No, Thanks!

STEEL No,Thanks!

Politely but firmly, U.S. Steel last week informed the Defense Plant Corp. that it would neither lease nor buy the Government-constructed $200 million Geneva steel works near Provo, Utah. Instead, Big Steel opened its campaign for the potentially lush Western market by earmarking $25 million for the expansion of its subsidiary, the Columbia Steel Co., of Pittsburg, California.

This unexpected turndown left the Defense Plant Corp. with only two prospective tenants for Geneva--the Colorado Fuel & Iron Corp. and a syndicate headed by Henry Kaiser, indefatigable champion of basic industry for the West. Neither has made a specific bid for Geneva.

In his letter of regret, U.S. Steel President Benjamin F. Fairless made it plain why Big Steel 'was abandoning the war baby it had built for the Government in 1941. Prime reason was a provision in the Surplus Property Act which provides that Government metals plants costing more than $5,000,000 may not be lease;! for more than five years, nor leased with an option to buy. A five-year lease was not good enough for U.S. Steel for two reasons: 1) Geneva is still an unsettled financial property--to make Geneva a postwar moneymaker will take about $70 million's worth of new-facilities; 2) U.S. Steel is wary of professional Westerners and Congressional anti-monopolists, who feel that the Corporation is already too big and too powerful.

Steelman Fairless then made a counteroffer. U.S. Steel would be more than happy, he said, to buy a "substantial amount" of hot rolled coils from the future operators of Geneva, whoever they might be. "Such an arrangement," said Fairless, "should contribute toward the successful operation of that plant."

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