FAITH is the head chemist of the mind. When FAITH is
blended with the vibration of thought, the subconscious mind
instantly picks up the vibration, translates it into its spiritual
equivalent, and transmits it to Infinite Intelligence, as in the case of
The emotions of FAITH, LOVE, and SEX are the most powerful
of all the major positive emotions. When the three are blended, they
have the effect of “coloring” the vibration of thought in such a way
that it instantly reaches the subconscious mind, where it is
changed into its spiritual equivalent, the only form that induces a
response from Infinite Intelligence.
Love and faith are psychic; related to the spiritual side of man.
Sex is purely biological, and related only to the physical. The
mixing, or blending, of these three emotions has the effect of
opening a direct line of communication between the finite, thinking
mind of man, and Infinite Intelligence.
How To Develop Faith
There comes, now, a statement which will give a better
understanding of the importance the principle of auto-suggestion
assumes in the transmutation of desire into its physical, or
monetary equivalent; namely: FAITH is a state of mind which may
be induced, or created, by affirmation or repeated instructions to
the subconscious mind, through the principle of auto-suggestion.
As an illustration, consider the purpose for which you are,
presumably, reading this book. The object is, naturally, to acquire
the ability to transmute the intangible thought impulse of DESIRE
into its physical counterpart, money. By following the instructions
laid down in the chapters on auto-suggestion, and the
subconscious mind, as summarized in the chapter on auto-
52
suggestion, you may CONVINCE the subconscious mind that you
believe you will receive that for which you ask, and it will act upon
that belief, which your subconscious mind passes back to you in
the form of “FAITH,” followed by definite plans for procuring that
The method by which one develops FAITH, where it does not
already exist, is extremely difficult to describe, almost as difficult, in
fact, as it would be to describe the color of red to a blind man who
has never seen color, and has nothing with which to compare what
you describe to him. Faith is a state of mind which you may develop
at will, after you have mastered the thirteen principles, because it is
a state of mind which develops voluntarily, through application and
Repetition of affirmation of orders to your subconscious mind i5
the only known method of voluntary development of the emotion of
Perhaps the meaning may be made clearer through the
following explanation as to the way men sometimes become
criminals. Stated in the words of a famous criminologist, “When
men first come into contact with crime, they abhor it. If they remain
in contact with crime for a time, they become accustomed to it, and
endure it. If they remain in contact with it long enough, they finally
embrace it, and become influenced by it.”
This is the equivalent of saying that any impulse of thought
which is repeatedly passed on to the subconscious mind is, finally,
accepted and acted upon by the subconscious mind, which
proceeds to translate that impulse into its physical equivalent, by
the most practical procedure available.
In connection with this, consider again the statement, ALL
THOUGHTS WHICH HAVE BEEN EMOTIONALIZED, (given feeling)
AND MIXED WITH FAITH, begin immediately to translate
themselves into their physical equivalent or counterpart.
The emotions, or the “feeling” portion of thoughts, are the
factors which give thoughts vitality, life, and action. The emotions of
Faith, Love, and Sex, when mixed with any thought impulse, give it
greater action than any of these emotions can do singly.
Not only thought impulses which have been mixed with
FAITH, but those which have been mixed with any of the positive
emotions, or any of the negative emotions, may reach, and influence
53
From this statement, you will understand that the
subconscious mind will translate into its physical equivalent, a
thought impulse of a negative or destructive nature, just as readily
as it will act upon thought impulses of a positive or constructive na-
ture. This accounts for the strange phenomenon which so many
millions of people experience, referred to as “misfortune,” or “bad
There are millions of people who BELIEVE themselves
“doomed” to poverty and failure, because of some strange force over
which they BELIEVE they have no control. They are the creators of
their own “misfortunes,” because of this negative BELIEF, which is
picked up by the subconscious mind, and translated into its
This is an appropriate place at which to suggest again that you
may benefit, by passing on to your subconscious mind, any DESIRE
which you wish translated into its physical, or monetary equivalent,
in a state of expectancy or BELIEF that the transmutation will
actually take place. Your BELIEF, or FAITH, is the element which
determines the action of your subconscious mind. There is nothing
to hinder you from “deceiving” your subconscious mind when giving
it instructions through autosuggestion, as I deceived my son’s
To make this “deceit” more realistic, conduct yourself just as
you would, if you were ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE
MATERIAL THING WHICH YOU ARE DEMANDING, when you call
upon your subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind will transmute into its physical
equivalent, by the most direct and practical media available, any
order which is given to it in a state of BELIEF, or FAITH that the
Surely, enough has been stated to give a starting point from
which one may, through experiment and practice, acquire the
ability to mix FAITH with any order given to the subconscious mind.
