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Show Sun Advocate Wednesday, January mr What's wrong with big steel? Through these 4A B, 19B3 portals PASSEP SOME tm IEAWIG STATESMEN OF THE IK HlSTORT... PETITIONERS C THE ART CF REASON AWV 7lLfBlRAT(vE BOPy Another big steel plant is going dark. Its fires will be darkened. Its whistles will fall silent. And they will board up the windows of bars and stores and homes on the grubby little streets of the company town. It is a picture familiar to many places in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Now it is going to happen to Lackawanna, N.Y., where Bethlehem Steel is closing down g on its plant permanently after 82 years of Lake Erie. More than 7,000 steelworkers are losing their jobs. Many have worked all their lives for Bethlehem. The town is losing its tax base. It has no other major industry. Our steel industry is operating at only 40 percent of capacity.. This has been one of the worst years for steel since the end of World War II. The industry is seeking protection from foreign imports. This country has all the resources for a thriving steel industry iron ore and coal in close proximity, a century-ol- d tradition, a huge market for steel. And yet observers believe the steel industry in this country will never recover g from its present predicament, and that capacity will suffer a drastic and permanent cutback. We need to understand well the reasons for the decline of our steel industry. The most important reason is the cost of labor. Hardened in bloody battles dating back to the disastrous Homestead steel strike in 1892, the United Steelworkers of America after World War II took ironfisted control of the labor supply for the steel industry. Even though big steel management was considered to be the toughest in American industry, it could not resist the unreasonable demands of the steelworkers. Labor costs escalated, until they now approach $30 an hour, counting all benefits. That is $1,000 a week, more than $50,000 a year. Management has failed to modernize its aging steel plants, perhaps in part because of discouragement with labor costs. Japan and Taiwan can ship iron ore and coal from Australia, make steel, ship the finished product to Los Angeles and sell it for $70 a ton less than what it costs Kaiser Steel to produce steel at its Fontana, Calif., plant. No wonder Kaiser is expected to shut Fontana down completely next year. g Environmental protection has raised costs in this country. We have cleaner air and cleaner water, but our steel industry has paid a high price for our gains in the battle against pollution. Can we afford to let our steel production sink? The Soviet Union has already overtaken us and now leads the world in steel production. If our capacity dwindles, will it be a threat to our national security? Probably not. We will retain the minimum capacity needed to build Warships, tanks and guns. We will continue to have dependable allies with large steel plants. The nature of modern war has changed, so that steel is no longer so important. There must be help for towns like Lackawanna and displaced workers like the Bethlehem 7,000. But we need to suffer the dislocations and make the adjustments necessary to meet the competition in the world market, not seek to withdraw from the world market. Let others produce our steel. We will produce their food, their jet planes, their computers, their bioengineering products, their high technology. IN THE WORLV... steel-makin- steel-makin- 1982 Cepley New Seroce jack anderson A solution to unemployment steel-makin- Machine of the year Time magazine is naming no Man of the Year for 1982 and instead is extending the honor to an anonymous computer. This is the first time the editors have deemed that a machine rather than a human being had the most impact on the course of events in the preceding year. Admirers of certain world leaders will be disappointed that their favorites were passed over, but it was not a year when powerful personalities made their influence felt. Indeed, we would prefer a computer to some of the choices in the past, such as the scowling Ayatollah Khomeini, who appeared on the Time cover at the end of 1979. We have never seen a computer scowl, or threaten his neighbor. The computers we know are very and reasonable, without a mean chip in their are fears that a computer might some day There circuits. start a war, but if that ever happens, were sure it will be an accident and not an act of aggression. Unlike some others who have made the cover of Time, computers are not known to lie or to make promises they cant keep. When asked a question, they get right to the point. No tiresome speech-makinNext thing you know someone will be nominating a computer for president. Lets not rush into this. Computers may remember everything theyre told, but weve yet to or a promise. hear one come up with an original idea a know have And the computers we tendency to panic in faint the crunch, like going into a dead every time theres a power falure. A Man of the Year or a president ought to have more stamina than that. joe spear WASHINGTON - President Reagan came up with a simple solution to the unemployment problem a few days ago when he suggested that every employer in the country hire, just one additional WCrkfer; Maybe some employers, he said, could even hire more than one. It happens that the nations biggest single employer takes its orders from Reagan. So we checked with several federal agencies to find out if theyve taken the presidents message to heart. They havent. Theyve been laying off workers, not hiring them. The only exception we could find was the Labor Department, which hired 158 people in November. But most of these were replacements who were merely filling vacancies. Spokesmen for several agencies said they thought it was a good idea to hire one additional worker. But the personnel officers said they havent received any instructions from the White House to that effect. We did find one Reagan stalwart