of the board of America's first billion-dollar corporation, from the company's founding in 1901 until his death in August 1927. In November 1904, with a government suit looming, Gary approached President Roosevelt with a deal: cooperation in exchange for preferential treatment. U.S. Steel would open its books to the Bureau of Corporations; if the Bureau found evidence of wrongdoing, the company would be warned privately and given a chance to set matters right. Roosevelt accepted this "gentlemen's agreement" because it met his interest in accommodating the modern industrial order while maintaining his public image as slayer of the trusts. According to historian Thomas C. Cochran: Gary was one of the dozen best known businessman in the nation, and thus he serves as a striking example of a number of general trends. His career represents an early instance of the rise of the corporation lawyer to the top ranks of business – a pattern that was to be more and more encouraged by corporate complexity and government regulation....In the confusing world of the new corporation – of trusts, holding companies, leases, liens, and mergers – lawyers were necessary additions to boards of directors for only they could guide the bankers and industrialists through the dark areas of corporate finance....While Gary was unquestionably overly serious, pompous, and restricted in imagination, he tried to be a progressive business leader: giving the stockholders an unusual amount of information in annual reports; assuming responsibility for price leadership and orderly practices of competition; and sponsoring conservative technological progress. According to historian Stephen H. Cutcliffe: Gary faced several problems in organizing and running U.S. Steel. The huge enterprise remained a holding company with local management responsible for running individual plants. This arrangement led to tensions between the Gary-led board, which consisted primarily of bankers and lawyers, and the more traditional "competitive" steelmakers dominated by Carnegie’s men and Schwab in particular. Supported by Morgan, Gary consolidated his control of U.S. Steel during the next two years, becoming chair of the newly created board of directors in 1903....Gary also sought to close inefficient plants and, starting in 1906, to construct the world’s largest, fully-integrated steel plant on the shore of Lake Michigan in an area duly named Gary, Indiana. By 1911, the company had expended $78 million on the plant itself and the accompanying town. The steel industry traditionally had been characterized by destabilizing competition in the form of