Perfection will come through practice. It cannot come by merely
If it be true that one may become a criminal by association
with crime, (and this is a known fact), it is equally true that one
may develop faith by voluntarily suggesting to the subconscious
mind that one has faith. The mind comes, finally, to take on the
nature of the influences which dominate it. Understand this truth,
54
and you will know why it is essential for you to encourage the
positive emotions as dominating forces of your mind, and discourage
— and eliminate negative emotions.
A mind dominated by positive emotions, becomes a favorable
abode for the state of mind known as faith. A mind so dominated
may, at will, give the subconscious mind instructions, which it will
accept and act upon immediately.
FAITH IS A STATE OF MIND WHICH MAY BE
INDUCED BY AUTO-SUGGESTION
All down the ages, the religionists have admonished struggling
humanity to “have faith” in this, that, and the other dogma or
creed, but they have failed to tell people HOW to have faith. They
have not stated that “faith is a state of mind, and that it may be
induced by self-suggestion.”
In language which any normal human being can understand,
we will describe all that is known about the principle through which
FAITH may be developed, where it does not already exist.
Have Faith in yourself; Faith in the Infinite.
Before we begin, you should be reminded again that:
FAITH is the “eternal elixir” which gives life, power, and action
to the impulse of thought!
The foregoing sentence is worth reading a second time, and a
third, and a fourth. It is worth reading aloud!
FAITH is the starting point of all accumulation of riches!
FAITH is the basis of all “miracles,” and all mysteries which
cannot be analyzed by the rules of science!
FAITH is the only known antidote for FAILURE!
FAITH is the element, the “chemical” which, when mixed with
prayer, gives one direct communication with Infinite Intelligence.
FAITH is the element which transforms the ordinary vibration
of thought, created by the finite mind of man, into the spiritual
FAITH is the only agency through which the cosmic force of
Infinite Intelligence can be harnessed and used by man.
EVERY ONE OF THE FOREGOING STATEMENTS IS CAPABLE
The proof is simple and easily demonstrated. It is wrapped up
in the principle of auto-suggestion. Let us center our attention,
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therefore, upon the subject of self-suggestion, and find out what it
is, and what it is capable of achieving.
It is a well known fact that one comes, finally, to BELIEVE
whatever one repeats to one’s self, whether the statement be true or
false. If a man repeats a lie over and over, he will eventually accept
the lie as truth. Moreover, he will BELIEVE it to be the truth. Every
man is what he is, because of the DOMINATING THOUGHTS which
he permits to occupy his mind. Thoughts which a man deliberately
places in his own mind, and encourages with sympathy, and with
which he mixes any one or more of the emotions, constitute the
motivating forces, which direct and control his every movement, act,
Comes, now, a very significant statement of truth:
THOUGHTS WHICH ARE MIXED WITH ANY OF THE
FEELINGS OF EMOTIONS, CONSTITUTE A “MAGNETIC” FORCE
WHICH ATTRACTS, FROM THE VIBRATIONS OF THE ETHER,
OTHER SIMILAR, OR RELATED THOUGHTS. A thought thus
“magnetized” with emotion may be compared to a seed which, when
planted in fertile soil, germinates, grows, and multiplies itself over
and over again, until that which was originally one small seed, be-
comes countless millions of seeds of the SAME BRAND!
The ether is a great cosmic mass of eternal forces of vibration.
It is made up of both destructive vibrations and constructive
vibrations. It carries, at all times, vibrations of fear, poverty,
disease, failure, misery; and vibrations of prosperity, health,
success, and happiness, just as surely as it carries the sound of
hundreds of orchestrations of music, and hundreds of human
voices, all of which maintain their own individuality, and means of
identification, through the medium of radio.