who has apparently taken the president at his word. Attorney General William French Smith wants to hire a new employee. Smith would like a sous a new assistant cook chef, as they say in his circle. According to the attorney notice, generals will not only the new sous-chhave to cut salad and stir soup: He must also know how to set the table properly for the at- torney generals guests" and serve the food without spilling it in the laps of the mighty. The job wont be all glamour. The new man in the kitchen must also be proficient at washing dishes and, says the notice, he must have the ability to use sanitary food handling procedures. The job will pay $6 or $7 an hour considerably higher than the minimum wage. The will share the new sous-chkitchen with three other employees who are already employed to provide tasty luncheons for the attorney general. Of course, theyre all paid by the taxpayers. But we should give the attorney general a little credit. In his small way, hes helping to solve the unemployment problem. POSITIONS WANTED: As help-want- ed ef help-want- ed are no exceptions, but some of them are having trouble finding work in Washington. Veteran Sen. Howard Cannon, is still searching for a suitable position. Its rough out there, said an aide. Even exsenators are feeling the job crunch. Some of the Republican losers are getting help from the White House. Rep. Ed Derwinski, for example, served for many years on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Recently, the administration found a spot for him in the State Department. Former Atkinson, who ef each Congress fades into history, it leaves behind a few who dont more want to go back to the The legislators who were left stranded by the last election boon-dock- s. Rep. R-P- a., party and Eugene an repudiated his is joined the Republicans. This turned out to be poor political judgment, and he was retired by the voters. But the day after the election, he received a call from the White House offering to help him find a new job. A few former lawmakers have followed the traditional path and have accepted or considered positions that will allow them to peddle their influence. A few examples: Rep. Gary Lee, used to serve on a House transportation subcommittee. has been offered a job with Industries. One of its subsidiaries is the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. He IC Rep. John Rousselot, has had some offers from Washington lobbying firms that specialize in regulatory matters. Rep. Tom Railsback, has snapped a job handling government relations for the Motion Picture Association. So Sen. Cannon should not fret. He will undoubtedly find a client somewhere who can use his connections. As a former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he knows which strings to pull to get defense contracts. In fact, he has been talking to some R-Il- l., defense contractors about employment. HEADLINES AND FOOTNOTES: All of the congressmen who retired or lost their bids for were given the op- to portunity mementos of Washington. take home their days in The former members are allowed to purchase the desks and chairs from their Washington office as well as the furniture and equipment from one of their district offices. It is all made available to them at bargain-basemeprices. nt even-temper- ed g. Uvr castle country It's that time of year again By STEVE HEIDE Staff Writer So here I am, the tail end of 1982 just past, and a whole brand new year just unblemished, waiting to be used up unwrinkled, and untarnished. I sit at my desk, staring in wonder at the unmarked pages of my as yet untouched 1983 calendar, and realize that it is time for that hallowed event, the making of New Years resolutions. At first, I balk. I have come to know in my adult years that these resolutions have entered the fabled realm of the great lies, such as the checks in the mail and itll be ready Tuesday. Whatever promises you make to yourself this New Years are bound to be broken; whatever willpower Infant Time bestows upon you is destined to flake away slowly, disappearing unlike those extra pounds you vowed to shed by months end. So why make resolutions in the first place, I ask myself? But my mind wavers. Its tradition, my conscious tells me. What else will you have to be disappointed about if you dont make your New Years resolutions? Go ahead, try it again. It only happens once a year. So, as usual, I give in. But this year will be different. This year I am going to make New Years resolutions that are easy to keep, and that have a useful function in making our world a better place to be. So here goes. First, I resolve to write on the outside envelope of every piece of junk mail I get I would love a bunch of your stuff, crazy glue the thing shut, then mail them back. That ought to drive those guys bananas. Next, I resolve to invent a shopping cart that returns itself to the store when its empty. Then I wont feel so guilty about ignoring the little sign that says, Please return cart to stand when you are done. I resolve to never again punch out the guy who gets in front of me in line at the express lane with two full carts of groceries. I resolve to find Danny Ainge another job besides doing milk commercials. Its a good thing hes better at basketball than he is acting, or the guy would starve to death. I resolve to strangle the guy who invented those little plastic packets of ketchup you get in fast food restaurants that can only be opened by an NFL defensive lineman or by Superman. I resolve to never forget to balance my checkbook, to call my mother at least 'once a week, to never forget anyones birthday again, to always arrive on time for everything and to smile at all times, even when the guy behind the counter tells me the part for my foreign car will have to be ordered from Ethiopia and will cnly cost $75,000 plus tax. Oh, and I almost forgot. Last but not least, I resolve to pay absolutely no attention to any of the above New Years resolutions. There, that was easy. Happy New Year, everybody. |