From all of this evidence the observer must conclude that the policy of the Steel Corporation has not been to inflate prices or to depreciate quality, and that it has been its endeavor to give the consumer the best steel possible for the smallest amount of money compatible with decent profits. Incidentally, the lower prices of steel shown by Professor Jenks’s charts were made in the face of advancing wages amounting altogether to more than 27 per cent. And labor forms the most important item of expense in steel making. The chart on opposite page 230, a copy of one of those testified to by Professor Jenks, is illuminating and needs no explanation. [Illustration: _RELATIVE PRICE AND PURCHASING POWER OF IRON AND STEEL IN THE UNITED STATES._ _TEN COMMODITIES (IRON & STEEL)_ _GENERAL COMMODITIES_ _PURCHASING POWER_ ] Conditions in the steel trade at the time this is written, October, 1920, provide a striking commentary on the Corporation’s attitude respecting prices. But to understand them one must go back about eighteen months. In March, 1919, the President of the United States, desiring to bring about a deflation of the high prices for all commodities that had prevailed during the war, created an Industrial Board to take charge of the matter and urged manufacturers in all industries to coöperate. Because of the immense importance of steel in the country’s economic life the steel trade was selected to set the example of deflation, and it responded loyally. As a result, on March 20th of that year, a scale of prices was agreed on at a level which it was calculated would give the lower-cost producers a reasonable profit, and those prices were immediately put into effect generally. Shortly afterward the Government itself, through one of its agencies, the Railroad Administration, refused to abide by this agreement. The immediate effect was injurious to the industry, but shortly afterward the demand for steel became so strong that prices, beginning in the late fall of the year, advanced rapidly till they were, in some cases, $50.00 a ton or more above the quotations agreed on between the manufacturers and the Industrial Board. But the Corporation, holding that public policy demanded that living costs and all factors entering into living costs should be held down as low as possible, continued and still continues to sell steel at the prices fixed the previous March. This, notwithstanding the fact that it has since advanced wages and that its costs have been materially increased by the advance in railroad rates on its raw materials, put into effect on August 26, 1920. The Corporation could easily have obtained the same prices as did its competitors and would have reaped enormous profits as a result, but it contented itself with a reasonable return and the consumer and the public at large have benefited from its course.