Impregnable Steel

Although quarterly reports last year showed the evident strength and prosperity of the U. S. Steel Corporation, it was not until last week when the company's annual statement appeared, that its tremendously strong present position was generally realized.

During 1923 Steel's gross business expended almost half a billion dollars to a total of $1,571,414,000. Net income was $128,176,519, compared with $58,840,801 the year before. After interest, charges and preferred dividends, $83,487,387 (or $16.42 a share) was available for dividends in the common stock, compared with $14,433,778 last year, when the payment of common dividends was made out of surplus. In 1923, compared with the deficit of $10,981,347 of the preceding year, an addition of $54,259,993 to surplus was thus made possible. But the striking feature of the report is after all in the balance sheet. The giant corporation on Dec. 31, 1923, had $143,499,628 in cash, $7,037,543 in time deposits, $64,086,486 in marketable securities and, plus other investments, a total of $346,226,742 of money in the bank or invested--almost enough to retire the $360,281,100 of preferred stock. Working capital at this latest date amounted to $570,841,548. Buttressing the current earning position of the Corporation are its sundry reserve funds of $163,260,622, its approximate surplus of $180,898,914, and its undivided surplus (including subsidiaries) of $512,751,220. Total assets are now $2,420,882,000, even under the Steel Corporation's notoriously conservative valuations. The steel industry may be an alternate feast or famine, but it would take a siege of unimaginable length to starve out U. S. Steel now.