From the great storehouse of the ether, the human mind is
constantly attracting vibrations which harmonize with that which
DOMINATES the human mind. Any thought, idea, plan, or purpose
which one holds in one’s mind attracts, from the vibrations of the
ether, a host of its relatives, adds these “relatives” to its own force,
and grows until it becomes the dominating, MOTIVATING MASTER
of the individual in whose mind it has been housed.
Now, let us go back to the starting point, and become informed
as to how the original seed of an idea, plan, or purpose may be
planted in the mind. The information is easily conveyed: any idea,
plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of
56
thought. This is why you are asked to write out a statement of your
major purpose, or Definite Chief Aim, commit it to memory, and
repeat it, in audible words, day after day, until these vibrations of
sound have reached your subconscious mind.
We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought
which we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily
Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate
environment, and to build your own life to ORDER. Taking
inventory of mental assets and liabilities, you will discover that your
greatest weakness is lack of self-confidence. This handicap can be
surmounted, and timidity translated into courage, through the aid
of the principle of autosuggestion. The application of this principle
may be made through a simple arrangement of positive thought
impulses stated in writing, memorized, and repeated, until they
become a part of the working equipment of the subconscious
SELF-CONFIDENCE FORMULA
First. I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of
my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself
persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here
and now promise to render such action.
Second. I realize the dominating thoughts of my mind will
eventually reproduce themselves in outward, physical action,
and gradually transform themselves into physical reality, there-
fore, I will concentrate my thoughts for thirty minutes daily,
upon the task of thinking of the person I intend to become,
thereby creating in my mind a clear mental picture of that
Third. I know through the principle of auto-suggestion, any
desire that I persistently hold in my mind will eventually seek
expression through some practical means of attaining the object
back of it, therefore, I will devote ten minutes daily to
demanding of myself the development of SELF-CONFIDENCE.
Fourth. I have clearly written down a description of my
57
DEFINITE CHIEF AIM in life, and I will never stop trying, until I
shall have developed sufficient self-confidence for its attainment.
Fifth. I fully realize that no wealth or position can long
endure, unless built upon truth and justice, therefore, I will
engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it
affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to
use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to
serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will
eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by
developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative
attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause
others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in
I will sign my name to this formula, commit it to memory,
and repeat it aloud once a day, with full FAITH that it will
gradually influence my THOUGHTS and ACTIONS so that I will
become a self-reliant, and successful person.
Back of this formula is a law of Nature which no man has yet
been able to explain. It has baffled the scientists of all ages. The
psychologists have named this law “auto-suggestion,” and let it go
The name by which one calls this law is of little importance.
The important fact about it is—it WORKS for the glory and success
of mankind, IF it is used constructively. On the other hand, if used
destructively, it will destroy just as readily. In this statement may
be found a very significant truth, namely; that those who go down
in defeat, and end their lives in poverty, misery, and distress, do so
because of negative application of the principle of auto-suggestion.
The cause may be found in the fact that ALL IMPULSES OF
THOUGHT HAVE A TENDENCY TO CLOTHE THEMSELVES IN
THEIR PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT.
The subconscious mind, (the chemical laboratory in which all
thought impulses are combined, and made ready for translation
into physical reality), makes no distinction between constructive
and destructive thought impulses. It works with the material we
feed it, through our thought impulses. The subconscious mind will
translate into reality a thought driven by FEAR just as readily as it
will translate into reality a thought driven by COURAGE, or FAITH.
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The pages of medical history are rich with illustrations of
cases of “suggestive suicide.” A man may commit suicide through
negative suggestion, just as effectively as by any other means. In a
midwestern city, a man by the name of Joseph Grant, a bank
official, “borrowed” a large sum of the bank’s money, without the
consent of the directors. He lost the money through gambling. One
afternoon, the Bank Examiner came and began to check the
accounts. Grant left the bank, took a room in a local hotel, and
when they found him, three days later, he was lying in bed, wailing
and moaning, repeating over and over these words, “My God, this
will kill me! I cannot stand the disgrace.” In a short time he was
dead. The doctors pronounced the case one of “mental suicide.”
