The Corporation did not go into the manufacture of munitions directly. It supplied the raw material for them to other manufacturers, and it did turn out a large number of shell forging, mortars, and later, gun forgings. From August 1, 1914, to April 1, 1917, or just before this country allied herself with the European enemies of Germanism, the Corporation supplied a total of 6,057,640 tons of steel intended for the manufacture of munitions of one kind or another. Part of this went to manufacturers here who were making shells, but most of it was sent directly abroad.
As soon as the United States became herself engaged in the great conflict the authorities at Washington, realizing that steel supply was of paramount importance, requested Judge Gary, in his capacity of president of the American Iron & Steel Institute, to form a committee to mobilize the iron and steel industry of the country on a war footing and to take general charge of the supply of the metal. This Judge Gary did with the hearty coöperation of other steel manufacturers. Practically the entire steel production of the country was put unreservedly at the disposition of the Government and no effort was spared to secure and maintain maximum production.
And here it might not be out of place to remark that the situation as it then existed presented the peculiar spectacle of a government depending to a large extent upon the loyalty and coöperation of a business organization, and availing itself of the use of its resources, financial and other, while this very government was attempting in the courts to destroy this same corporation. We also saw the Government’s attorneys demanding that the Court which had to make the final decision in the matter put the proceedings over until after the war. In a sense the Government did not dare go ahead with the case as, had the Court granted its petition and ordered the Corporation dissolved, the result would have been a disaster greater than the loss of a battle to the Allied arms.
The Government, it has been suggested, availed itself of the strength and resources of the Steel Corporation. Two instances of this will illustrate how. Tin plate, the steel product used to make cans for food and other perishable goods, needs in its manufacture a large supply of pig tin and of palm oil, neither of which products is obtainable in the home markets. Tin plate was declared a war essential and supervision of its output taken over by the Government which found itself promptly faced with the necessity of securing a steady supply of both pig tin and oil. But the difficulty was met by putting the matter in the hands of the Corporation which, subject to arrangements with the British Government which controlled the output of these two products, took full charge of importations, arranged a steady supply, and financed the operations out of its own exchequer, distributing the oil and tin to other manufacturers at actual cost.
And then there was Neville Island.
After the United States entered the war the Corporation’s output of war steel increased enormously. From April 1, 1917, to the end of December of the following year it had exported to the Allies 7,292,950 tons of steel and supplied the United States Government and munition manufacturers here with 9,104,440 tons, making its total of war steel 16,397,390 tons.
So many and so varied were the Corporation’s activities in the war that only the briefest synopsis of them can be given here.
Of equal importance with steel, as a necessary adjunct to modern warfare, are the chemicals that go into the manufacture of trinitrotoluol and other explosives, gases, etc. And the Corporation’s contribution toward the winning of the war was no less important in this particular than was its output of steel products.
These explosive bases are derived from benzol and toluol, which in turn are derivatives of coal extracted in the manufacture of coke. And long before the war cloud had arisen the Corporation had been pioneering in the coke by-products industry. It had for years been building plants to convert into valuable chemicals the gases and oils formerly wasted in the manufacture of coke. And the work it did in these early years along these lines formed a foundation on which could be erected rapidly a great explosive industry.
Prior to the war, the big company had made no effort to produce benzol and the other bases for dyes and explosives. It had confined its activities, in respect to coke by-products, to saving surplus gas which was used for the operation of its own plants and to producing tar and ammonia sulphate. But with the plants already equipped for these purposes, it was a simple matter to make the necessary installations for the extraction of benzol and other light oils and the experience gained at those plants was of invaluable assistance in constructing and operating complete new equipment at others.