Galoola Bird

For twelve months lean, hard-bitten Charles M. White, president of Republic Steel Corp., has been playing two-handed poker for gigantic stakes. His opponent: War Assets Administrator Jess Larson. The stakes: the Government's $28 million Cleveland blast furnace and coke plant, one of the world's largest.

During the war Republic operated the plant for the Defense Plant Corp., after the war continued to operate it under an interim lease. The WAA plant supplied iron for Republic's Cleveland mills and that, in turn, made it possible for Republic to sell pig iron from its other blast furnaces to hundreds of Northeastern foundries....