Sweet Adversity

To their pleased surprise, businessmen this week found that the coal strike (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) had left them with few lasting bruises. Steelmakers, for example, had managed to keep production at high levels by using up their coal reserves and gambling on an early settlement. Though the strike had cost them 600,000 tons of steel, there was a brighter side. Before the strike, the industry had expected to stay at peak production only through the first half of this year. Now it has backlogged enough orders to keep it booming well through the third quarter.

The kingpin U.S. auto industry...