Texas Comes of Age

In Daingerfield, Tex. (pop. 1,700) the townsfolk were as excited as if a 10,000-barrel gusher had just blown in. But this time the excitement was not over oil. It was over steel—the $24,000,000 Lone Star Steel Co. blast furnace and plant which the Government had built during the war, right next to Texas' vast iron-ore deposits. It was the first—and only—blast furnace in Texas. Texans thought then that their fondest industrial dream of a native steel industry would finally come true. But at war's end, Lone Star was closed. If Texas wanted a steel industry, Texans would have to take...