Word: steelmen
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...sharp prod. In his "State of the Union" message (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), he asked Congress for an "immediate study" to find out if existing steel capacity is adequate. If it is not, said the President, then the Government should lend industry the money to expand or, if steelmen balk at that, put up the plants itself...
Many an observer, like Michigan's Republican Senator Homer Ferguson, cried that this was another "step toward socialism." It was hardly that-yet. But it was a shrewd political move designed to scare steelmen into making more steel. It also put out the welcome mat for such companies as Dallas' Lone Star Steel Co. Lone Star got its start with a $25 million war-surplus blast furnace which it bought in 1947 for $7,500,000 (TIME, April 7, 1947). Last week Lone Star's President Eugene B. Germany called on Truman to discuss an RFC loan...
...obsolescent capacity almost as fast as it built new plants. Thus, in 1948, capacity was 1,271,000 tons less than in 1945. The capacity for 1949 (at 96,120,000 tons) was only 615,000 tons higher than at war's end. The truth was that U.S. steelmen did not trust prosperity. Said National Steel's Chairman Ernest T. Weir last week: "It is obvious that the huge immediate need for steel is abnormal...
Steel production of 88.5 million ingot tons, while it was about 4% above 1947, was still below 1944's record production. Although steelmen blamed the shortage on "abnormal demand," the fact was that steel capacity and production had not even kept pace with the normal growth of population. In 1948, capacity per capita was only slightly more than it had been in depression 1932; production per capita -.as below 1941. Those who talked of "abnormal demand of the boom" failed to take into account the fact that much of it would be normal demand from now on, not only...
...blanking" (cutting) steel, the other (a $13 million factory) for stamping out Fisher Bodies. G.M.'s official reason was that it needed a body assembly plant in the Pittsburgh area. But automakers thought there was another reason. They gossiped that G.M. had made a shrewd deal with Pittsburgh steelmen, who are worried that the decision on basing points (TIME, July 19) will make it hard for Pittsburgh to sell steel when the shortage is over. The steelmen reportedly had promised G.M. plenty of steel next year in return for the new G.M. plants, which would furnish a local market...