But the assistance which the Corporation rendered the Government in respect to providing ships to meet the war emergency was not confined to the erection of the two yards and the fabrication of ships there. Long before the yards were built, or even conceived, the American Bridge Co. was pioneering in the production of fabricated ship parts and the great part of the steel that went into the vessels built at Hog Island and other plants was supplied by that company and by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., which put up plants specially for the purpose. Before the close of 1918 these two subsidiaries of the big company had shipped the steel for seventy complete hulls to various yards. No other metal plays such an all-important part in modern warfare as does steel. Warships, transports, big and field guns, small arms, shells, gun mounts, and other munitions are made entirely or almost entirely of the metal. And when Germany first threw down her gauntlet to the civilized world the Allies found it necessary to depend to a great extent on American mills for a supply of this vital war metal. And the manufacturers of the United States responded, among them the Steel Corporation. The Corporation did not go into the manufacture of munitions directly. It supplied the raw material for them to other manufacturers, and it did turn out a large number of shell forging, mortars, and later, gun forgings. From August 1, 1914, to April 1, 1917, or just before this country allied herself with the European enemies of Germanism, the Corporation supplied a total of 6,057,640 tons of steel intended for the manufacture of munitions of one kind or another. Part of this went to manufacturers here who were making shells, but most of it was sent directly abroad. As soon as the United States became herself engaged in the great conflict the authorities at Washington, realizing that steel supply was of paramount importance, requested Judge Gary, in his capacity of president of the American Iron & Steel Institute, to form a committee to mobilize the iron and steel industry of the country on a war footing and to take general charge of the supply of the metal. This Judge Gary did with the hearty coöperation of other steel manufacturers. Practically the entire steel production of the country was put unreservedly at the disposition of the Government and no effort was spared to secure and maintain maximum production.