X - Epilogue

Summary

As this story comes to its end, post mortem accomplished, I am reminded once again why I undertook this study in the first place. I came not to bury the Coalition, but to praise it.

The Right Task …

The most fundamental judgment about the Coalition that emerges from this study is that the task the religious leaders set for themselves was the right thing to do. They identified and dealt with the problem as the revitalization of the steel industry in Youngstown, for the benefit of steelworkers and the community. That, to my mind, remains a correct definition of the problem. It presented a challenge no other group in Youngstown at the time was prepared to accept.

It is not certain – nor did the failure of the Coalition's effort prove – that the Campbell Works could ever have been successfully reopened.

In terms of the Coalition project itself, it is possible to argue that six specific and rather plausible changes in organizational and political behavior could have given the project a far better chance of success.

First, the Coalition itself might have done a better job in two areas. It might have recognized the need for better steel expertise in its decision-making structure and made a place for that function at the table much earlier in the process. Also, the Coalition might have done a better job of melding the social passion of Chuck Rawlings with the hardheaded pragmatism of Ed Stanton. Neither of these tasks could be called impossible.