The age-herald., 1900-04-12
MORCAN'S BILL
 FOR BIRMINGHAM Asks That Committee Be Sent
 to This District LOCATE ARMOR PLATE PLANT Also to Manufacture Guns For the Navy-Letters From Prominent Citizens of Birmingham Printed
 in the Record.
LOCATE ARMOR PLATE PLANT

Washington, April 11.-(speciaL)-With characteristic energy and with an eye locking to the best interests of Alabama and of the country at large, Senator Nor gan has given notice of his intention, at the proper time, to propose an amendment to the naval appropriation bill appropriat- ing five thousand dollars for the expenses of commission to investigate the Birming- ham steel district with regard to the use fitness of its products for manufacture into armor plate and guns for the navy.
 The proposed amendment reads as fol- lows:
 "To pay the expenses of travel and other incidental expenses of commission to in yestigate and report upon the Iron and steel productions of the Birmingham dis trict of Alabama, with reference to their usefulness in the construction of ships of war, their armor plating and guns, 5000, to be expended under the direction of the secretary of the navy.
 Said commission shall consist of three experts, detailed from the offices of the navy, who shall make an examination of the ores, fuels. fuxes, and other material used in the production and manufacture of iron and steel; and the furnaces and machinery in use, or tht are available, in Salu ulSt11ct, ana the Qual1Ly or the Iron and steel that is or can be produced in said district, with reference especially to armor plating and steel for the manufacture of guns of high power.
 "In their report the commissioners shall give, as near as may be, the cost of the production and manufacture of such metal and it's transportation to the seaboard, with such other facts as will show the cost of the same to the government if purchased or manufactured in said district, and its value for the purposes above mentioned"
 Letters From Citizens When announcing to the senate his in tention to introduce such an amendment Senator Morgan asked to have printed in the Congressional Record letters from James Bowron, vice president of the Ten nessee Coal Iron and Railroad company, and from T. H. Aldrich of the Sloss Iron and Steel company. In presenting these letters to the senate, Senator Morgan re- ferred to MT. Bowron as "a man of great character as manufacturer in the steel and iron industry.
 MT. Bowrons letter written in reply to an inquiry from Senator Morgan contains most interesting matter concerning Bir- mingham's industries and is very well worth reproduction in full.
 The letter is as follows:
 tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co,
 Birmingham, Ala, March 26. 1900 Hon. John T. Morgan, United States Sen- ate, Washington, D. c.
 My Dear Sr:-I am in receipt of vo,r esteemed favor of March H.
 l beg to state as follows:
 The Birmingham district embraces three distinct coal fields: The Pratt coal held, which contains steam and coking coal; the Blue Creek, which has coking coal ohiy' and the Cahaba, which has steam, gas and domestic coal. All of these qualities of coal can be delivered in the Birmingham district in unlimited quantity and at low prices. The present daily out put Of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail- road company is about 14,000 tons of coal, ana wnlist we are the largest producer in the state, there are many independent pro- ducers, so that there Is no semblance of monopoly The varied quality and suita Die character of these coals is perbans most suitably shown by the fact that amongst them they fuFnish the fuel for tne piast furnaces, rolling mills, foundries, steel works, locomotives, gas works, wa ter works, cotton mills, and oil mills of this district, besides being shipped in large quantity for the bunxers of steamers at South Atlantic and Gulf ports, and the coke is shipped for the use of silver smelters in Mexico and the western states Coke can be had as low as per cent in ash.
 The resources of the district in pig iron are based upon the existence of a horizon tai stratified bed of red fossiliferous iron ore, partially decomposed at the outer edge and running 50 per cent in metallic iron, but in its normal condition contain- ing from 32 to 34 per cent of iron and sufIi- cient lime to make it self-fuxing. This deposit averages in the working places in Red mountain from five to seven feet in thickness and extends without break over twenty miles. It is titled to an angle varying from 15 to 35 degrees. cropping out some 200 feet above the level of the valley. and is therefore accessible on both sides of Red mountain either by slopes or by drifts run in at various levels This red ore is supplemented bwSthe existence of very many thousands of acres of brown hematite ore or limonite, averaging from AS to 50 per cent. of metallic iron, which ranges from ten to fifty feet in depth, and which Is worked like placer diggings, but no hitherto by the hydraulic system. -------~~~~~-~~---~----~
 fContinued an Savanfh pooaA