Simultaneous and identical actions of United States Steel and other leading steel 
corporations, increasing steel prices by some 6 dollars a ton, constitute a wholly 
unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest.

  In this serious hour in our nation's history, when we are confronted with grave crises in 
Berlin and Southeast Asia, when we are devoting our energies to economic recovery and 
stability, when we are asking Reservists to leave their homes and families for months on 
end, and servicemen to risk their lives -- and four were killed in the last two days in Viet 
Nam -- and asking union members to hold down their wage requests, at a time when 
restraint and sacrifice are being asked of every citizen, the American people will find it hard, 
as I do, to accept a situation in which a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of 
private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter 
contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans.