I have opined here at American Thinker that probably the best thing that could happen to U.S. Steel would be a takeover by the more successfully run Nippon. I stand by that view, but wonder if we need to throw the baby out with the bathwater in such an instance; i.e., does a historical company like U.S. Steel have every right to sell historic documents to skyscrapers and bridges, etc., to a foreign company?

Should historic blueprints of U.S. landmarks be for sale to foreign companies? Should original blueprints for the Golden Gate Bridge, the U.S. Steel Tower, or other landmarks ever be in the hands of foreigners when such information might compromise national safety?

The expected sale of U.S. Steel (founded in 1901) to Nippon Steel reminded me of talking many years ago with an old-timer who worked for an old civil engineering and construction company. I won’t mention the name of the company, but I worked for them as a freelancer many years ago and was given a tour of the company's modern headquarters by the old-timer, who I’ll call Jack.

As he led me into the impressive building—a newish beautiful glass and steel girder structure befitting the company’s storied history—Jack waved a hand at a glass-walled library, in which the blueprints of all of the company’s many historic structures were kept.

“That’s where all of the company’s blueprints are, from the beginning of the company,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Now they own it all.”

He was referring to the Chinese company that had bought his U.S. firm years before. The comment stuck with me over the years—a tiny seed of a possible future story.

When I heard that U.S. Steel, once the largest steelmaker in the world, might be bought by Nippon Steel, I thought of Jack’s comment, and it got me thinking.

In the case of Jack’s company, the Chinese firm was the fifth buyer of his company over many years, but it was the only one that held onto the company for a while. It retained the firm’s U.S. engineers, gave some senior employees a small part of the ownership (about 3%), and enabled the U.S. employees to turn the company around and, once again, make it a powerhouse in its field.

That engineering/construction firm was repurchased several years ago by another U.S. firm—but was the damage already done, in a way?

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.