New-York tribune., 1920-11-27
Price Slasl1ino
In Steel Begun;
Wages to Drop
Jones < Laughlin, Biggest
independents, Announce
Reductions and Others
Follow Action at Once
Break in Market Forecast
Figures Cut to 1919 Scale of
industrial Board; Await
L. 5. Steel Co. Policy
Special Dispatch TO This 7riburs

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 26.-The whole
complexion of the steel market was
changed here to-day and, incidentally
reduction of wages in the steel indus
try was forecast when the Jones &
Laughin Steel Company the largest
I independent concern in the country
announced reduction in the price OF
certain finished steel products, effec-
tive Immediately. The price reduction
brings the figures of certain classes OF
steel dowG TO what is known as rhs
industrial War Boards prices, cstab-
hshed March 21, 1918
The Jones & Laughlin company has
tor some time occupied a middle posi-
tlon in the selling price of steel. With
prices under those OF other leading in
dependents and but trife higher. on
the average, than those of the United
States Steel Corporation. it was freelv
predicted here to-day that every inde~
pendent steel concern in the country
Will follow their lead in price reduc-
tons. This was further indicated this
afternoon, when three of the largest
independents in the Youngstown dis
trlct, among them the Youngstown
Sheet and Tube Company, announced a
new level of prices for finished steel
conforming to that Of the Industrial
War Board schedules of March, 1919.
The new selling prices formulated
by the Jones & Laughlin Company are
as follows: Bars, $235; structural
shapes, $2.45, and plates, $265, base
Pittsburgh. With this announcement
1t was said that some adjustments Will
be made on wire product and cold
rolled steel, the latter a speciality for
which the Jones & Laughlin Company
has been famous in steel circles for
half a century.
Laughln for the new schedule of
prices was the claw of supply and de-
mand."
Probably the most significant feature
of the break in the market is the effect
it viii have on the labor situation in
the steel industry. While it was def
initely declared at the Jones & Laugh
lin Company's Offices here to- day and
among other independents that the
lowering of steel prices will have no
immediate effect on wages, information
CLEANED from those who are conversant
with the situation is that wages must
come down-and will come down within
the next thirty days--not only among
independents but in Steel Corporation
plants as we'll
at is inevitable that wages must
fall said leading steel maker here
to-day. "The new schedule Of prices
announced by the Jones & Laugnlin
Company will undoubtedly be quickly
followed by other independents. To
produce steel at the industrial boards
figures now means loss. And every
one knows the steel companies can not
and will not operate at loss.
1.-The delay in reducing wages is not
due to the fact that the steel companies
do NOT believe it an absolute necessity
if they are to produce steel at a profit,
but to the fact that they believe the
Steel Corporation, which took the lead
during the war in making frequent ad-
vances in wages, should now in justice
to the other concerns take the initiative
in lowering them to a fair basis
The fact is that nobody wants to be
the first to announce lowered wage
scale although it is generally known