The age-herald., 1901-07-28


 bama coal will be nearer the sea than any other soft coal, and it will be floated
 to the sea in barges directly from the mine.
 Let us assume that the price at the sea will be $1.5O-two dollars less than the
 best steam coal is worth in Newcastle does anyone ddui5t what tisfss means? It
 means that Ensiish coal will be driven
 out of the West indies, out of all South | American ports, and that 1t will have to
 contend in European markets with no ad-
 vantages in it's favor. It is taxed at home.
 and it is becoming both dearer and
 scarcer at the pits mouth. It must be supplanted in the long run by Alabama coal.
 The Monongahela people already see that Alabama coal will fill the markets of the Lower Mississippi, and Pittsburg coal will be altogether driven out They have secured three Walker county plants.
 thus admitting that Alabama coal can be laid down at lower prices in New Orleans even when 1t has to pay railroad rates. Now, think what Birmingham and Jones Valley will be when its iron and coal can be laid down at the sea at rates that cannot be elsewhere, met. It means an iron production of at least five mill lion tons, and coal production of at least twenty million tons. Even then the iron production would be below that of the Pittsburg district or of Ohio and the
 coal production below that of West Vir- ginia, and there will be then no reason why this district should be below either
 But I prefer to be conservative. When
 the iron production is expanded five times,
 as 1t must be in order to supply an iron hungry world, the population of Jones
 Valley will be expanded in like proportion, and this district will become known as one of the busiest industrial spots in the world. leave ito the reader the filling in of the picture which will prove not one bit overdrawn when there is an open
 Warrior The world Is waiting for cheaper iron and cheaper steam coal; we have got 1t here fin these red hills of Ala bama, and the missing link is an open
 Warrior That is all. The Lake Borgne
 canal Is completed, affording protected
 channel from Mobile harbor to New Or
 leans and like channels can readily be thus giving accession in all weather to the barges from the mines and mills of | this district, thus practically bringing the | ships that enter the three great gulf ports | to this district, thus placing below each l cargo of cotton either coal or iron as bal 1 last.
 Nor is this all This district will never
 be content to supply the world with pig l iron and coal merely. Here will be the | seat of numberless factories. because here l iron and steel and ruef can be had at the lowest possible terms Here ship piade> will be made, and sugar mills and asricui- tural implements, and rails, and a thou>
 sand other articles that enter into the daily life of the nations. The world could
 get along without the other metals, but
 not without iron. It is the one indespens-
 able metal. It has been so in all recorded
 times. and it always will be so. Here. too. fire brick and cement will be made in great quantities ito be fioated down the Warrior to the markets of the world.
 Who then can name a limit to the possi-
 bilities of this district when 1t has an open river? When it has a 35-cent rate to the sea? But the giories of this district will not be complete until it's water system is ex- tended to the Pacific. When a Nicarauga canal is built does any one doubt where the coal and iron, at least that tho vast populations of the Pacific ocean need. will come from? Cost at the sea and dis tanoes at sea are alike against TnglaRd. Pittsburg and West Virginia. The n. of the Warrior and the Atlantfc-mQ the Nfcarauga canal will be na neighbors. relatively spealinE
 ships that carry cotton t0f
 each and all carry irG(
 1 The Nicaraugs