It would have been a losing enterprise for the Baltimore and Ohio, for I was sure it could buy its steel rails at a much cheaper rate than it could possibly make the small quantity needed for itself.

I visited Mr.Garrett to talk the matter over with him.

He was then much pleased with the foreign commerce and the lines of steamships which made Baltimore their port.
He drove me, accompanied by several of his staff, to the wharves where he was to decide about their extension, and as the foreign goods were being discharged from the steamship side and placed in the railway cars, he turned to me and said: "Mr.Carnegie, you can now begin to appreciate the magnitude of our vast system and understand why it is necessary that we should make everything for ourselves, even our steel rails.

We cannot depend upon private concerns to supply us with any of the principal articles we consume.

We shall be a world to ourselves." "Well," I said, "Mr.Garrett, it is all very grand, but really your 'vast system' does not overwhelm me.