National Affairs: YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO: A Steel Town on Strike

WHEN the air is clean around here," says a longtime resident of Youngstown, "we're not happy." In good times, the city's steel mills along the dirty Mahoning River roll out nearly 10% of the nation's steel, and a sooty haze from the smokestacks lingers inescapably in the air. Last week with the steel mills strikebound since mid-July, the air in Youngstown was ominously clear.

One jobholder out of four in metropolitan Youngstown (pop. 225,000) is a steelworker, and thousands of other breadwinners, notably the railroaders who haul to and from the mills, are directly...