Determined to earn money to attend college, he found employment as a construction worker on a railroad and in a tannery.
In 1916, he was promoted to assistant superintendent of the blast furnace at Jones and Laughlin's Eliza Works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This included putting the company police in uniforms, establishing a military-like hierarchy, and arming the previously weaponless force.
[12] White asserted in 1937 testimony before a subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Education and Labor that the men recruited for the police force were of the highest quality and received excellent training.
Witnesses alleged before the Senate subcommittee that White permitted the Republic Steel police to use excessive amounts of tear and vomit gas, fire weapons indiscriminately into crowds, arm themselves with and use metal clubs on strikers and bystanders, and to venture far off company property into the surrounding streets at will.
[13] Republic Steel president Rufus Wysor apologized for the "regettable riot" his company police caused.
The official subcommittee report questioned his credibility,[15] declared his statements to be "a deliberate attempt to mislead the committee",[16] and "specious and completely disingenuous".
La Follette scoffed at this claim, leading to the sarcastic exchange:[10] White's response to numerous unionization attempts at Republic Steel facilities was vigorous.
[18] In Senate testimony, White did not deny that he knew espionage and rough shadowing was being employed by company police under his supervision from 1935 to 1937.
[19] He later admitted before Congress that he signed several thousand dollars' worth of vouchers to pay for anti-unionization efforts.
He called for right-to-work laws in the United States,[22] and demanded repeal of the National Labor Relations Act.
[26] Two days later, Kaiser-Frazer agreed to continue to let Republic Steel operate the plant in return for a greater share of the pig iron produced by it.
Economic Stabilization Agency administrator Roger Putnam summoned Fairless, Ernest T. Weir (president of National Steel Corporation), and White to Washington, D.C., on December 13.
Twenty-seven minutes after the conclusion of Truman's speech, attorneys for Republic Steel and the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company went to court seeking a permanent injunction against the executive order.
[30] On June 2, 1952, in a 6-to-3 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States declared in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952), that the president lacked the authority to seize the steel mills.
In May 1952, speaking to the American Steel Warehouse Association, he declared, "This partnership between government and labor has been a disgrace to our country.
[33] White was one of three wealthy backers of Senator William F. Knowland who distributed a pamphlet viciously attacking Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers.
The company purchased a major rutile lode in southern Mexico, and began mining and refining titanium.
The company also hired physicist Robert P. Petersen to advise it on strategic business opportunities in the nuclear power industry.
[35] White was named chief executive officer of Republic Steel in 1955,[36] and chairman of the board of directors in August 1956.
[39] Steel supplies nationwide were so depleted that even high production rates at the end of 1959 had failed to alleviate severe shortages.
[5] A lifelong Episcopalian, White was buried in Lake View Cemetery near his long-time home of Cleveland, Ohio.
[45] In 1952, a straight deck bulk carrier, the SS Charles M. White, built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works, was launched.