National Affairs: Alien Cement

When Publisher William Randolph Hearst was loudly thumping for his BUY AMERICAN movement six months ago, the City of New York became his first important disciple. The city government agreed to specify domestic steel in all its building contracts. Going a step farther, it forbade the use of imported cement in municipal construction. The Hearst Press trumpeted its triumph.

But when a few weeks later the city called for bids on 40,000 bags of cement, it found that domestic cement dealers had jumped their price 10¢ per bag. The bids were thrown out. new ones called for. Last week the Board of Estimate, disgusted with this result of BUY AMERICAN, and egged on by Attorney Samuel Untermyer who denounced the U. S. cement industry as a price-fixing trust, rescinded its ban on foreign cement.