Business & Finance: Farrell Speaks

Since Judge Elbert H. Gary’s death (TIME, Aug. 22) no one until last week had spoken as he did for the U. S. Steel Corp. He would rarely, except for politic reasons, let anyone else stand as spokeman for the corporation. Then came a meeting of the board of directors and potent finance committee, and there was melancholy necessity for a presiding officer for each. The duty, in both cases, fell to the corporation’s president, practical Steelmaker James Augustine Farrell. His post-meeting statement, optimistic as most of Judge Gary’s had been, was: “. . . Improvement in steel business, an increase in volume and firmer prices.”

Commentators, who attempted to prognosticate Judge Gary’s successor, saw in last week’s event President Farrell as the chief executive officer of U. S. Steel Corp. Head of the directorate and the finance committee might be Myron Charles Taylor, lawyer (like Judge Gary), banker, member of both bodies.