Just as electricity will turn the wheels of industry, and render
useful service if used constructively; or snuff out life if wrongly
used, so will the law of auto-suggestion lead you to peace and
prosperity. or down into the valley of misery, failure, and death,
according to your degree of understanding and application of it.
If you fill your mind with FEAR, doubt and unbelief in your
ability to connect with, and use the forces of Infinite Intelligence,
the law of auto—suggestion will take this spirit of unbelief and use
it as a pattern by which your subconscious mind will translate it
into its physical equivalent.
THIS STATEMENT IS AS TRUE AS THE STATEMENT THAT
TWO AND TWO ARE FOUR!
Like the wind which carries one ship East, and another West,
the law of auto-suggestion will lift you up or pull you down,
according to the way you set your sails of THOUGHT.
The law of auto-suggestion, through which any person may
rise to altitudes of achievement which stagger the imagination, is
well described in the following verse:
“If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.
“If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will—
It’s all in the state of mind.
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“If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
“Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”
Observe the words which have been emphasized, and you will
catch the deep meaning which the poet had in mind.
Somewhere in your make-up (perhaps in the cells of your
brain) there lies sleeping, the seed of achievement which, if aroused
and put into action, would carry you to heights, such as you may
never have hoped to attain.
Just as a master musician may cause the most beautiful
strains of music to pour forth from the strings of a violin, so may
you arouse the genius which lies asleep in your brain, and cause it
to drive you upward to whatever goal you may wish to achieve.
Abraham Lincoln was a failure at everything he tried, until he
was well past the age of forty. He was a Mr. Nobody from Nowhere,
until a great experience came into his life, aroused the sleeping
genius within his heart and brain, and gave the world one of its
really great men. That “experience” was mixed with the emotions of
sorrow and LOVE. It came to him through Anne Rutledge, the only
woman whom he ever truly loved.
It is a known fact that the emotion of LOVE is closely akin to
the state of mind known as FAITH, and this for the reason that Love
comes very near to translating one’s thought impulses into their
spiritual equivalent. During his work of research, the author
discovered, from the analysis of the life-work and achievements of
hundreds of men of outstanding accomplishment, that there was
the influence of a woman’s love back of nearly EVERY ONE OF
THEM. The emotion of love, in the human heart and brain, creates
a favorable field of magnetic attraction, which causes an influx of
the higher and finer vibrations which are afloat in the ether.
If you wish evidence of the power of FAITH, study the
achievements of men and women who have employed it. At the head
60
of the list comes the Nazarene. Christianity is the greatest single
force which influences the minds of men. The basis of Christianity
is FAITH, no matter how many people may have perverted, or
misinterpreted the meaning of this great force, and no matter how
many dogmas and creeds have been created in its name, which do
The sum and substance of the teachings and the
achievements of Christ, which may have been interpreted as
“miracles,” were nothing more nor less than FAITH. If there are any
such phenomena as “miracles” they are produced only through the
state of mind known as FAITH! Some teachers of religion, and many
who call themselves Christians, neither understand nor practice
Let us consider the power of FAITH, as it is now being
demonstrated, by a man who is well known to all of civilization,
Mahatma Gandhi, of India. In this man the world has one of the
most astounding examples known to civilization, of the possibilities
of FAITH. Gandhi wields more potential power than any man living
at this time, and this, despite the fact that he has none of the ortho-
dox tools of power, such as money, battle ships, soldiers, and
materials of warfare. Gandhi has no money, he has no home, he
does not own a suit of clothes, but HE DOES HAVE POWER. How
does he come by that power?
HE CREATED IT OUT OF HIS UNDERSTANDING OF THE
PRINCIPLE OF FAITH, AND THROUGH HIS ABILITY TO TRANS-
PLANT THAT FAITH INTO THE MINDS OF TWO HUNDRED
Gandhi has accomplished, through the influence of FAITH,
that which the strongest military power on earth could not, and
never will accomplish through soldiers and military equipment. He
has accomplished the astounding feat of INFLUENCING two
hundred million minds to COALESCE AND MOVE IN UNISON, AS A
What other force on earth, except FAITH could do as much?
