The age-herald., 1898-01-02
IRON PROSPECTS FOR 1893 The Market Promises To Be Sat-
 lSfactory RESUMPTION OF FURNACES Reasons Why the Smaller Ones Will Not Be Blown ln-They Cannot Compete
 With the Larger Ones.

From the present indications, the iron market during 1898 promises to be in a very satisfactory condition.
 The fact of dollar wheat in the northwest during the past season has made money plentiful in that section, and it Is only req sonabe to expect that there will be a great deal of railroad building during this year.
 It is also expected that, notwithstanding the 5-cent cotton, the south will get it's share of the railroad building.
 All of the stocks owned in this district at present are as low as they have ever been in the history of iron making in the south, and notwithstanding the immense production, during the last four months, especially the consumption has kept pace with it, and the shipments have been equal ly as heavy as the ironmasters themselves could wish, when all the happenings of last year are considered.
 There is very little probability that any new furnaces will be built during this year. The talk about the Howard Harrison com pany building furnaces to supply pig iron for their pipe works would mean the invest ment of very little less than $500 coo, be- cause they would have to build furnaces coke ovens, purchase coal lands, iron ore lands and limestone quarries, or else buy the raw material for the furnace burden. This, it Is claimed, would unquestionably place them in a position where it would cost them more to manufacture their iron than they are paying for it at present, without counting in the interest on the in vestment for the plant
 No Resumption of Small Furnaces.
 So far as the blowing in of any of the small furnaces is concerned. the operatives themselves, it is said, admit that such talk is unreasonable, because, when all the conditions are taken into consideration, capitalist would never think of putting his money into the rebuilding of one of the small furnaces when it has been proven conclusively that they cannot compete with the large ones It is considered that the same money which must be invested in iron ore, coal and limestone for this purpose could be put into plant for manufacturing pig iron, which is now made in the dis trct, into the finished product
 The capital needed to install such in- dustres as these would not be any greater than would be required in rebuilding any of the smaller furnaces which have been out of blast for years.
 It Is highly probable that some of the large furnaces long operated by the com- panes which are now the mainstays of this district that have been idle during the last year will be blown in. The second furnace of the Pioneer Mining and Manu- featuring company, at Thomas will, it is stated, certainly be blown in and probably one of the idle Sloss furnaces. At Ironaton, in the eastern Alabama dis trict, about seventy-fye miles from Br- mingham, the Clifton Iron company Will blow in at once a furnace which was re- built in 1896. This was an old charcoal fur mace which was rebuilt and adopted for coke fuel.
 At Shelby one charcoal furnace will be put in blast during 1898, and the Wood- stock furnace, which has been making iron during the past year, will continue in blast during the coming year and probably their second furnace will be rebuilt and re-lined and blown in during the coming season. Charcoal Furnace.
 The charcoal furnace of the Rock Run Iron and Mining company, at Rock Run, will continue in blast, and should the de- mand for charcoal iron show any indica- lions of increase the old Round Mountain furnace, which has been idle during 1897, will be blown in.
 Birmingham will doubtless continue to startle the iron world by her foreign ship ments of the crude pig. During last year there was great increase of foreign ship ments, and the close of the year saw Ala bama iron shipped to every manufacturing county of South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, to say nothing of the shipments even to the northern iron markets or tEe United States.
 The success of the new steel mill, al- though it is a small one, has demonstrated beyond all doubt the practicability of steel manufacture in this district.