The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-23

 the other boy called out Mamma l wish you would come here to Johnny What Is the matter asked his mother, Why he said, every time I hit him on the head he hollers.' Now gentlemen we will holler a little if you keep on hitting us on the head. Now, please use little softer hammer, and please don't hit quite so hard"
 At this point President Flynn announc- ed that the time of adjournment had ar rived and that the convention would stand adjourned until p. m.
 Afternoon Session.
 The joint convention reassembled at 3 D m.
 1. A moment after President Flynn rapped his gavel MT. Farley was reeog- nIzed He replied to Colonel Bush's speech When MT. Fairley began Colonel Bush was not in the hall, but entered be- fore the speech had proceeded long.
 Farley Replies to Bush.
 Mir Fairley spoke in part as follows:
 MT. Chairman: l regret very much that Colonel Bush is not in the conven-
  what he said. There are only two points, so far as Colonel Bush's statement is concerned that l care to make any reply to- and they are that he absolutely denies the statement that the Alabama miners are working for lower wages than else where. 1 just want to emphatically re- peat the statement that they are, with the exception of the two virgInias, and think in my first statement that l ex- cluded those two states. 1t is futile for Colonel Bush or any other operator to get up here and say that because the miners work more days in Alabama than they work in states north of the Ohio river that they earn more wages per day here than there.
 ''The other statement that I desire to refer to is that he very Automatically challenged us to state our position, and confess, Mr. Chairman that I have failed to understand the operators posi- ton from the statement made by Colonel Bush. He said that I had never given any reasons why the miners ask for an ad- vance in prices. l thought while talking 
 fully answered the reasons. or gave req sons why the miners were seeking an ad- vance in prices However, 1t is apparent that it was not clear enough for Colonel Bush. l want to give a reason or two, however. why the miners are seeking a further advance in prices. The miners are asking 71z cents a ton, and they ask 1t rrt.- tt..s aa,,fa a ton out of that ss profit that Is obtained for pig iron. In other words MT. Chair man. three tons of coal will make a ton of iron, and the operators have been get ting $3 25 profit on every ton of pig iron made by the Soss company last year, and we ask that you. in the goodness of things. give us 221s cents out that $3.25 (Applause) Colonel Bush said that he would give me $lO0OOO if I would go out and sell No. 3 at s14 50 That proposition, MT. Chairman, might be very useful to him just now, because I intend to go after 1t If we keep out of war in Ala bama But l want to say that l am not in the iron business, and l don't ever expect to be in the iron business l be- lieve that l am in the work of my life and have no desire to get on the other side of the house. The good old-time re- ligion Is good enough for me. (Applause) However l want to say to the operators that 1t is not necessary to confine the prices to sl45O for No. 8 foundry. If the Sloss company can manufacture iron for ss a ton, and the figures show that they did then if they can get SIP ton, they are getting 8 profit. and we are entitled. as l said before. to at least z22 cents of It. (Applause) (Mr. Bush comes into the hall)
 q have just been saying, Colonel Bush, that I regretted your absence, because I am busy replying to your statement.
 Prices and Profits.
 "ls was going to say that Colonel Bush said that iron was going away down. and I have Just been referring, colonel, to that one hundred thousand dollar propo- sition you made, and I have just said that it was not necessary that No. foundry should be sold at s1450, because If SIP is maintained you get sS profit on every ton you make, so the Sloss company says, and their figures demonstrate 1t and I have the figures. Now. Mir. Chairman. l want to say that iron cannot go down very much lower. and I think the opera tors will understand it much better than I do after I make this statement, and that is, Bessemer iron cannot be manu- factured under sl5 or SIG ton. That is cost of the production, and. therefore, the Bessemer people cannot go on selling a low price of iron However, you now have from s6 to s7 ton cheaper cost in production than Bessemer iron can be manufactured at, and, therefore, there is no fear in my mind that iron Is going to come below the level of SIP per ton, and if 1t does come to SIP then you are amply able to pay 7ib cents advance on the pres ent prices. The Tennessee company-and I want to say to the other operators, that I am not using these two companies sim uly because they are the big fish, or bigger than the smaller fry and l don't { use those terms extensively; but the Ten nessee company last year made nearly two million dollars In profits They had for the first three months of this year sss4. 40s, and the estimated profits for this quarter. which will end at the end of this month. is straight million dollars. In