The age-herald., 1898-07-01
DEVELOPMENT
 OF THE SOUTH

From the New York Financier.
 One of the largest steel plants in the United States is to be erected near Bir- mingham, Ala. The capital has been sub scribed. and the work of construction is to be carried to completion rapidly as pos slble. As an incident in our industrial de- velopment. this latest evidence of the shift ing center of iron and steed production from the north to the south is significat To those who have followed the. course of the iron market for a number of years past, the erection of this mammoth plant at point so far removed from the scene of our established. northern industries does not cause surprise. Alabama is destined to be the future center of the steel indus ty of the United States. Nature has de- creed and fixed the limits of the cotton belt and she has no less irrevocably grant ed to one section supremacy in the min- eral industries. We have often dwelt on this fact, because we believed that sooner or later it would bring about changes af- fectng the entire nation Now that tan gible evidence is forthcoming of the truth of every word spoken in these columns, we may be excused for alluding to the subject again.
 Colonel A. M. Shook, general manager of the Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad company, in an exhaustive article in "The Finaneier" some time since, told why the south could manufacture steel at price under all possible competition. He is at the head of the corporation erecting the new plant at Birmingham, and in recent interview, outlining the advantages under which the plant will operate, said:
 The location is particularly adapted for the purpose for which it is intended. The plant will draw it's pig iron, its coal, it's ores, it's limestone, and it's dolomite from the property of our company without freight charge on any of the raw materials As the maiIs line of the Tennessee com pany's railroad, over which the raw mate rials will be delivered. will form the west boundary line of the steel plant it will pos sess relatively the same advantage in deliv- ering it's products the tracks of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, the Southern railroad, the Queen and Cres- cent and the Kansas City railroad form the east boundary, so that the products can be delivered to any of these lines at the works
 The great iron industries of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois, have been built up, pri- marily, because of advantageous location near one of the raw materials entering into the production of iron and steel. Penn  stone, but iron ore is brought by lake and rail arsportation from Lake Superior The necessity of cheap freights has led to the organization of a magnificent service to deliver this ore at a minimum cost, but even with the largest steamers and cars of the utmost capacity, Pennsylvania has freight bills to charge against production, which Alabama escapes. But it must not I;,1, of sxia
 tic steel industries in the south means ruin for other iron plants The corporation which is building the new mill near Bir- mingham, produces approximately 5oOo0 tons of pig iron monthly, or about 20 per cent. of the non-Bessemer iron in the United States. As MT. Shook points out, if one-half of this is converted into steel, it will create a vacuum in the present cur rent supply of forge and foundry iron, which will be filled by stimulated produc- tion at other centers For this reason the entire trade will be favorably affected. The Alabama concern has already found a market for it's product. The domestic demand for soft steel is such that it could dispose of its entire output today, but be- yond that the foreign market is at the mer- cy of this new rival Alabama, by reason of lack of capital, has been content heretofore, to supply the world with crude iron. Eu- rope has bought largely of it, but since the work of conversion into higher grades of material can be carried out more proftably at the center of prduction, the exports of pig iron will probably diminish, while ship ments of steel will increase. It will be matter of few years only when Alabama will sell Europe all. the armor plate needed on her battle ships.
 oa-suppfaS cmfw hrd vbg mfw hrdl fwy g ALABAMA.