Business: Fourth Round

Even though they felt more confident, most businessmen hesitated to make long-range commitments until they could see the U.S. wage pattern. Nobody would know that until the steel wage dispute was settled. For both Steel and Labor, the crucial fight was for public support, and that would be decided in the hearings before the President's three-man fact-finding board.

As the board's hearings began in Manhattan last week, Big Steel's Chairman Irving S. Olds found himself in something of a psychological box. The hearings opened just as U.S. Steel issued its mid-year earnings report to stockholders. Since profits were 76% above 1948's first...

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