For the world's biggest steelmaker, the blast furnaces never blazed higher. In the first three months of 1956, U.S. Steel Board Chairman Roger M. Blough reported sales of $1.1 billion, a record for any quarter, while earnings of $104 million, up $32 million, touched off a first-quarter peak. But with the expanding good times came an issue for hot debate in the industry: should steel prices be boosted in 1956? As far as Big Steel's Chairman Blough, whose company is the industry's traditional price-setter, was concerned, the answer was no. Though heavy wage demands by the...
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