Evening star., 1954-05-24


hills into pig iron that was an
important item in the life of q
budding republic. The product
Of Mr.. Tarr's furnace is remem-
bered mostly, after 160-odd years,
because some Of it was converted
into the cannonballs which
turned back the British in the
Battle of Lake Erie.
Today the plate that rolls
from the griny mills Of the
Weirton Steel Co. here and
across the Ohio River in Steu-
benville. Ohio, is liable to show
up in anything from sardine
cans and venetian blinds to
Quonset hutS.
1880 Men Employed.
Weirton, major unit Of the
National Steel Corp, has 13,500
men in its bustling plants. It has
an annual payroll approximating
$67 million.
It took a long time TO- bridge
the gap between Peter Tarr and
Weirton Steel, but the transfor-
nation is typical of something
that has happened in countless
instances, in the industrial met
atnorphosis of this country.
Here, by the adoption of mod
ern methods of operation, in
ventive genius and foresight built
a powerful unit of the American
economy on the crumbling ruins
ofa makeshift venture. The re-
suit only accents the COMPARE
SON between two types of in
duStry in America. On the one
hand are all those industries
which have developed steadily
inIthe modern machine age, and
can compete with anybody any
where. On the other hand are
those which, by force of circum-
stances, still must stick to ways
Of their forefathers which can
be matched at foreign work
benches-and at much less cost
because of the big difference in
wages.
Area Offers Case in Point.
That is the main factor in
the endless argument over tariffs
which is stirring again on Capt.
tol Hill because of President
Eisenhower'S advocacy of liberal
foreign trade policies.
This section offers a case In
point. It also helps explain why
the President last week backed
OF. Of an effort to get his trade
program enacted this year.
Just to the north, the Ohio
Valley pottery industry Of Ohio
and West Virginia, which still Is
largely hand operation, is
fighting for existence against q
tide Of cheap Japanese imports
and demanding that the Gov
ernment do something about it.
Opposing the theory and prac-
tice of reciprocal trade is a mat.
ter, of life and death for that
nearby community.
One might suppose that Weir
ton would be equally hot on the
low-tariff side of the trade con-
troversy. But it isn't.
IA Per Cent Of Sales Foreign.
Weirton Steel does have q siz-
able stake in foreign trade.
About IA per cent of its gross
product goes abroad, not to men
tion basic ingredients of it's pro-
duction which it must buy over
seas. The company has a vast
foreign sales network. It is cagey
on the subject of trade volume
but that $67 million payroll
should mean that Weirton's
total business tops 5000 million
annually. If so, Weirton's for
eign business amounts to around
$50 million a year.
A nation which does not buy
from abroad has difficulty SELL
ing abroad. There is very little
tariff protection for steel itself
in the present law. It would
seem the people of Weirton have
everything to gain and nothing
to lose in pushing for freer
trade.
Perhaps so. The fact is, they
apparently couldn't care less.
The attitude Of Weirton is
that of many other "big-time"
operations which nominally sup
port lower tariffs in line with the
administration program. They
regard foreign trade as a nice
thing to have. But they are not