Independent Institute

"The labor question ... is the outstanding problem in today's industrial life" declared Bethlehem Steel's Eugene Grace in a farewell address to the members of the American Iron & Steel Institute in Manhattan last week. To the nation's steelmasters, gathered in record numbers against a backdrop of the biggest steel strike since 1919 (see p. 13); the outstanding and directly related question was Mr. Grace's successor as head of the Steel Institute. The settlement by which Myron Taylor had made his peace with John L. Lewis had split the industry as it had never been split before. Outmaneuvered by Mr. Taylor, outsmarted by Mr Lewis the big independent steelmakers were fired with a wrath born of isolation. Big Steel and the little fellows had later yielded recognition to the C.I. O. For the first time since the schism was opened ast spring when U.S. Steel's President William Adolf Irvin telephoned his competitors the incredible news, the two factions sat down in the same room.

Outwardly all was harmony. At no time was the steel strike officially mentioned But the choice of a new leader of the Institute soon narrowed down to Big Steel's Irvin as a representative of the new order and those two hard-bitten foes of organized labor, Republic Steel's Tom Mercer Girdler and National Steel's Ernest Tener Weir. For three hours the Institute s directors battled in a secret session frequently punctuated by heat-treated speeches from Mr. Grace. On emerging. the directors blandly announced the unanimous election of Steelman Girdler, whose Chicago plant was within a few hours to be steel's bloody ground for the week. One of the two vice-presidencies went to Mr. Irvin, the other to Mr. Weir, who later greeted the banqueting steelmen with a perfect Fascist salute. It was a sweet, though probably hollow, victory for the embattled independents, for it meant that the Institute still stood for a last-ditch fight for the Open Shop.

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