American iron and steel institute

The American Iron and Steel Institute is the major trade association of the U.S. iron and steel industry.

From the description of Corporate records, 1908-1991. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122558635

The American Iron and Steel Institute is the major trade association for the U.S. iron and steel industries.

From the description of Executive officer files, 1917-1993. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122567893

The American Iron and Steel Association was formed on November 17, 1864 and was absorbed by the American Iron and Steel Institute in 1912. Unlike the latter organization it focused almost exclusively on the tariff issue. The Industrial League of Pennsylvania was formed on April 1, 1868 as an all-industry protectionist organization. It was reorganized as the Industrial League on May 26, 1885. By the mid-1880s the American Iron and Steel Association had assumed responsibility for distributing the League's literature, and the League ceased to meet separately after 1890.

From the description of Records of predecessor organizations, 1864-1912. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122648846

The American Iron and Steel Institute was organized in 1908 and absorbed the functions of the earlier American Iron & Steel Association (founded in 1855) in 1912. It is the primary trade association for the American iron and steel industries.

From the description of Transcript of annual meeting, 1942. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122370768

The American Iron and Steel Institute is the major iron and steel industry trade association. Its earliest antecedent was the American Iron Association, which was organized on March 6, 1855, but had ceased meeting five years later. The more successful American Iron and Steel Association was formed on November 17, 1864, to cope with the uncertainties expected to follow the end of the Civil War. The Association had been preceded by a number of ad hoc conventions and meetings which focused on the issue of tariff protection against British competition.

In its early years, the Association retained this focus on lobbying for favorable tariffs. To this end, it collected and published annual statistics on production and prices beginning in 1868 and also published a descriptive directory of iron and steel works in the United States and Canada. The Association was largely the creation of James Moore Swank (1832-1914), its secretary from 1873 to 1885 and its vice president and general manager from 1885 to 1912. Swank authored several early histories of the iron and steel industry and produced about a hundred tariff tracts.

The American Iron and Steel Institute was incorporated on March 31, 1908, and held its first meeting in October 1910. The Institute was established under the leadership of Elbert H. Gary, head of the United States Steel Corporation after the Panic of 1907 brought an end to the industry-wide consolidations that had begun in 1898 and threatened U.S. Steel's financial stability. The Institute absorbed the old Association and its statistical programs in 1912, but concerns about pricing, competition, the sharing of technical information, and public relations replaced single-minded concentration on the by now nearly irrelevant tariff. By 1954, the Institute had 2,500 individual and 98 corporate members, the latter including all the major iron and steel producers. Like most trade associations, it was organized into an ever-growing number of special subject committees, of which there were 55 by the 1950s.

Under Judge Gary, the Institute served as the industry's coordinator with the government during World War I. However, the Institute's staff remained small, and it had no paid president until 1932. The passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act in the early days of the New Deal transformed the Institute as it did most trade associations. Working with the Wall Street law firm of Cravath, de Gersdorf, Swaine & Wood, the Institute played a leading role in drawing up and administering the NIRA Code for the steel industry. Walter S. Tower was named executive secretary in September 1933 and assumed active management of the Institute through May 1952. After the NIRA was ruled unconstitutional, the Institute mobilized to press the industry's case during the conflicts with government and labor during the later New Deal, beginning much more aggressive public relations work. The Institute also began active technical research in the late 1930s with the appointment of a General Technical Committee. The first of a series of "Steel Product Manuals" appeared in 1937.

During World War II, the Institute began programs of cooperative research through its Committee on General Research. It also provided its members with up to date information on industrial relations, health and safety. The Committee on Public Relations disseminated information about the industry through pamphlets, press releases and films, as well as its publications, STEEL FACTS (1934+) and STEELWAYS (1945+). In recent years, the Institute has focused on trade and environmental issues. The restructuring of the steel industry since 1970 has somewhat diluted the Institute's influence, with separate organizations now representing minimills and other specialties, but the Institute remains the largest industry trade association.

From the description of Agency history record. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 164038664