PRICE OF STEEL RAISED

Southland Times, Issue 23141, 6 March 1937, Page 7

PRICE OF STEEL RAISED

HIGHER WAGES IN U.S.A. LABOUR TROUBLES COSTLY TO NAVY (United i’ress Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received March 5, 11.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 5. Mr William Irvin, president of the United States Steel Corporation, announced advances ranging from three to eight dollars a ton in the prices or steel to meet the increasing costs of production, which include increases in wages and the rising cost of supplies of raw materials. The entire steel industry is expected to make similar increases immediately. The new prjees are slightly higher than those of 1926, which was the best normal year in the steel history. . Meanwhile, at Washington, the chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee (Mr Carl Vinson) alleged that the Secretary of Labour (Miss Frances Perkins) was responsible for the Navy s inability to .obtain copper and steel. In the course of a debate on the Naval Supply Bill (which involves an expenditure of 526,000,000 dollars) he said that Miss Perkins had refused a request by the Secretary of the Navy (Mr Claude A. Swanson, to grant exemption, which was discretionary under the Walsh-Healey Act, and he contended that she lacked the technical knowledge to enable her to decide Navy questions. The total appropriation for the Navy is 35,000,000 dollars less than the Budget estimates for construction because of the Navy’s failure to maintain its programme of construction. A significant Labour development is a conference of leaders of the Committee of Industrial Organization preparatory to a drive to organize the 1,250,000 textile workers in America, and perhap's workers in all kindred industries as well, which will be the third major offensive by the committee. LESS FEAR OF STRIKE ON COAST MEN WITHDRAW PICKETS (Received March 5, 11.20 p.m.) SAN FRANCISCO, March 5. The threat of further shipping strikes i has eased with the withdrawal of the sailors’ pickets and an announcement that the longshoremen would work the coastal vessel Rochelle today. This makes it unlikely that the owners will carry out their threat to close the waterfront.