  Stock gambling and honorable business are incompatible.  In recent years it must be admitted that the old-fashioned “banker,” like Junius S. Morgan of London, has become rare.

Soon after being deposed as president of the Union Pacific, Mr. Scott[31] resolved upon the construction of the Texas Pacific Railway.  He telegraphed me one day in New York to meet him at Philadelphia without fail.  I met him there with several other friends, among them Mr. J.N.  McCullough, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Pittsburgh.  A large loan for the Texas Pacific had fallen due in London and its renewal was agreed to by Morgan & Co., provided I would join the other parties to the loan.  I declined.  I was then asked whether I would bring them all to ruin by refusing to stand by my friends.  It was one of the most trying moments of my whole life.  Yet I was not tempted for a moment to entertain the idea of involving myself.  The question of what was my duty came first and prevented that.  All my capital was in manufacturing and every dollar of it was required.  I was the capitalist (then a modest one, indeed) of our concern.  All depended upon me.  My brother with his wife and family, Mr. Phipps and his family, Mr. Kloman and his family, all rose up before me and claimed protection.