There will come a day when employees as well as employers
will discover the possibilities of FAITH. That day is dawning. The
whole world has had ample opportunity, during the recent business
depression, to witness what the LACK OF FAITH will do to business.
Surely, civilization has produced a sufficient number of
intelligent human beings to make use of this great lesson which the
61
depression has taught the world. During this depression, the world
had evidence in abundance that widespread FEAR will paralyze the
wheels of industry and business. Out of this experience will arise
leaders in business and industry who will profit by the example
which Gandhi has set for the world, and they will apply to business
the same tactics which he has used in building the greatest
following known in the history of the world. These leaders will come
from the rank and file of the unknown men, who now labor in the
steel plants, the coal mines, the automobile factories, and in the
small towns and cities of America.
Business is due for a reform, make no mistake about this! The
methods of the past, based upon economic combinations of FORCE
and FEAR, will be supplanted by the better principles of FAITH and
cooperation. Men who labor will receive more than daily wages; they
will receive dividends from the business, the same as those who
supply the capital for business; but, first they must GIVE MORE TO
THEIR EMPLOYERS, and stop this bickering and bargaining by
force, at the expense of the public. They must earn the right to
Moreover, and this is the most important thing of all—THEY
WILL BE LED BY LEADERS WHO WILL UNDERSTAND AND APPLY
THE PRINCIPLES EMPLOYED BY MAHATMA GANDHI. Only in this
way may leaders get from their followers the spirit of FULL
cooperation which constitutes power in its highest and most
This stupendous machine age in which we live, and from
which we are just emerging, has taken the soul out of men. Its
leaders have driven men as though they were pieces of cold
machinery; they were forced to do so by the employees who have
bargained, at the expense of all concerned, to get and not to give.
The watchword of the future will be HUMAN HAPPINESS AND
CONTENTMENT, and when this state of mind shall have been
attained, the production will take care of itself, more effectively than
anything that has ever been accomplished where men did not, and
could not mix FAITH and individual interest with their labor.
Because of the need for faith and cooperation in operating
business and industry, it will be both interesting and profitable to
analyze an event which provides an excellent understanding of the
method by which industrialists and business men accumulate great
fortunes, by giving before they try to get.
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The event chosen for this illustration dates back to 1900,
when the United States Steel Corporation was being formed. As you
read the story, keep in mind these fundamental facts and you will
understand how IDEAS have been converted into huge fortunes.
First, the huge United States Steel Corporation was born in
the mind of Charles M. Schwab, in the form of an IDEA he created
through his IMAGINATION! Second, he mixed FAITH with his IDEA.
Third, he formulated a PLAN for the transformation of his IDEA into
physical and financial reality. Fourth, he put his plan into action
with his famous speech at the University Club. Fifth, he applied,
and followed-through on his PLAN with PERSISTENCE, and backed
it with firm DECISION until it had been fully carried out. Sixth, he
prepared the way for success by a BURNING DESIRE for success.
If you are one of those who have often wondered how great
fortunes are accumulated, this story of the creation of the United
States Steel Corporation will be enlightening. If you have any doubt
that men can THINK AND GROW RICH, this story should dispel
that doubt, because you can plainly see in the story of the United
States Steel, the application of a major portion of the thirteen prin-
ciples described in this book.
This astounding description of the power of an IDEA was
dramatically told by John Lowell, in the New York World-Telegram,
with whose courtesy it is here reprinted.
“A PRETTY AFTER-DINNER SPEECH FOR A
BILLION DOLLARS
“When, on the evening of December 12, 1900, some eighty of
the nation’s financial nobility gathered in the banquet hail of the
University Club on Fifth Avenue to do honor to a young man from
out of the West, not half a dozen of the guests realized they were to
witness the most significant episode in American industrial history.
“J. Edward Simmons and Charles Stewart Smith, their hearts
full of gratitude for the lavish hospitality bestowed on them by
Charles M. Schwab during a recent visit to Pittsburgh, had
arranged the dinner to introduce the thirty-eight-year-old steel man
to eastern banking society. But they didn’t expect him to stampede
the convention. They warned him, in fact, that the bosoms within
New York’s stuffed shirts would not be responsive to oratory, and
that, if he didn’t want to bore the Stilhnans and Harrimans and
63
Vanderbilts, he had better limit himself to fifteen or twenty minutes
of polite vaporings and let it go at that.
