The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-05

and steel industry in the south that are making the world look to this section as the one that will produce the cheap est iron and steel for the wants of man. kind.
 The charcoal iron industry, while it has been the important factor in the past, has for many years been growing less SO. Unfortunately for this branch of the iron trade for the past thirty years 1t has been gradually encroached upon by both coke iron and steel The quality of charcoal iron has not only not improved, but has gone back on account of the at tempts to increase outputs and reduce cost at the expense of quality. On the other hand the quality of coke iron has been constantly improved and at the same time the cost has been reduced
 while the development of steel at such reduced cost has the effect of practically squeezing out charcoal iron. Today
 there are but few purposes for which charcoal iron Is specified. It is still used
 to some extent in the manufacture of car
 wheels and rolls, but not necessarily, as 1t has been demonstrated by the chemist
 and laboratory that good wheels can be
 made without charcoal iron, in fact a large amount of scrap iron is now used
 in car wheels. including such refuse ma
 
 l For these reasons charcoal iron industry
 in the south as well as elsewhere, has
 been on the declin for many years Tim l Der Is too valuable now to be used in
 making charcoal for the manufacture of
 pig iron which as the result of modern
 practices, Is little better than iron made
 with coke and is not nearly equal to the l soft steel made by the open hearth pro- | cess.
 a. 1 discovered, the iron industry of the
 south will follow the Clinton ore ranges,
 commencing in eastern Kentucky and l West Virginia, passing through east l Tennessee, north Georgia and north and
 middle Alabama. This is true not only
 on account of the presence of ore, but also on account of the large deposits of
 colting coal found on either side of this
 range of ores for three hundred miles.
 This area is also bountifully supplied
 with limestone, dolomite, timber and wa
 ter and is blessed with the most health-
 ful and invigorating climate in America, with soil capable of producing as great
 variety of crops and sustaining a
 larger population than any other sec
 tion, and without excessive heat or cold.
 The south has just awakened to a real
 ization of the fact that for fifty years it has made the woefu mistake of shipping
 it's cotton, it's timber, and it's iron away from home to be finished. The establish ment within the past few years of cot ton factories, woodworking establish
 ments, foundries and rolling mills in the south are witnesses to the fact that at last we have learned the lesson that no country can prosper continuously unless it finishes its products and sells the finished product instead of the raw product.
 The question of ''the survival of the fittest" is not now an important one on
 account of the abnormally high prices that obtain today, but the time has been. and 1t will come again, when the cost of | production will be the most important | factor in determining the value of a | location for the manufacture of iron or | steel. The south can look forward to this | time with the knowledge of the fact that | in addition to the proximity of it's raw | materials, it's magnificent transportation | facilities, and it's geographical position, | it still has another and perhaps greater | advantage than all these; that Is, the | negro, who will be to the Iron and steel | industry of the south what he has been | to the cotton field. The ore mines. the | coke ovens, the blast furnace and the
 quarry are the home of the negro. He is easily controlled; will not strike; will | not leave the country. He possesses all | the good traits of the Italian, the Hun, l or the Slav, without any of his faults. | The negro, the blast furnace, the coke oven, the steel plant, quarry and ore | mine will be as closely allied in the fu- ture as the negro, the mule and the cot