The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1898-11-24
THE SOUTH'S IRON
INTERESTS.
An Interesting Survey of the
Past and Future Of This
Great Industry.


The handsome octave volumn,
"The Empire of the South" which
the Southern Railway has inst pub
lished, contains an interesting chap
} ter Oh "the making of iron in the
South" We are in receipt Of ad-
vance pages of the publication, from
which we make the following quota
tons:
In the making of iron the South
has easily the advantage of any other
portion of the United States. Her
rapid development in this direction
has been the phenomenon Of the COM
mercial world during the last decade
Not only has she compelled recogni-
ton in the markets of this country,
but she is now shipping large amounts
of foundry iron of the highest quality
to Europe, South America and India.
Shipments of enormous quantities to
Japan, where 5000 tons recently went
in u single week, signify that the
limits of her trade are to be confined |
only to the bounds Of civilization it.
self. When Alabama can undersell
Eeglish iron four dollars per ton, and
make money for the producers. and
can underbid Pennsylvania and Ohio
furnaces and sell iron under their
very caves, the future Of this South
ern industry is in good condition to
take care of itself.
The history of iron making in the
South can practically be covered by
a span of the last twenty years. The
most striking progress has been made t
during the last decade. Up to 1870 q
the industry south of the Ohio and t
Potomac rivers was limited to few |
charcoal blast furnaces in tennessee, i
Virginia and the Carolinas. The Il
annual output may have reached to c
., 900 tons in the best years, or less e
~ twenty-five per cent. than the Il
mount shipped to Europe alone g
rom the South the past year {
y months output of any of the &
lodern furnaces in Alabama would Il
lore than equal the years produc- q
ON of the best of those earlier plants. h,
n the beginnings of the earIy-day at
evelopment Northern iron-masters la
ere loath to believe that any serious OF
would result from the in
oduction of Southern iron on the \
arket They propheSied that the
dustry cOnld not last sufficiently
ng to become a disturbing element
the market. How much of fac iol
II it has developed into may be la
aimed from the statistics which bis
low that in 1870 the South made COZ
X per cent. of the whole country's al
oduct of pig iron; in 1880 fourteen pin
II cent; in 1890 sixteen per cent. -
ID in 1896, out of the total aggre- ~
tie of pig iron produced the South 8
ade 100000 tons, or over twenty <
+ cent. In 1870 the South had 81 g
$40 invested in the iron business: q
1897 over $3O,OO0,OOO, producing
output for the year of 2,2500OO
oss tons. Only three European 4
nntries make more pig iron than
South-Great Britain. Germany q
| France. The South is now far 4
the lead of Austria Hungary, Bel. 4
m, Russia and Sweden. As Z
wing the advantages of the home i !
lket, it may be stated that the
sumption of iron in the United 4 s
ties annually is $40 pounds for 4
h lnhabitant, $50 pounds in Great Z
tam, 200 pounds in Germany and q y
pounds in France. (
here we've mined in Alabama
le last year over 1000, 900 tons of z
ore, and this State IL now tine &
in the Union in the production
on ore, and the fourth in the q .
ulacture of pig iron. Michigan 8 q
Minnesota only surpass her one Iii
net, and Pennsylvania, Ohio and & d.
OBS In pig-iron output. Alabama. ( ~ ~
Tennessee and Georgia have not
ore but vast beds Of coking coal z d.
of limestone in the same locali- In
and in prodigal quantities, OF 70 70
he production of basic pig iron 8 -
eel by the open-hearth method Sc
eed Increasing in Alabama. and ksss