“Even John Pierpont Morgan, sitting on the right hand of
Schwab as became his imperial dignity, intended to grace the
banquet table with his presence only briefly. And so far as the press
and public were concerned, the whole affair was of so little moment
that no mention of it found its way into print the next day.
“So the two hosts and their distinguished guests ate their way
through the usual seven or eight courses. There was little
conversation and what there was of it was restrained. Few of the
bankers and brokers had met Schwab, whose career had flowered
along the banks of the Monongahela, and none knew him well. But
before the evening was over, they—and with them Money Master
Morgan — were to be swept off their feet, and a billion dollar baby,
the United States Steel Corporation, was to be conceived.
“It is perhaps unfortunate, for the sake of history, that no
record of Charlie Schwab’s speech at the dinner ever was made. He
repeated some parts of it at a later date during a similar meeting of
Chicago bankers. And still later, when the Government brought suit
to dissolve the Steel Trust, he gave his own version, from the
witness stand, of the remarks that stimulated Morgan into a frenzy
“It is probable, however, that it was a ‘homely’ speech,
somewhat ungrammatical (for the niceties of language never
bothered Schwab), full of epigram and threaded with wit. But aside
from that it had a galvanic force and effect upon the five billions of
estimated capital that was represented by the diners. After it was
over and the gathering was still under its spell, although Schwab
had talked for ninety minutes, Morgan led the orator to a recessed
window where, dangling their legs from the high, uncomfortable
seat, they talked for an hour more.
“The magic of the Schwab personality had been turned on, full
force, but what was more important and lasting was the full-
fledged, clear-cut program he laid down for the aggrandizement of
Steel. Many other men had tried to interest Morgan in slapping
together a steel trust after the pattern of the biscuit, wire and hoop,
sugar, rubber, whisky, oil or chewing gum combinations. John W.
Gates, the gambler, had urged it, but Morgan distrusted him. The
Moore boys, Bill and Jim, Chicago stock jobbers who had glued
together a match trust and a cracker corporation, had urged it and
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failed. Elbert H. Gary, the sanctimonious country lawyer, wanted to
foster it, but he wasn’t big enough to be impressive. Until Schwab’s
eloquence took J. P. Morgan to the heights from which he could
visualize the solid results of the most daring financial undertaking
ever conceived, the project was regarded as a delirious dream of
“The financial magnetism that began, a generation ago, to
attract thousands of small and sometimes inefficiently managed
companies into large and competition-crushing combinations, had
become operative in the steel world through the devices of that
jovial business pirate, John W. Gates. Gates already had formed the
American Steel and Wire Company out of a chain of small concerns,
and together with Morgan had created the Federal Steel Company.
The National Tube and American Bridge companies were two more
Morgan concerns, and the Moore Brothers had forsaken the match
and cookie business to form the ‘American’ group— Tin Plate, Steel
Hoop, Sheet Steel—and the National Steel Company.
“But by the side of Andrew Carnegie’s gigantic vertical trust, a
trust owned and operated by fifty-three partners, those other
combinations were picayune. They might combine to their heart’s
content but the whole lot of them couldn’t make a dent in the
Carnegie organization, and Morgan knew it.
“The eccentric old Scot knew it, too. From the magnificent
heights of Skibo Castle he had viewed, first with amusement and
then with resentment, the attempts of Morgan’s smaller companies
to cut into his business. When the attempts became too bold,
Carnegie’s temper was translated into anger and retaliation. He
decided to duplicate every mill owned by his rivals. Hitherto, he
hadn’t been interested in wire, pipe, hoops, or sheet. Instead, he
was content to sell such companies the raw steel and let them work
it into whatever shape they wanted. Now, with Schwab as his chief
and able lieutenant, he planned to drive his enemies to the wall.
“So it was that in the speech of Charles M. Schwab, Morgan
saw the answer to his problem of combination. A trust without
Carnegie-giant of them all—would be no trust at all, a plum
pudding, as one writer said, without the plums.
