Summit County Labor News

Newspaper Raises Questions for Steel

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one of the country's better
newspapers, did something last week that would be worthwhile
for other papers to note--it raised some questions about the steel
industry's profit-price tactics.

The steel industry is "discovering all kinds of reasons why
it should have a large price increase this year," the paper stated.

There may be some merit in some of the industry's claims "but
the public is not in a position to judge," it added.

The public cannot judge because "the public is getting only
one side of the story," the editorial continued. "Nobody is sub-
jecting the steel men to cross-examination. Nobody is presenting
the case against a price increase."

The industry says it must raise prices to attract capital so
it can expand. But the editorial asked: "How much difficulty
has the industry actually experienced in attracting capital? . . .
The industry has just undergone a great expansion, much of it
paid for by the government through tax allowances; why is not
the increased efficiency and profit-making power of this new
plant sufficient to finance the future expansion still needed?

If steel's present profits are inadequate, just what would be
adequate?

As for profits, here is a quick reminder that U. S. Steel's
net profit last year was $370,198,000, up 89.4% over 1954, and its
net profit for the first three months of this year alone was
$104,000,000! Also, Republic Steel's net profit of $25,041,392
for the first quarter of 1956 was an all-time record for the com-
pany!

The editorial made the point that the steel companies should
be made to justify their plans for higher prices. The only other
newspaper that has spoken, in a similar tone, to our knowledge,
is the Akron Beacon Journal.

Perhaps, if other papers raised similar questions, the steel
companies would be forced to explain exactly why, in the face of
all-time record profits, they should even be thinking about price
increases.