On the contrary, everybody else seemed to want to sell.

The stock was offered to us in alarming quantities--substantially all of the capital stock of the companies came without any solicitation on our part--quite the contrary--and we paid for it in cash.
We now found ourselves in control of a great amount of ore lands, from some of which the ore could be removed by a steam shovel for a few cents a ton, but we still faced a most imperfect and inadequate method of transporting the ore to market.
When we realized that events were shaping themselves so that to protect our investments we should be obliged to go into the business of selling in a large way, we felt that we must not stop short of doing the work as effectively as possible; and having already put in so much money, we bought all the ore land that we thought was good that was offered to us.

The railroad and the ships were only a means to an end.

The ore lands were the crux of the whole matter, and we believed that we could never have too many good mines.
It was a surprise to me that the great iron and steel manufacturers did not place what seemed to be an adequate value on these mines.

The lands which contained a good many of our best ore mines could have been purchased very cheaply before we became interested.