Word: alcoa
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...three months, SPBoss W. Stuart Symington has barked threats of government-subsidized competition at the Aluminum Co. of America. Last week, his bite proved milder than his bark. He approved a five-year lease to Reynolds Metals Co., Alcoa's only competitor, of the government-owned Hurricane Creek and Jones Mill plants in Arkansas. But there were no provisions for any subsidy in the lease, the first negotiated by RFC for any government-owned aluminum plants...
...much more competition would Reynolds' big, bluff president Richard S. Reynolds give Alcoa? With Hurricane Creek, Reynolds now has a capacity of 1,755 million lbs. of alumina v. Alcoa's 2,100 million lbs. In production of virgin aluminum, Alcoa still outstrips Reynolds. But Reynolds has enough excess alumina capacity to make SPB feel that aluminum plants are no longer dependent on Alcoa...
Needed: 300 More. Magnesium, Alcoa's competitor for light-metal markets, was not far behind. Dow Chemical's white-haired president, Dr. Willard Herbert Dow, had a showcase of 23 magnesium items ready for the market. Among them...
Hollywood Pin-Up. In going after the big buyers, Alcoa was not neglecting little markets. Typical was the "Hollywood Pin-Up," an aluminum clothespin. Its inventors were two neighbors in Van Nuys, Calif., who got tired of hearing their wives grumble about ersatz clothespins. Alcoa helped them perfect the pin, licensed them to use its color process, "Alumilite," at a nominal royalty. Del E. Webb, contractor and co-owner of the New York Yankees, financed them. Last week, the Del E. Webb Products Co. was busy shipping out 80,000 pins a day, expects to use 2,500,000 pounds...
This help for small businessmen on the part of Alcoa and Dow Chemical was not all pure altruism. They were both uncomfortably aware of the $1 billion in U.S.-owned aluminum and magnesium plants, and, in particular, the talk of government subsidies to keep the aluminum plants competing with Alcoa. To Alcoa's mind this talk could best be silenced by creating a demand big enough to use all the metal the plants could turn out. It could turn the trick, if it could find a few hundred gadgets like its clothespin...