The age-herald., 1898-07-31
ELLIS WHAT HAS BEEN DONE
And IntimateS the Construction of an
 $SOO,OOO Industry.
DETAILS ARE NOT YET COMPLETED
The Improvements Within Past Year, Begun and Completed, amount to $2,- 6OO,ooO-Over 5000 Men Re-
 quired to Operate Them.
BY JAMES BOWRON.

BY JAMES BowRON. | The growth of Greater Birmingham is no | longer matter solely of prophecy. for | prophecy is in part at least turned into | fulillment. I have not at hand the inform- | tion that would enable me to fttingly com ment upon the establishment within the past two years of the Avondale cotton mill, the open-hearth steel furnace of the Bir- | mingham rolling mill, the powder factory,
 the cotton seed oil mill, the fertilizer works,
 the snuff factory, the hosiery works, whose
 combined investment of capital and em- poyment of labor are not only vastly im- portant in themselves, but the more bene- fcial to our city because of the part they play in diversifying it's indus tries. It is not improper, however, for me to estimate the changes necessarily incidental to the establishment of the new plants at Ensley City, with which I familiar One may summarize the investments in that suburb of Greater Birmingham as follows:
 The open hearth plant of the Ala bama Steel and Shipbuilding
 company .. .. ..... .......$1, 100 900 The bi-product coke ovens of the Semet-Sovay company ..... 100000 Another industry which I cannot at present designate but which will be located there in less than six months So0,0Oo Dwelling houses required within
 one year .... ..... ...... ...... 100000 Stores, railroads, depots, expendi- lures streets, sewers, water supply, lighting, street railroads. 100000 Brick works, blaming mill lumber yard, creosote works, which are already established ..... COG. 70.000 Iotdl SN,oio,VVv Laborers Employed The open hearth steel works in the production of billets, slabs, rails, run ming day and night, will involve..... 800 Provision of its supply of'pig iron from four blast furnaces, running night and day ..........--. 4uV The coal required for supplying the open hearth steel works including miners, men on dead work, team sters, men on the tipple, laborers, etc., will involve ... ........... ....... ..... 400 The coke ovens to supply the addi- tional blast furnaces will require 175 Provision of the coal for these coke ov- ems will involve ....... .... 800 The ore supply for the additional fur naces will require ..... ... ......... 1000 The additional limestone required will involve oV The provision of coal for the other works alluded to above, and not yet designated will require 300 The amount of finishing material and raw materials on the railroads will involve ........... zV The bi-product coke ovens, brick works, blaming mills, and lumber yards..... 200
 Brick layers, carpenters, plasterers, painters and laborers employed in constructing 2,000 houses... ......... I ,00o A reasonable addition to the above for doctors, lawyers, clergymen, store keepers of every description, and the general and multifarous occupations which attach themselves to every ac- tive and productive community might not be unfairly counted up to CTS Total number of men employed 1000 Computing this number by the usual rule
 for estimating population of three persons
 to each bread Misunderstanding himself
 1S,O0O people will be added to Greater Bir-
 mingham within the ensuing year, this
 number being entirely exclusive of the
 other industries which are under negotia-
 tions, and which may may not material
 fze within that time, but which are sure
 to come, even if a little later.
 The above figures are very conservative
 and I am inclined to think that the est-
 mates given in some cases might be doubled
 without exaggeration.
 I trust that what has been accomplished
 will nerve the citizens of Greater Birming-
 ham, to accomplish yet higher things in
 the early attainment of the manifest des-
 tiny of our city.