The annealed S35C carbon steel was tested under the four-step-in-stress bending program loading. The effect of the stress sequence on the fatigue lives was investigated with respect to the effects by the initial stress level and the magnitude of stress levels as a whole. The number of cycles in one program block was n0=3600 cycles. The results show:(1) The effects of the initial stress level and the stress sequence on the fatigue lives can not be seen, because the value of n0 in this experiment is very small compared with the total number of cycles to failure.(2) When the maximum stress σ4 is large and all the stresses are overstresses, the fatigue lives nearly coincide with Nth's which are calculated by the use of the linear damage law. When σ4 becomes small, the fatigue life Nf also becomes smaller than Nth, and Nf reaches the smallest value at certain stress level. When the all stresses except σ4 are understresses, the fatigue life Nf becomes equal to or larger than Nth.