“Schwab’s speech on the night of December 12, 1900,
undoubtedly carried the inference, though not the pledge, that the
vast Carnegie enterprise could be brought under the Morgan tent.
He talked of the world future for steel, of reorganization for
65
efficiency, of specialization, of the scrapping of unsuccessful mills
and concentration of effort on the flourishing properties, of
economies in the ore traffic, of economies in overhead and
administrative departments, of capturing foreign markets.
“More than that, he told the buccaneers among them wherein
lay the errors of their customary piracy. Their purposes, he inferred,
bad been to create monopolies, raise prices, and pay themselves fat
dividends out of privilege. Schwab condemned the system in his
heartiest manner. The shortsightedness of such a policy, he told his
hearers, lay in the fact that it restricted the market in an era when
everything cried for expansion. By cheapening the cost of steel, he
argued, an ever-expanding market would be created; more uses for
steel would be devised, and a goodly portion of the world trade
could be captured. Actually, though he did not know it, Schwab
was an apostle of modern mass production.
“So the dinner at the University Club came to an end. Morgan
went home, to think about Schwab’s rosy predictions. Schwab went
back to Pittsburgh to run the steel business for ‘Wee Andra
Carnegie,’ while Gary and the rest went back to their stock tickers,
to fiddle around in anticipation of the next move.
“It was not long coming. It took Morgan about one week to
digest the feast of reason Schwab had placed before him. When he
had assured himself that no financial indigestion was to result, he
sent for Schwab-and found that young man rather coy. Mr.
Carnegie, Schwab indicated, might not like it if he found his trusted
company president had been flirting with the Emperor of Wall
Street, the Street upon which Carnegie was resolved never to tread.
Then it was suggested by John W. Gates the go-between, that if
Schwab ‘happened’ to be in the Bellevue Hotel in Philadelphia, J. P.
Morgan might also ‘happen’ to be there. When Schwab arrived,
however, Morgan was inconveniently ill at his New York home, and
so, on the elder man’s pressing invitation, Schwab went to New
York and presented himself at the door of the financier’s library.
“Now certain economic historians have professed the belief
that from the beginning to the end of the drama, the stage was set
by Andrew Carnegie—that the dinner to Schwab, the famous
speech, the Sunday night conference between Schwab and the
Money King, were events arranged by the canny Scot. The truth is
exactly the opposite. When Schwab was called in to consummate
the deal, he didn’t even know whether ‘the little boss,’ as Andrew
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was called, would so much as listen to an offer to sell, particularly
to a group of men whom Andrew regarded as being endowed with
something less than holiness. But Schwab did take into the
conference with him, in his own handwriting, six sheets of copper-
plate figures, representing to his mind the physical worth and the
potential earning capacity of every steel company he regarded as an
essential star in the new metal firmament.
“Four men pondered over these figures all night. The chief, of
course, was Morgan, steadfast in his belief in the Divine Right of
Money. With him was his aristocratic partner, Robert Bacon, a
scholar and a gentleman. The third was John W. Gates whom
Morgan scorned as a gambler and used as a tool. The fourth was
Schwab, who knew more about the processes of making and selling
steel than any whole group of men then living. Throughout that
conference, the Pittsburgher’s figures were never questioned. If he
said a company was worth so much, then it was worth that much
and no more. He was insistent, too, upon including in the com-
bination only those concerns he nominated. He had conceived a
corporation in which there would be no duplication, not even to
satisfy the greed of friends who wanted to unload their companies
upon the broad Morgan shoulders. Thus he left out, by design, a
number of the larger concerns upon which the Walruses and
Carpenters of Wall Street had cast hungry eyes.
“When dawn came, Morgan rose and straightened his back.
Only one question remained.
“‘Do you think you can persuade Andrew Carnegie to sell?’ he
“‘I can try,’ said Schwab.
“‘If you can get him to sell, I will undertake the matter,’ said
“So far so good. But would Carnegie sell? How much would he
demand? (Schwab thought about $320,000,000). What would he
take payment in? Common or preferred stocks? Bonds? Cash? No-
body could raise a third of a billion dollars in cash.
