The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-21
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTH
Review of the Week by The Manu-
 facturers' Record.

Baltimore, June 20.-(Special.)- )-Illustrs- tive of the activity in manufacture rail road development, numbering and mining In the South is the demand at 'nore than one centre for labor. This seems to be specially the case at present in the Birm- ingham district where, according to cor respondence in this weeks issue of the Manufacturers Rscord, the scarcity ap- plies to all classes of labor. mechanics as well as unskiled worlSmen. Complaint' of the kind is made every summer, but the scarcity is greater now than ever be- fore ,and the country for hundreds os miles around is being searched for idle men, but few gre to be found. At the same time the recent influx into the dis trict has been so great that accommoda- tions for the newcomers have not been adequate. Since the census of 1900 was taken the population of Ensley. for in stance, has more than doubled and fully 1000 men who work in the industries there are compelled to spend their nights at Birmingham because houses for them cannot be built fast enough at Ensley. Hundreds of new houses are in course of construction, but by the time that these have been occupied. other newcomers will have arrived and demand for homes will be as strenuous as ever. In the meantime there is employment ready
 
 at this time. while several new industries are planned
 An interesting feature of the weeks developments was the arrangement made for fuel oil transportation up the Missis- sippi Though it will be many a day before the capabillty of the United States as a producer of fuel for its own pur- poses and for those of other countries will tend to make any form of fuel drug 11 F. AAI A1.. with the completion of arrangements for the transportation and storage of Beau mont oil. manufacturing centres distant from sources of fuel may become rather more independent of any one kind. Already stations for the distribution of the oi. are being established at important points on the Atlantic seaboard. and extensions of the use of fuel are being reported. one of the latest being that gas company of Memphis will. within a week or two, substitute oil for coal in the operation of its plant, with the proba- bility of similar charges being made in allied undertakings in that city. There is, too. the probability of the equipment of line of oil barges to ply between Memphis and New Orleans. This pro- feet Is independent of the one determined upon at New Orleans. whereby Beau mont oil will be carried from Port Arthur around the gulf coast to New Orleans and thence up the Mississippi as far as there Is a demand for the fuel and as the depth of the water will permit. Twelve new steel barges, each with a carrying capacity of 15,0O0 barrels of oil, are now being built at St. Louis for this Lew traffic. In which will be engaged also two whalebacks which for the past year or two have been grain carriers.
 The production cf coal in the South grows epace In the whole country the tituminous product increased between 1891 and last year from 1179Ol 23s 10 224, 7Sl,09l short tons, or 106.S67, S53. equal to 90 per cent; in the South from 24,T2,665 to 53, 3,22l,! !55 tons, or 2S,449.O9O tons equal to 114 per cent, and in the rest of the country from 9S.12S573 to 1n,5i7,S36 tons, or 7S4lS,763 tons equal to S4 per cent. In the meantime Pennsylvania remains at the head of the list. its bituminous out put having increased from 2,7SS. i90 to g., 9l4s40, with Illinois second, increasing it's output from 15.66069S to 27,313,29 tons. Ohio. which held third place. in 1881 has