Only eight months ago, the Office of Defense Mobilization decided that the U.S. had plenty of aluminum. It announced that the expansion program, aided by fast tax write-off certificates of necessity, was being overdone, canceled a third round of expansion that had been pending for two years.
Last week it looked as if ODM had been too optimistic. Before a House Small Business subcommittee appeared several small businessmen, complaining about an aluminum shortage. Furthermore, they charged that the industry's Big Three—Aluminum Corp. of America, Reynolds and Kaiser—were discriminating against independent fabricators. Roger Widing, whose East Rochester, N.Y. company makes aluminum storm...