In the gloom of the coal strike, and the smoke of Hoboken, N.J., U.S. Steel last week held its annual stockholders’ meeting. For the 200 who attended, such as sisters Mary & Carrie Cerf, who seldom miss a meeting, the news was bad. Chairman Irving S. Olds reported that Bis Steel’s production had dropped to 36% of capacity, from 95% a week before the strike started, and earnings had dropped with it. Nevertheless, he declared the usual $1 a share quarterly dividend, hoped that the “tremendous existing demand for steel products of all kinds” will eventually make Big Steel’s operations profitable. To take the bad taste of all this out of their mouths, stockholders then sat down to a buffet lunch with Chairman Olds and Big Steel’s President Ben Fairless.
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