Since the outbreak of the Great War, the United States has probably made more steel than all the rest of the world put together.

"The nation that makes the cheapest steel," says Mr.
Carnegie, "has the other nations at its feet." When some future Buckle analyzes the fundamental facts in the World War, he may possibly find that steel precipitated it and that steel determined its outcome.
Three circumstances contributed to the rise of this greatest of American industries: a new process for cheaply converting molten pig iron into steel, the discovery of enormous deposits of ore in several sections of the United States, and the entrance into the business of a hardy and adventurous group of manufacturers and business men.

Our steel industry is thus another triumph of American inventive skill, made possible by the richness of our mineral resources and the racial energy of our people.

An elementary scientific discovery introduced the great steel age.

Steel, of course, is merely iron which has been refined--freed from certain impurities, such as carbon, sulphur, and phosphorus.