Another increase in the bonded debt was reported, new securities totalling $33,416,000 being issued, and $9,498,359.46 being redeemed. The bonded debt of the big company on December 31, 1911, stood at $621,054,299.62. Capital expenditures reported for the year included $7,939,813.46 at Gary, bringing the total for this project to $78,258,508.61; $17,707,280.79 expended for the acquisition of new coal properties in the Connellsville region of Pennsylvania; $5,069,983.65 spent on the Tennessee properties, and $1,437,518 spent on the new Duluth plant. The two most important events of the year were the decision of the directors of the Corporation to cancel the Hill Ore lease and the inception of the Federal suit for the dissolution of the big company under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. Both of these events took place on the same day, October 26th. As the Hill lease has been discussed at length in a previous chapter, and the facts connected with the dissolution suit have already been told, they will not now be gone into. Toward the close of the year just reviewed there was a gradual increase in the volume of steel buying. The railroads, which had been consuming very little of the metal--and the roads are the largest customers of the steel companies--began to buy in something like normal proportion and continued to do so until the spring of 1913. Other consumption also showed more activity, and under the impetus of this buying prices for steel products gradually advanced. The Corporation’s earnings, however, did not immediately reflect this betterment, the first quarter of 1912 showing net profits from operations of only $17,826,973.28, but a steady advance was recorded until $35,191,921.82 was reported for the last three months of the period. For the year net earnings of $108,174,673.12 were made and a balance of $3,605,247.37 was carried to surplus. The bonded debt of the Corporation on December 31, 1912, showed an increase of $22,482,881 from a year previous, bonds and mortgages totalling $32,428,246.50 having been issued and $9,906,365.47 in funded debt having been redeemed. The bonded debt of the big company and its subsidiaries at the end of the year stood at $643,537,180.65. Production in 1912 amounted to 16,901,223 tons of ingots and 12,506,619 tons of finished steel. The total volume of business amounted to $745,505,515.48. Of this sum $494,637,808 represented sales of steel and other products to customers outside the Corporation, $189,257,318 inter-company sales, and the balance earnings from transportation and other sources. The main items in capital expenditures were as follows: Work at Gary, $1,725,052; Duluth plant, $2,676,066; Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad extensions, $1,833,094. The construction of the Gary plant was now practically finished and the plant produced 1,093,578 tons of pig iron, 1,669,389 tons of steel, and over 1,186,000 tons of finished products in the course of the year.