Republic Iron and Steel Company

Former type	Public
Fate	Assets merged with LTV, subsequently acquired by International Steel Group (ISG), acquired again by Mittal Steel, now part of Arcelor Mittal
Founded	Youngstown, Ohio, 1899 by Cyrus Eaton
Defunct	1984
Headquarters	Cleveland, Ohio]]
Industry	Steel
Products	Steel

Republic Steel was once the third largest steel producer in the United States.

The Republic Iron and Steel Company was founded in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1899.

In 1927 Cyrus S. Eaton acquired and combined Republic with several other small steel companies, with the goal of becoming large enough to rival the United States Steel Corporation. The Great Depression made things difficult, but eventually the newly named Republic Steel Corporation became America's third largest steel company, trailing only U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, it acquired Bourne-Fuller Steel in the 1930s.[1]

Tom M. Girdler became the first board chairman. Eaton hired Girdler from Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp. where he had served as president. Girdler hired scientists and modernized Republic Steel with the introduction of better alloys introducing "Light Steel". During World War II while still chairman of Republic Steel, Mr. Girdler relocated to California to serve as CEO of Consolidated Aircraft, the nation's leading warplane manufacturer. When he left Consolidated following the war he took with him, Everett Dyer, Consoldiated's top B-24 test pilot to run Republic's aviation department.

Although relations improved after World War II, Republic Steel was known for its labor problems during the Depression. On Memorial Day, May 26, 1937, a strike escalated into a massacre,^[1] documented by the 1937 film Republic Steel Strike Riot Newsreel Footage. CEO Girdler never signed the labor contract.

Thomas Patton, a private attorney who worked on the merger that formed Republic Steel was hired in 1936 to form Republic's internal legal department. As general counsel in the 1930s and 1940's, he negotiated for Republic during the steel strikes. He went on to become president then chief executive and chairman.

Republic Steel was one of the last major steel firms to use low-phosphorus Adirondack magnetites, operating the Chateaugay Ore & Iron Company in Lyon Mountain, New York from 1939–1967. The Chateaugay mine was one of the deepest commercial iron ore mines in the United States, with stopes as much as 3,500 feet (1,050 m) below the surface.

Republic Steel remained prosperous until the 1970s, when rising foreign imports, labor costs, and other issues caused severe stress at Republic and throughout the American steel industry.

In 1984, Republic merged into the Jones and Laughlin Steel subsidiary of the LTV Corporation, with the new entity being known as LTV Steel.

In December 2001 LTV filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and a few months later International Steel Group purchased LTV.

Contents 1 Sports Sponsorship 2 See also 3 External references 4 References

[edit] Sports Sponsorship

• Republic Steel suggested to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1962 that the team use the steelmark logo as a helmet decal. (Republic co-owned the rights to the logo at the time.) The logo quickly became popular with Steeler fans, and due largely in part to that team's dominance in the 1970s, is now one of the most familiar logos in all of sports. Ironically, Republic Steel was still based in Cleveland during this time, which is the home to the Steelers arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns

[edit] See also

Memorial Day massacre of 1937

[edit] External references

• Western Reserve Historical Society history

[edit] References

1. ^ Memorial Day Massacre of 1937 at the Illinois Labor History Society