The age-herald., 1901-07-28

tries at Pratt City, the three furnces or
 the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad o.
 the largest single furnance plant in the
 world; the steel mill. steel rail mill ana
 steel casting plant and shops of the same company; the By-Product plant of the
 Semet-Solvay Co.,. the Birmingham Ce-
 ment Co, a cooperage plant, the Ala
 bama Steel and Wire Co.,, the Ensley
 Brick Co, the Austin Bryan Manu1ac- turing Co.,, agricultural implements, ana the car works of the Southern Car ana
 Foundry Co.
 At Bessemer will be found five fur-
 naces, rolling mill, the largest pipe plant l in the South. fire brick works; and host
 of smaller industries too numerous to
 mention.
 The above list is not intended to De | complete and has been made up hurrleo- | ly, for the purpose of giving some iallle conception of the development that has | been made and it's distribution III alio | around the city.
 Coal mining done originally by the black
 smith has grown until there are more than | fifty mines throughout the county Tn oper.
 ation, giving. employment ito cOOV men a'iu turning out more than a half million tons of coal annually. There are numerous ore mines and rock quarries in the couh-
 ty, which employ several thousand men and add largely to the monthly pay rolls
 
 from the teamster with his slouch nat
 and long whip, to five trunk lines of rail- | road which furnish communication with | the outside world. The Louisville ana | Nashville, four directions; the southern | Railway three directions; the Alabama | Great Southern, two directions; the Kan sas City. Memphis and Btrmingnam' one
 direction, while the Birmingham Belt | Railroad, the Birmingham Mineral ana 4. ,lx,er r1,or, | and tap all the main lines of railroad
 reaching every factory. mill, furnace, | quarry and mine in the district Indeed, | but for her railroads, Birmingham's | growth would be impossible. Electric Car Line. | One hundred miles of electric car lines connect the city with the surrounding towns and villages, and make it possible | for thousands to own their homes ana i've | comfortably out from the crowded city l Two hundred miles of graded and macad- amized roads give an outlet to every part | of the county and enable gardeners and | dairymen to reach the market early and l return to their homes before noon. The deposits in the Birmingham banks | aggregate about $S,000,000, and bank clear
 ings for the year 1900 amounted to $4O,O0O,- | 000
 In Alabama and chiefly in the Birming- | him district last year the coal produc- l tion was 8,275, 900 tons. The production of | coke was 2,119 900 tons, while that of pig
 iron reached 1,1550OO tons. Birmingham | cotton receipts amount to 100000 bales an-
 nually.
 The money order business done by the | Birmingham postoff1ce from the sale of
 stamps etc, have increased from $68,OOO | for the fiscal year ending June 3O 1898, to l more than $1200O0 for the year Just end ing and the free rural delivery system has been extended so as to cover the en- l tire county.
 Forty thousand wage earners in the Birmingham district receive monthly in
 pay rolls, s2,5O0,00O This money going | regularly into the channels of trade like | warm, rich blood pulsating in the arteries of the human system, gives life and VlSor | to every line of business.
 New Corporations. During the past twelve months new corporations were organized to do busi- I ness In Jefferson county with combined capital of $2,899,750 Old companies in- creased their capital stock $2.52O00o. One | thousand nine hundred new buildings were erected costing s2,212,O00. One hun | dred miles of new railroads were built, costing S1 ,SOO, 900, and permanent improve ments, enlargements and additions were made amounting to $35S7,4lS, making a grand total for the year of $13,5S7, ,418 | Improvements along similar lines for the year previous amounted to 100000 There were five thousand transfers of real estate recorded In the county during twelve months ending May l, 1901, having | an aggregate consideration of &,0lO00O, while the volume of business done in min ing and manufacturing amounted In round
 numbers to $5o,000,000 and In wholesale and retail trade to $27,00O,0o0 The tax assessments of Jefferson County afn1 to. and will probably exceed that sum for the current year by $2.000,000. The population of Jefferson County has grown from 12,345 in 1S70 to 140 APO in 1900, while Birmingham and it's surrounding towns and villages show an aggregate population of 76,000.
 There are assembled in and about Bir-
 mingham thousands of men and women representing the best brain and brawn of every section of our common country, and a nobler set of people were never set adrift the tides of time. They are law abiding and God-fearing and have time from the rush of work to devote to the in- tellectual, religious and social side of life. They have built more than one hundred houses of worship; they have provided splendid school buildings and the best in struction for the education of the children of all classes; they have provided club nOuSeS, pdTkb anu SfouHuS ioi CACi Cioo, recreation and amusement; they have l built hospitals orphanages and mercy homes, which give relief to those who are unfortunate and oppressed. These things accomplished in so short a time and in county originally consid- cred one of the poorest and most back ward In the State, are but promise of | the larger things which are to follow. The wealth of raw materials in this won derful district warrants the belief that its industrial and commercial development has but fairly begun
 The Baldwin locomotive works of Phila- delphia which give employment to $500 men, and Cramps ship yard which em- ploys 12,O00, had their small beginnings There are numbers of plants here that have increased their pay rolls and larged their borders so much in the past that they may be expected to reach mammoth proportions in the future, and why not here as elsewhere? We have seen at Ensley the erection of steel plant with industries which follow It., give to the community within short while new population of 5000 people.
 Two new furnaces have been recently built, and there is in prospect the en- largement of one steel plant and two others are sure to be built some time in the future. Three New Trunk Lines. Three new trunk lines of railroad are projected, which will add to our shipping facilities and open up territory as yet un- developed.
 An arrangement has already been made