Alpha Portland Cement Co. Board of Directors meeting minutes, August 15, 1917

Annotation Minutes of board meeting of the Alpha Portland Cement Co. held August 15, 1917 which include the following actions: the President reported that members of the Federal Trade Commission had visited to assess the company's costs to assist the Navy Department in helping the government decide what the Navy should pay for cement; the President reported that the Navy ordered cement at below market rates and the company agreed to ship the cement, but indicated that the acceptance was not satisfactory and that the company would be making a claim against the Navy's rates; the President advised that the Cement Lighterage Co., which handled the company's shipments around New York Harbor, intended to increase rates; the President discussed the company's vacation policies; the President reported that company housing previously authorized to be built at Manheim, W.V. had not been built due to extreme scarcity of labor. The Alpha Portland Cement Co. was organized in 1895 when it acquired the Whitaker Cement Co. Originally based in Philadelphia, the company later moved its headquarters to Easton, Pa. Based in the area of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania known as the ""Cement Belt,"" Alpha Portland Cement Co. grew to become one of the largest cement companies in the United States.