The age-herald., 1897-08-17
OUR IRON IN ARMOR PLATE
Says MT. Shook to Commercial
 Club Committee.
THE COMMITTEE ORGANIZES
An Effort Viii Be Made to Have the Ordnance Board Visit Birmingham-Congress-
 men Will Be Invited.

B. Phnlips-Coss of sled making.
 T. II. Aldrieh, W. T. Underwood and Sol Haas-To ascertain freight rates.
 P. G. Shook-To e-tamate amount of iron shipped from this district to north ern steel mills.
 Rufus N. Rhodes-On entertainment.
 Ihe above are the sub 3mmittees ap- pointed by the armor plate plant com mittee of the Commercial club. The com mlttee is ready for work als soon as fur ther instructions are received from Wash- ington. This committee may go to Wash ingfon and an effor. will be mad to brng the ordnance board here In this event they will be we'll entertained and the advantages of Birmingham and this dis trict will be comp1lsd and presented to ,hem in pamphlet form. Wi;h them will be expected as many congressman as can conveniently be present..
 Alabama iron has at least formed a part of the mixture composing armor plate. This fact was brought out by the statement of P. c. Shook before the meat ing eff the armor plale committee yes.er- day afternoon. There can be no longer the least veEtige of a doubt as to Birmign- hams ability to furnish quality of pig iron possessing all the requisites for the making of armor plate.
 Nh this connection MT. Shook said: :"I spen. week ad Homestead while Carne- Ia a Russian government. No one brand of pig iron was used in making the steel that was later hammered into sTmor plats. The steel plant was composed of posed a portion of the mixture going into tlTese furnaces. I saw the steel ingots turned out and later carried to the DOT ton of the plant where the armor pllse was made. More than this, Carnegie paid s4 per ron freight on this iron. If he could afford to pay this freight rate lt can readily be seen that the cost of mak- ing armor plate in Birmingham with the iron in close proximity would be much less than at Home5tead.'
 If armor plate now protecting Russian cruisers is composed pahily of Alabama iron. there is no reason why armor plate made solely of Alabama iron should arm Uncle Sam's war ships, is the argument of the committee. The committee organ izzd, discussed the question: in las vari- ous phases, and is prepared to make ev Ill II, ment armor plate plant.
 Committee Organizes.
 Chairman Rhodes presided; T. H. Aid rich, Dr. w. B. Phillips and w. T. Un- derwood were present. W. J. Boles, SEC retary of the Commercial club, acted as secretary of the committee meeting. P. G. Shook participated in the meeting in the absence of his father.
 MT. Aldrich stated that 1t was the gen eral understanding that if the armor plate plant was located here steel plant would have to be provided.
 In reply to this Representative Undsr- wood stated that a steel plant would be included in the estimates made to the government Iron would be made into steel and steel into arnor plate in the same plant, or in the works of the gov ernment. "All we have to do." said he, 's to convince the ordnance board that we have superior advantages to any other locality"
 Chairman Rhodes suggested that one If the duties not to be overlooked was to get Information as to the relative distances and freight rates from the points com peting for the plant to the ship yards. Dr. Phillips said that it would be advis- able to divide the committee into divis- ions to collect information of this char acter. As to Birmingham's ability to come within the price limit he sad, There is no doubt that iron has been made cheaper here, and no doubt tha t steel can be-
 Mr. Aldrich moved that committee of one be appointed to estimate the amount of iron shipped from this district to the steel mills of the north. P. c. Shook was named on this committee.
 T. H. Aldrich w. T. Underwood and Sol Haas were appointed a committee to ascertain the freight rates from here and from other competing points to the ship yards and also from Bethlehem and Homestead, where armor plate has for merly been made.
 J. G. Caldwell, Col. Shook and Dr. w. B. Phillips were made a committee to look up the question of cost and other matters pertaining to the manufacture of steel Mir Shook inquired if the buy ing of one of the present armor plate plants by the government was considered
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