Political Quotes

“I wish to take a few minutes to speak about another sad situation in the State of Maryland. Today we got the terrible, sad news that it looks as though Bethlehem Steel, our biggest, largest, most famous steelyard, is going to close, and it is going to close forever. Throughout the entire 19th and 20th centuries and through to today, Bethlehem Steel hired people, making it one of our largest employers, to build steel for our great iconic projects and to help build America. In its heyday in 1957, 30,000 steelworkers were there. They thought they had lifelong jobs in helping build steel. It was the largest single employer in Baltimore for decades. It made steel for everything from Campbell Soup cans to National beer cans. It built steel for refrigerators, toasters, and thousands of other products. During the war, Bethlehem Steel was part of the arsenal of democracy in which it built Liberty ships. I am very close to the people at Bethlehem Steel. Members of my own family worked in this steel mill and they worked very hard. People who came into my father's grocery store worked at Bethlehem Steel. They thought they had a job that would last forever because America would need steel. It doesn't look that way, because even though those workers thought America would always want American steel, we looked the other way when foreign imports began to drive down our prices and drive down our steel mills. We have to begin to rethink what we are doing in this area.…”