The age-herald., 1900-08-05

| 1HIee YetiTS III EONSit9 dho hard work, success and progress. It was | August 1, 1897. when the newspaper which l is now the Age-Herald, and was then the 1 State-Herald. was converted into new hands. New life was put into it. It was expensive new life. With expense came | smallpox into the town. The people became alarmed. The advertisers withdrew their | patronage, and the struggle to make ends l meet was intense. Iron was then selling at | $6. .25 a ton-less than it cost some of the 1 furnaces to make it. Business was at l standstiH. Everybody talked poverty. Grad | ua1ly, however, the suns rays penetrated I the clouds, and matters began to brighten | up. Since that time the Age-Herald and 1 the other newspap pers have grown prosper | ous and Birmingham has developed won- l derfully It has expanded like the boughs I of a great oak. In its expansion there has I been strength and stability. The price of l iron, of steel and of cotton has gone up and gone down. Since August 1897, when l iron was $6. 9 ton--No. iron-it has gone | up, and quantities of No. foundry iron l have sold at s165O a ton. Better qualities have sold at higher prices. But No. 2, like middling cotton, is the standard of Bir- mingham iron Steel billets sold as low as s1e 50 a ton three years ago, and since that time have sold as high as sS5 ton.
 Within the three years over S10, ,000D00 has been expended in the Birmingham district | in extending manufacturing plants and 1 building new ones. In 1897 less than half million tons of iron was made in Alabama. Last year the production of iron in Ala bana was ,ess, s95 tons The first six months of the present year 6e5,sT tons of iron flowed from the furnaces of Alabama In 1897 hardly ton of this iron was made into l finished products in Alabama. Now nearly l one-fourth of this great production is con- verted into steel or iron pipe, or some other l finished product, and it is predicted that l within the next year fully half the total 1 production of iron in this State wild be ooii- verted into manufactured and commercial l products right at home.
 Not only has the manufacture or Iron l and steel. and finished products from the same, been developed and extended, but l all other forms of industries have grown l with phenomenal rapidity within the three l years past Bank deposits have more than doubled. Cotton manufactories have grown l LID and nurnberless small manufacturing l of ;Y,dc nd deSpr;DtiOnS l have been established within and about l Birmingham. Two new hotels are being 1 built, a new theater and a great auditor l ium have been constructed. More than a | thousand new residences have been built 1 several hundred new stores have been con l structed and office buildings and large l structures of other characters have been 1 provided for in the near future. The
 | newspapers have developed and grown
 | better and greater. Look at the columns
 of The Age Herald this morning. Observe
 l the advertisements-a true index of the
 | prosperity and energy of a citys mercan-
 l tile and manufacturing business
 | Everybody who lives in Birmingham is
 l satisfied with it and the people are glad
 l they are here. It is healthy; its climate
 1 is uneXcelled: it is possessed of all the
 1 convenienees of the great northern cities l Everything within it's limits is good and l being made better every month It has railroads extending in every direction 1 splendid street railway facilities, goon and l improving streets, excellent educational | facilities, and, indeed, all things which go l to make up great, prosperous and happy
 I cities
 Birmingham has its needs, however One
 1 of these things is city improvement as-
 l soeiation-like unto those in some of the
 l model cities of New Jersey and some of the l New England States. The fences should come down, the lawns be improved, the | streets kept clear of waste paper and re- l fuse and the alleys visited daily by scaven- l ger carts, which will do thoroughly their l work. And the dust nuisance should be 1 dealt with. These matters need attention.
 More policemen are needed, and more fre-
 seoeoseo ss eee eesseseeeees esesesoes | GRoGAN's BOYS