“There was a golf game in January on the frost-cracking heath
of the St. Andrews links in Westchester, with Andrew bundled up in
sweaters against the cold, and Charlie talking volubly, as usual, to
keep his spirits up. But no word of business was mentioned until
the pair sat down in the cozy warmth of the Carnegie cottage hard
by. Then, with the same persuasiveness that had hypnotized eighty
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millionaires at the University Club, Schwab poured out the
glittering promises of retirement in comfort, of untold millions to
satisfy the old man’s social caprices. Carnegie capitulated, wrote a
figure on a slip of paper, handed it to Schwab and said, ‘all right,
“The figure was approximately $400,000,000, and was reached
by taking the $320,000,000 mentioned by Schwab as a basic figure,
and adding to it $80,000,000 to represent the increased capital
value over the previous two years.
“Later, on the deck of a trans-Atlantic liner, the Scotsman said
ruefully to Morgan, ‘I wish I had asked you for $100,000,000 more.’
“‘If you had asked for it, you’d have gotten it,’ Morgan told him
* * * * * * *
“There was an uproar, of course. A British correspondent
cabled that the foreign steel world was ‘appalled’ by the gigantic
combination. President Hadley, of Yale, declared that unless trusts
were regulated the country might expect ‘an emperor in Washington
within the next twenty-five years.’ But that able stock manipulator,
Keene, went at his work of shoving the new stock at the public so
vigorously that all the excess water—estimated by some at nearly
$600,000,000—was absorbed in a twinkling. So Carnegie had his
millions, and the Morgan syndicate had $62,000,000 for all its
‘trouble,’ and all the ‘boys,’ from Gates to Gary, had their millions.
* * * * * * *
“The thirty-eight-year-old Schwab had his reward. He was
made president of the new corporation and remained in control
The dramatic story of “Big Business” which you have just
finished, was included in this book, because it is a perfect
illustration of the method by which DESIRE CAN BE TRANSMUTED
INTO ITS PHYSICAL EQUIVALENT!
I imagine some readers will question the statement that a
mere, intangible DESIRE can be converted into its physical
equivalent. Doubtless some will say, “You cannot convert NOTHING
into SOMETHING!” The answer is in the story of United States
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That giant organization was created in the mind of one man.
The plan by which the organization was provided with the steel
mills that gave it financial stability was created in the mind of the
same man. His FAITH, his DESIRE, his IMAGINATION, his
PERSISTENCE were the real ingredients that went into United
States Steel. The steel mills and mechanical equipment acquired by
the corporation, AFTER IT HAD BEEN BROUGHT INTO LEGAL
EXISTENCE, were incidental, but careful analysis will disclose the
fact that the appraised value of the properties acquired by the
corporation increased in value by an estimated SIX HUNDRED
MILLION DOLLARS, by the mere transaction which consolidated
them under one management.
In other words, Charles M. Schwab’s IDEA, plus the FAITH
with which he conveyed it to the minds of J. P. Morgan and the
others, was marketed for a profit of approximately $600,000,000.
Not an insignificant sum for a single IDEA!
What happened to some of the men who took their share of the
millions of dollars of profit made by this transaction, is a matter
with which we are not now concerned. The important feature of the
astounding achievement is that it serves as unquestionable
evidence of the soundness of the philosophy described in this book,
because this philosophy was the warp and the woof of the entire
transaction. Moreover, the practicability of the philosophy has been
established by the fact that the United States Steel Corporation
prospered, and became one of the richest and most powerful
corporations in America, employing thousands of people, developing
new uses for steel, and opening new markets; thus proving that the
$600,000,000 in profit which the Schwab IDEA produced was
RICHES begin in the form of THOUGHT!
The amount is limited only by the person in whose mind the
THOUGHT is put into motion. FAITH removes limitations!
Remember this when you are ready to bargain with Life for
whatever it is that you ask as your price for having passed this way.
Remember, also, that the man who created the United States
Steel Corporation was practically unknown at the time. He was
merely Andrew Carnegie’s “Man Friday” until he gave birth to his
famous IDEA. After that he quickly rose to a position of power,
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THERE ARE NO LIMITATIONS
TO THE MIND EXCEPT THOSE
WE ACKNOWLEDGE
BOTH POVERTY AND RICHES ARE THE
OFFSPRING OF THOUGHT
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