Business: 70 For Steel

The late great Judge Elbert Henry Gary filled his position as chairman of United States Steel Corp. until Death came to him at the age of 81. To the last he discoursed heatedly on iron and steel, men and souls.

At the age of 77, James A. Campbell, chairman of Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., fought to merge his company with Bethlehem Steel

In Washington, Andrew William Mellon carries on as Secretary of the Treasury at the age of 76.

George Fisher Baker, 91, attends directors’ meetings, gives sage counsel to his First National Bank of New York.

Charles Michael Schwab is active as his 70th birthday draws near.

Apparently such indications of potency among old men do not impress Myron Charles Taylor, handsome and dignified chairman of United States Steel Corp.’s finance committee. Last week U. S. Steel stockholders met in Hoboken at the grey, concrete, boxlike building of Hudson Trust Co., occupying the same stockholders’-meeting room used by International Harvester, International Mercantile Marine and many another great industryincorporated under New Jersey’s convenient laws. The Steelmen ate a luncheon provided by the Lackawanna railroad, and ratified a plan submitted by Mr. Taylor providing for compulsory retirement of all Steel’s executives at a certain age. Chairman Taylor, a deeply religious man (like President Hoover he is a Quaker), chose as this age the Bible’s three-score years and ten. In addition, the plan allowed for voluntary retirement at 65. Stockholders also heard optimistic talk about improving business conditions, of a reasonably good year even at present Steel prices if a large volume of production could be maintained.

Chief executive to be affected by Mr. Taylor’s plan was President James Augustine Farrell, executive head of Steel since 1911. He will be 70 in 1933. Other Steel officers to be 70 that year include President Eugene Jackson Buffington of Illinois Steel Co., President Joshua Alexander Hatfield of American Bridge Co., President Ward B. Perley of Canadian Steel Corp. Ltd. Mr. Taylor will not be 70 until 1944.

Likeliest candidate to succeed President Farrell seemed to be I. Lament Hughes, president of Carnegie Steel, great U. S. Steel subsidiary. Two previous Carnegie presidents (Charles Michael Schwab and William Ellis Corley) succeeded to the U. S. Steel presidency. Furthermore, Mr. Hughes is only 53, would not have to retire until 1948. Tall (6 ft. plus), with thin brown hair, careful in dress and somewhat pompous in bearing, Mr. Hughes frequently walks the four miles between home and office, makes the trip in about an hour and five minutes. He considers his wife “51% of our private corporation.” A remarkable Hughes trait is an unbending and unbroken silence on the matter of his first given name. He is always I. Lamont; what the “I” indicates none will divulge. Mr. Hughes’s first Steel job (in 1897) was with Carnegie Steel. In addition to a long period of field work he has also served as vice president of U. S. Steel, is therefore equally at home in the mills or at No. 71 Broadway.

Krupp Patents. Last week President Farrell announced that U. S. Steel had become a licensee of the Fried. Krupp A. G. of Germany in the use of Krupp patents covering heat-resisting and corrosion-resisting steel. U. S. firms already licensed to make these high-alloy steels (commonly known as stainless steel) are Republic Steel Corp., Ludlum Steel Co. and Crucible Steel Co. of America. The process requires electric furnaces, which U. S. Steel—long committed to Bessemer and open hearths—has only recently installed. But last week’s announcement showed that U. S. Steel would no longer leave the stainless market to its smaller competitors, would become an active factor in the specialty field, probably at its Chicago (Illinois Steel Co.) plant. High cost has thus far prevented stainless steel from becoming an important element in structural use. In flat shapes, the stainless product costs 35 cents per Ib.; structural shapes in ordinary Steel sell for less than 2 cents per Ib.