Republic Steel Corporation buildings

Caption reads: "Republic Iron and Steel Corporation. District 6 files." Republic Steel Corporation was founded in 1899 in Youngstown, Ohio. The firm was originally known as Republic Iron and Steel Company. For the company's first three decades of existence, it prospered, as Ohio was one of the leading industrialist states of the period. In 1927, Cyrus Eaton purchased a majority of the stock in the Republic Steel Company. At the same time, Eaton also purchased stock in other companies. He hoped to unite these companies together to compete with the U.S. Steel Company—the largest steel manufacturer in the United States. Under Eaton's leadership, the Republic Steel Company expanded its manufacturing holdings to include plants in Massillon, Elyria, Canton, Cleveland, and Warren, Ohio. Thanks to Eaton's efforts, the Republic Steel Company emerged as the third largest steel producer in the United States. The Republic Steel Company, like many other businesses, faced an economic downturn during the Great Depression. The firm, unlikely many others, remained in operation and actually expanded its holdings by purchasing smaller steel companies as they went bankrupt. Tom Girdler now headed the company, and under his leadership, the firm's corporate headquarters moved to Cleveland. During the 1930s, the Republic Steel Company, as well as many other steel mills, faced tensions as its steel workers, wanting to unionize, started a strike over low wages and poor working conditions. While Republic Steel proved successful in the “Little Steel Strike of 1937,” with the outbreak of World War II, the firm quickly permitted unions in its mills so that the firm could acquire lucrative government contracts. The company prospered throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, but competition from foreign steel, higher wages, and new environmental codes began to hurt the firm. The situation continued to worsen for the Republic Steel Company during the 1980s, and in 1984, the company merged with Jones and Laughlin to create LTV Steel