Business & Finance: Oysters, Junk, Perfume, Steel

Last week the vernal urge of U.S. citizens to get together and discuss their trade problems was manifest in scores of powwows up & down the land. In Washington the Oyster Growers & Dealers Association of North America puzzled over the decline in oyster eating: U.S. oyster consumption has dropped in 25 years from 230,000,000 lb. annually to 60,000,000 lb. In St. Louis members of the Associated Stock Exchanges heard the first public speech of Charles R. Gay, new president of the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Gay pleaded for a better understanding of his institution’s functions, promised co-operation with SEC. Illinois bankers gathered at Decatur to deplore the Administration’s Banking Bill, and New Jersey bankers met at Atlantic City to do the same thing. The Business & Professional Women’s Clubs of New York State were busy at Saratoga Springs. In Manhattan, where 1,000 conventions are held every year, the perfume and cosmetic industry met to found an all-embracing Toilet Goods Association. The National Association of Purchasing Agents harkened to inflation warnings, and the American Scrap Exporters Conference learned that only 10% to 15% of the iron & steel junk shipped abroad went indirectly into armaments. The New York Bond Club held its annual shindig at Sleepy Hollow, enlivened as usual by publication of the Bawl Street Journal, expert parody of the Wall Street Journal. Hailed by the National Board of Fire Underwriters as a sure sign of recovery was a sharp drop in the arson rate.* But the most important convention of the week was the 44th annual meeting of the American Iron & Steel Institute.

Two thousand strong, the steel executives assembled in Manhattan for a rousing rally against the New Deal. Only old Charles Michael Schwab, who draws $250,000 per year as Bethlehem Steel’s chairman, was confident “that everything will ultimately come out all right.” Few days prior, while testifying before the Board of Tax Appeals in Washington on the Mellon case, the cheery steelmaster admitted that his inevitable optimism was “intuitive,” “perhaps extreme.” But asked by a cynical counsel if it was not inspired by a simple desire for profits, Mr. Schwab replied: “Not in my case. It has always been my ambition to do something worthwhile, to head something great. I have no heirs, so whether I have a large fortune or not has made no difference to me.”

Not so mellow as Bethlehem’s aging chairman, the other convening steelmen were filled with fear and fight. President William A. Irvin of the U.S. Steel, which controls 40% of total U.S. capacity, grumbled about foreign competition in home markets. President Tom Mercer Girdler of Republic flayed the Wagner Labor Disputes Bill as “the outstanding legislative monkey-wrench which threatens to jam the wheels of recovery. . . . The one & only purpose behind it is to clamp the yoke of the closed shop upon free American citizens.”

But it remained for Bethlehem’s Eugene Grace, who also heads the Steel Institute, to cover the whole field of steel antagonism toward the New Deal. He lashed out at the Banking Bill, the Public Utility Bill, the Social Security Bill, the Guffey Coal Bill, the 30-hour-week Bill. “It is about time we had a little old-fashioned economy, that we encouraged efficiency and thrift,” cried the steelmaster who received a $1,600,000 bonus in 1929.

“Having done our part we naturally ask why a greater degree of recovery has not taken place. I believe the chief barrier to recovery is political. . . . Business is ready to go forward. It is being halted by undue emphasis on reform, unsound, biased and perhaps even unconstitutional legislative proposals, political maneuvering, unrestrained public expenditures, currency tinkering and increasing tax burdens.”

Mr. Grace on the stockholder: “The real forgotten man.”

Mr. Grace on social security: “The steel industry has taken a vital interest in providing for the economic security of its employes. . . . Now it is proposed that the Government shall invade this field. . . . ….Even though this were a proper function for the Federal Government, which I seriously question, the Government cannot, in the nature of things, administer these plans as effectively or as economically as private industry. . . . This country was built by our forefathers upon the cornerstone of economy and self-denial. Perhaps it is not too much to hope that the time will soon come when we will return to these first principles both in our public and private lives.”

Mr. Grace on labor: “We stand squarely for the open shop. . . . We believe our workers should be protected in their right to belong or not to belong to labor organizations as a matter of personal privilege. We believe it to be our duty to protect them in this right. Moreover, we believe that it is the duty of the Government to see that nothing is done to interfere with this, their constitutional liberty.”

Clearest definition of the steelmen’s attitude toward organized labor came from Arthur H. Young, U.S. Steel vice president in charge of industrial relations. Speaking before the American Management Association, he swore he would rather “go to jail or be convicted as a felon” than obey the provisions of the Wagner Bill. “I would never accept or submit to any formula for the conduct of human relationships in industry which is an unpalatable and unrighteous and unjust technique imposed on us by demagogs.”

For “outstanding and creative work in the field of industrial relations”—largely promotions of company unions—the American Management Association awarded Steelman Young a medal.

*In the South a building deliberately burned for the insurance is politely referred to as “sold to the Yankees.” Last week with incendiary fires on the decline, the Fire Underwriters were worried by a sudden increase in false alarms. Since 1933 false alarms have risen from 20% to 25% of all fire department calls in the U. S. In Manhattan the figure was 38%. *Last week U.S. Steel Corp. announced a $400,000,000 group insurance plan to be offered to its 220,000 employes. Handled by eight great life companies, it was believed to be the biggest group insurance plan ever written.