美国国家公共电台 NPR Illinois Town Tries Hard To Wean Off Steel

 

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Workers in traditional steel towns across the country are rejoicing over President Trump's steep tariffs¹ on imported steel that go into effect tomorrow. Already, U.S. Steel is calling back 500 laid-off workers to restart one of its two idled blast furnaces at a mill in Granite² City, Ill. That's the city's largest employer. And despite some success diversifying³, its fortunes still largely rise and fall with those of the steel industry. NPR's David Schaper reports.

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE⁴: You can't really tell when standing⁵ in this enormous park surrounded by stately brick homes, but a steel mill wasn't exactly built here inside the city. It was actually the other way around.

JAMES AMOS: Our community here - Granite City - it was originally designed as a planned community, much like Pullman in Chicago was kind of famous for being.

SCHAPER: Granite City's economic development director, James Amos.

AMOS: This community continued to be built around, specifically, the steel mill.

SCHAPER: For more than a century, this city across the Mississippi from St. Louis has been known as a steel town. And no one knows that better than Delmar Farless who is more than a century old.

DELMAR FARLESS: I'm almost six months passed. My birthday was in September.

SCHAPER: Farless has lived here since 1924. He's eating lunch with some younger friends, who are in their 60s, at a local cafe. Like many in this town of 29,000, he worked in the town's signature mill for a time. It was then called Granite City Steel.

FARLESS: If it weren't for Granite City Steel, people wouldn't have came here. That was the main place, boy, when I was a kid.

SCHAPER: At its peak in the 1970s, the mill employed more than 4,500 people. There were still about 2,000 working there in December of 2015 when U.S. Steel laid off all but a few hundred workers. The ripple⁶ effect hit this community hard, hurting suppliers and machine shops that work with the mill as well as those running the trucks, trains and barges⁷ that haul materials to and from the mill. James Amos says there are more than 40 businesses here that are part of what is called the heavy metals industrial cluster.

AMOS: And so all of these businesses are integrated together. They work together in kind of a symbiotic⁸ way, but U.S. Steel's production facility is by far the largest of them.

SCHAPER: Amos says U.S. Steel's impact on Granite City's economy is huge, but...

AMOS: Granite City does not live and die on one steel mill. We're a bigger town than that, and there are other thriving jobs within our community.

SCHAPER: Larry Petri certainly feels it when there are layoffs⁹ at the mill. He runs Petri Cafe which his parents opened 71 years ago just down the street from the gigantic steel mill. And the ebb¹⁰ and flow there has always affected¹¹ the cafe's fortunes, but Petri has weathered many steel industry downturns over the years because he says U.S. Steel isn't the only game in town.

LARRY PETRI: Well, we have another mill, American Steel, down there. We have the hospital. We have other smaller business that seen the effect of being shut down - the mill shut down, but they survived.

LAURA SMITH: Along that wall over there, that's the metatarsals. And everything...

SCHAPER: Among those survivors¹² is Laura Smith who, with her husband, owns Holt's Shoe Shop which specializes in industrial work boots.

SMITH: It has a steel toe and this plate that goes on top of it. So if they drop something on it, it doesn't break their foot.

SCHAPER: These metatarsal boots are required for anyone working inside the steel mill, and it's a big part of the Smith's business.

SMITH: When they shut down, we went down about 28 percent.

SCHAPER: So Holt's shoes has survived by catering¹³ to customers who work in other less prominent industries, like the area's rail yards, a major port on the Mississippi, food and beverage¹⁴ processing plants, healthcare and other factories. Economic development director, James Amos, insists that Granite City would survive without U.S. Steel, but he concedes that one of the problems attracting new businesses is the perception that the mammoth¹⁵ mill is all the city has to offer.

AMOS: If people hear that it is not in business, or it's on a partial shutdown or whatever, they're just not as inclined to invest in our community. They're more inclined to take those dollars and go somewhere else.

SCHAPER: Amos and others here in Granite City say the town still needs to prove to investors¹⁶ that this town has more to offer than just steel. That includes a strong workforce¹⁷ and access to river, rail and highway transportation networks - the same things that initially¹⁸ led planners to wrap this city around a steel mill in the first place well over a century ago. David Schaper, NPR News, Granite City, Ill.

(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE LAB BEATS SONG, "PINEAPPLE")

1 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

2 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

3 diversifying   

v.使多样化，多样化( diversify的现在分词 )；进入新的商业领域

参考例句：

• Some publishers are now diversifying into software. 有些出版社目前正兼营软件。 来自辞典例句
• Silverlit is diversifying into new markets, such as Russia and Eastern Europe. Silverlit正在使他们的市场变得多样化，开发新的市场如俄罗斯和东欧国家。 来自互联网

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

7 barges   

驳船( barge的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The tug is towing three barges. 那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。
• There were plenty of barges dropping down with the tide. 有不少驳船顺流而下。

8 symbiotic   

adj.共栖的，共生的

参考例句：

• Racing has always had a symbiotic relationship with betting.赛马总是与赌博相挂钩。
• Engineering completely new symbiotic relationship is obviously not an imminent possibility.筹划完全新的共生关系显然是可能性不大。

9 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

10 ebb   

vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态

参考例句：

• The flood and ebb tides alternates with each other.涨潮和落潮交替更迭。
• They swam till the tide began to ebb.他们一直游到开始退潮。

11 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

12 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

13 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

14 beverage   

n.(水，酒等之外的)饮料

参考例句：

• The beverage is often colored with caramel.这种饮料常用焦糖染色。
• Beer is a beverage of the remotest time.啤酒是一种最古老的饮料。

15 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

16 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

17 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

18 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。