Birmingham age-herald., 1894-10-17
along the gulf coasts, which could be gotten out very cheapy.
 These advantages place Mobile far aheai ofSteelton and Sparrow's Point, near Phila-

ofSteelton and Sparrow's Point, near Phila- delphia and Baltimore.
 All of the Cuban ores mined in 189) were mined at Juriaga aud olgus, and were shipped out of Sintiago de Cuba, the en- tire output being taken up by the Pennsyl- vania Steel company and the Carnegie peo- pie, and you may imagine that these people had very little encouragement to give us when asked if they would sell the Cuban ores to us in large quanties delivered at one of the gulf ports.
 had an interview with Mr. B. 0. Clark president of the Thomas Iron works, who gay me good deal of information ou this subject. One of the younger MT. Tnomases Was associated with MT. Ely of Clev land and others In the development of the ,lgua mines. The mine wns n success, bu- tue h. rbor enterprise, which cost about $l, 70 0, waiaf iurs-
 Ile Jurlaga mines are still in operation and a success. Iu order to get Cuban ores to Pennsylya+ 1t the very best ocean steamers have to be Il sed la order to get such heavy r-zoes around Cape Hatteras; to get the similar ores from Santiaba De Cuba to Mo- bile itwould be necessary only to have one Of the large tugs such used in Mo- b.le bay and two model barges.
 As he distance to Mobile is fully 1G00 miles less than to Pennsylvania and the method of transportation much cheaper, it can be readily sean that Mobile has oaite an advantage over Pennsylvania, not only in this particular, but also in being closer 10 the consumer of steel than is Pen nnsylva- mia now.
 On July 4, 1890, met Mr. John H. h. man by appointment at his summer home, tue David Dudley Field homestead, in Stock bridge, Mass 1 had subsequent interview with him in New York, and he expressed himself as favorabiy impressed with the idea, of which he had known something previously. Mir. Brce at one time made proposition to Mooile parties through representative to undertake to make steel in Mobile in about the way Mir. Clark had suggested, but the Mobile peo- pie preferred to invest their money in the Henderson Steel company in Birmingham rather than make combination with MeSsrs. Brics and Thomas, who were t hen in control of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia system, of which the Mobile and Birmingham was at that time a part.
 MT. Inman looked favorably on matte IS, but just as the enterprise was getting into shape the Barring failure occurred, which ofcourse stopped all such enterprises.
 As the entire output of the Cuban mines it was contem plated to develop the mines at Cienfuegos, on the southern coast of Cuba. These mines were owned by MT. Mcclellan of New York, who had pre- viously represented the Morgan Steamship company in Havana for twenty years. It was not intended that the M1 bile company should develop these mines, but that an English company should do so, with guarantee that the Mobile company would take their entire output at price agreed o0. The development of these mines was fairly well advanced at the time of the Barring failure, and it also had to be aban- doned for the time being.
 Mobile people have been very slow to de. velop their own resources, and it took @ long time for outsiders to appreciate the advantages offered there. Capitalists natu- rally assumed that if there was any merit in Moble'sc aims to special advantages her own people, who were known to be wealthy, would develop, or at least CO., operate with outside capitalists when the matter of development was suggested. However, outsiders have been coming to Mobile during the last five years, and nearly every progressive enterprise in Mo bile Is now in the hands of men from Eng land, Kansas, Michigan or Pennsylvania.
 The most recent recognition of Mobiles advantages has been shown by an almost tottl desertion of New Orleans as fruit port by almost the entire fruit interests of that city. The first people to recognize Mobiles advantage n this respect were two gentlemen from Selma, Messrs. Orr and Laubenheimer, who have succeeded in raising Mobile from tue thirteenth fruit importing point to the third several months ago, and understand now to the first, Mobile having imported more fruit this year than either New Orleans or New York; and the Machecas, Gamers, Oteri and other large houses, having first estab- lished branches there, have now moved their headquarters to Mobile.
 Within the past ten days some Brming- ham people have been in Mobile making ara ngements to export Alabama coal through Mobile to Texas, Mexico and Gen. tral American points.
 It is a fact that, with the exception of Sydney, Australia, Mobile today puts coal into steamers bunkers at lower price than any other seaport on earth. and when our water ways are utilized for handling our coal, as is the Ohio river for handling Pennsylvania and West Virginia coal, even Sydney will have to give precedence to Mobile.
 This morning met the president of one of the most extensive coal and iron con cerns in this district. He refreshed my mem- ory and verified my information acquired in New York in 1890 about Cuban ores. had made memorandum of several ques- tions to ask him. For instance, ''Is it or is it not theory among iron and steel men that steel should be made at tide water?'' His answer was, ssThat there was no doubt that such thing could be done, but in this particular instance it might be better count of being closer to coke aud satisfac- tory labor, etc.. v
 'sAre there any ores in Alabama or in the United States out of which good basic answer was, s'That good steel ores were found in inexhaustibe quantities in the Lake Superior district, but none in com mercial quantities in the south, but that good steel could be made out of the red hematite of Alabama and the magnetic ores of Cuba." 1 called his attention to the difference in transportation between Cuba and Alabama, and Pennsylvania and Cuba, and found that his ideas were in ex- act accord with mine.
 When I asked him as to the best point to make steel, Mobile or Birmingham, he smiled and said nothing. l learned from him that the Spanish American mine kx,I Iol,