To Each Other

This 1940s wartime propaganda film, likely produced in collaboration with U.S. Steel, rallies viewers around the urgent push to boost steel production for WWII. Filmed in black-and-white, it opens with a map pinpointing steel mills nationwide—Pittsburgh, Gary, Birmingham—before diving into gritty plant footage from U.S. Steel subsidiaries. The camera sweeps through roaring blast furnaces, coke ovens, and rolling mills, capturing the production of armor plate, tank armor, shell casings, bomb casings, and naval vessels. Stock shots abound: steam whistles blare, ingots glow, steel plates glide on conveyors, and workers—many women—forge springs, wire rope, nails, pipes, gas cans, and oil drums. A poignant subplot features an older man, tearfully reading a letter from his son at war, who’s returned to his old mill job. His lengthy, emotional monologue praises U.S. Steel’s record-breaking output, tying personal sacrifice to industrial might. Scenes of ship christenings, pipeline welding, and artillery assembly culminate in a patriotic crescendo, urging collective effort as workers stream from factories, steel fueling victory.