Steel's Old Policy

An announcement by Judge Elbert H. Gary, Chairman of the U. S. Steel Corporation, that the company contemplates the expenditure of $15,000,000 in improvements recalls the familiar policy of the Corporation in "plowing in its profits." By just such methods during the past 20-odd years, the giant concern has built up its present enormous equities behind what was originally a half-billion of "watered" common stock, to say nothing of a large part of its preferred issue.

The expenditure of this latest $15,000,000 will affect the Homestead Works at Pittsburgh, and the tube plant and coke ovens at Gary, Ind. Concerning this latest improvement in the company's properties, Judge Gary remarks, as he usually does: "It is not a new departure to recommend expenditures that are large. If we did not make them, we could not maintain our proper place in the iron and steel trade."

The Judge's statement touches on another fundamental policy of the Steel Corporation: "As is well known, we intend always to keep strong in cash and cash resources, so as to be able to furnish iron and steel, up to the demands of our customers, of the best quality and at the lowest costs."