Cape Breton's Magazine

of 27%--and that makes a good coke. So it was a question that coal was here, iron ore was nearby--okay, we can make steel here. And they did. (So it was a good place to put a plant.) Yes. And later on, the export situation developed where we could ship the steel right from here. We used to ship steamer load and steamer load, chartered ships, 10- and 12-thousand-ton vessels, fully loaded with Sydney's semi? finished steel, to England--before the Sec? ond War and into the war. It stopped when the British steel industry was in poor shape and their government stopped the im? portation of steel pretty well. And freight rates in Canada. We had to com? pete with plants in central Canada--we had to sell up there at the same price that they charged up there. Nobody would give us more, just because we had to pay to transport the steel a thousand miles to them. We just had to accept whatever price was available up there. So all that meant was per ton of steel produced, we got a little less money than people producing steel in Ontario. They were closer to the market than we were. Of course, we had no market up there. That is to say, we had no assured market in the '20s and early '30s. In fact, it was not until DOSCO was formed that we established subsidiary companies in that area up there--Quebec and Ontario. We established there because that's where most of the Canadian finished steel was consumed. In order to assure ourselves of the market, we had to establish those sub? sidiaries . (Like at Contrecoeur, near Montreal?) Well, that was the last, I'm speaking of long be? fore Contrecoeur, The first one was bought in the late '20s, I think it was--the Peck Rolling Mills in Montreal, They bought bil? lets from somebody and rolled them down in? to bars of various shapes for the consum? ing market. That was the first mill we bought. And in the early '30s we bought in Windsor, Ontario, The U, S, Steel Corpora? tion had established the beginnings of a steel plant in Windsor, intending to have a Canadian subsidiary making steel, produc? ing various things and selling them in the Canadian market. But they never carried through with that. They built the blast furnace--perhaps had it about 3/4s built-- when they quit on it. They had established a rolling mill up there. And they had es? tablished or bought a steel-fabricating company--Canadian Bridge, it was called-- and we bought up what was left of their in? terest there. So that we could ship our steel from Sydney all the way to Windsor, convert it into finished products and sell Home of Gaelic College Summer School 2, 3 & 5 Week Courses: Scottish Highland Dancing Bagpipe Music Gaelic Language The Great Hall of the Clans & Giant MacAskill Museum The Annual Gaelic Mod Held During First Full Week in August The Gaelic College, st. Anns. n. s. (48) P.O. Box 9, Baddeck, N. S.