Flyaway Bird

"A rare bird," Winston Churchill called him, "a past master of monopoly who has made an immense fortune by 'private greed,' and who, without in any way relinquishing it, has become a convinced Socialist." He was speaking of Steven Hardie, a brawny Scot who looks like a hard-boiled egg and is a steel-tough taskmaster with a canny eye for profits. Glasgow-born Steven Hardie parlayed his World War I separation pay into one of Britain's biggest industrial fortunes. His British Oxygen Co. monopolizes British industrial gas production; his Metal Industries Ltd. is Europe's biggest ship-breaking business. Hardie of Ballathie owns five large farms in Scotland, two ranches in Rhodesia, another in Australia. He became a Socialist in 1946; four years later, Clement Attlee picked him to run Britain's nationalized steel industry.

Last week, unable to get on with Churchill's Tory government and with his own superior, Minister of Supply Duncan Sandys, Steven Hardie resigned. He was the first major Socialist appointee to rebel against the Tories since the election. His resignation raised Tory-hopes that denationalization of steel, which was one of their campaign pledges, is not far off.

What prompted Hardie's resignation was a basic difference between his own orthodox Socialism and the Tories' belief in one of the orthodoxies of capitalism. Under the Labor government, British steel prices were artificially held down by government subsidies. Tories are determined to let steel prices rise toward their natural level. Hardie objected to the government's plan to make British steel consumers pay for urgently needed U.S. steel imports through higher steel prices. He wanted to protect the British steel users from higher U.S. prices--and from economic realities--by absorbing the cost of steel imports into the rearmament budget. The Tories said no.

Hardie made a farewell speech to a crowd of British newsmen. Its gist: "They can't sack me--I quit." A reporter asked when he would leave his $20,000-a-year job. "As soon as you gentlemen have gone," said gruff Steven Hardie, reaching for his hat.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.