Commonwealth Steel Company

Clarence H. Howard, who controlled the Double Body Bolster Company, received orders for cast-steel bolsters for railroad passenger cars to be used in an exhibit at the upcoming 1904 St. Louis World's Fair but his company was unable to produce bolsters of the specified size. Cast steel bolsters of that size had not been previously manufactured. Howard negotiated with the Commonwealth Steel Company to produce the new steel bolsters and he assisted during the production process. Along with his former schoolmates, H. M. Pflager and G. K. Hoblitzelle, Howard assumed control of Commonwealth in 1904. He headed the company for 23 years, retiring in April 1931, two years after Commonwealth merged with General Steel Castings Corporation, and only months before his death in December 1931.

An April 12, 1929 St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper article, reprinted in the April 1929 issue of The Commonwealther, noted "[t]he Commonwealth, largely because of its one-piece castings, does business with railroads all over the world. It is commonly thought not to have a competitor in the production of a one-piece frame for locomotives and coaches, a feat of casting that has at once made its business unique and added immensely to the safety of railroad travel."

The importance of Commonwealth Steel to the railroad industry was not ignored by the industry and was underscored when two major locomotive companies, the American Locomotive Company and the Baldwin Locomotive Company, along with American Steel Foundries, formed General Steel Castings Corporation in 1928. The April 1929 issue of The Commonwealther printed a statement from the president of the company, Clarence Howard, that Commonwealth Steel was "working out a plan of unification" with General Steel Castings Corporation.

With a capitalization of $10 million, Commonwealth Steel was acquired by General Steel Castings Corporation for a reported $35 million. The merger became effective "definitely on July 30, 1929", and the Commonwealth Steel Company became the "Commonwealth Division" of General Steel Castings Corporation. General Steel's "Eddystone Division" consisted of a new foundry, still under construction in 1929, on the banks of the Delaware River in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, near Baldwin Locomotive's facilities.