The age-herald., 1899-11-13
CAPT. BUSH TALKS
 ON IRON SITUATION
Believes Present Demand WilI
 Continue Through 1900.
FURNACES SOLD FAR AHEAD
Doesn't Look for an Advance in Prices President of Alabama Consolidated Goal and Iron Company Returns
 from New York City

Captain T. G, G,IBush, president of the Ala bama Consolidated Coal and Iron company arrived in Birmingham yesterday, coming direct from New York, where he had been for ten days or two weeks. To an Age Herald reporter, Captain Bush said:
 'I am now citizen of Birmingham. My business interests are centralized here and the business of my company can be better handled from this point.
 "rhe indications are that the present de- mand for iron will continue through 1900 at least, and that prices will not go any lower than they now are. It is fact that the furnace companies of the country have sold practically all their production for six months in advance and in face of this decline could hardly be expected.
 ''The pig iron production of the country has greatly increased during the present year, but it has done so without the build ing of a single new furnace Wherever it has been practicable idle furnaces have been repaired and put in blast, and great number of these are now in operation, but in all the southern states not one new fur mace has been built. One or two, I believe, are now under construction in this district, but it will be some time before they are ready to begin making iron.
 Doesn't Look for an Advance
 q do not look for any advance in the price of pig iron, in fact, I would regret to see it go any higher. It is high enough now, and any material advance would likely have a bad effect on the market.
 "For the first time in ten years the two Shelby furnaces are both running. For four or five years we tried them, first one and then the other, but the market was in such condition that no profit could be made on the iron and we finally banked both of them. My stockholders are now very well satisfied.
 "One of the Ironaton furnaces is now making from 16O to TO tons of pig iron go in blast.
 .Repair work on the Gadsden furnace is progressing very satisfactorily and We ex- pect it to blow in by December b. It will have daily capacity of 175 tons.
 'We will start to work on the Mary Partt furnace, in this city, just as soon as possi- ble. Just how soon that will be am unable to say. We are having some trouble in getting machinery for this plant. While in New York a few days ago I went to the Babcock & Wilcox company to see about getting two boilers, but that company would not contract to deliver them inside of four months. We will try to get the boilers elsewhere, but it will probably be sometime before we can do so."
 The Woodstock Properties
 When asked concerning the rumored ne- gotiations for the purchase of the Wood stock Iron company's properties, Captain Bush said:
 "At present there is no deal on between the two companies. The Woodstock com pany's properties are on the market and may be sold at any time. Their two fur naces in the city of Anniston are practically new. but the coke problem prevents them from being run. Coke can not be had for love or money and furnace companies that are not prepared to make their own coke, or that have no connections by which 1t can be obtained, must content themselves with idle plants.
 1.-The fact that brown ore is used in the Woodstock furnaces, also works to their advantage, especially in the winter time. Brown ore is collected from tine surface of the earth and unless stock of from 4O,- 900 to 5O,OOO tons is kept on hand severe cold or continued disagreeable weather, by stopping the mining, forces the furnaces to bank, Not so with red ores, that are taken from underneath the surface, where weather conditions have no effect on tine miner, We lost seventy days at the, ,Ironton furnaces last winter on account of bad weather. lh
 "We nave one good furnace at Gadsden, and that is a good place for the manufac- ture of pig iron. The raw materials can be assembled there at low cost. The freight on ores is seven or eight cents per ton, flf- teen cents on limestone, and we also get a low rate on coke" fit
 SMALL WRECK