The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-13

generally as low as any one. We are trying to get trade. We give no discounts but many thrifty miners trade with us.
 We never deal in checks. We make no effort to compel miners to trade with us The storekeeper endeavors to get the min- CTS trade and naturally soiicits. The profits of our stores are not great. We have tried to break up trading day. Our company gives credit to the steady min CTS. They do not need to have trading checks.
 Readjustment Needed.
 The operators need a readjustment of the wage scale The contract of last year was very unfair to many of the operators in this district.
 In many cases it amounted to an ad- vance of twenty to forty per cent increase for day labor. Drivers, boys or men, get the same wages, $l.75 per day. A small operator getting out 15O tons a day has to pay same as an operator taking out 400 tons or more for driver.
 I do not think that iron can be made for $7.50. l don't think the manufacturers have made 1t in this district within a dollar of that price for the last year.
 The Sloss company got about Sl200 and the Tennessee company about Sl1.00 for their iron last year We have on the yards about three months make. l don't know what we will be able to get for 1t. When the last contract was made the market price was about s16 and there was an enormous demand. There Is no de- mand now and the nominal price Is SIS and we are paying wages on that basis. In February or March pig iron was SIS and the price has come down to $13 that Is the asking price. The first reduction was $2, the last two $1. 50 each. There has been a s1.50 reduction since July 1, and still no sale for it. We have SO,000 tons on the yard. Our base is s13 for No. B. and 1t is being sold for SIP for No ?, and no large sales at that.
 There are Nos. 1, 2, 3 and foundry; No. is s13, No. 2 is $13.5O No. 1 is $14 nominally. There are ten grades all told It Is not possible to control production of any particular grade No. is about the average. You cannot control in ad- vance the particular grade.
 overproductlon of Pig.
 There is an e-'er-production of pig iron in the country at large. The output of this year will be about 21,O00OOO tons as against about one-half that amount in 1898 This over-production will result in curtailing the output ana lowering the price, Many furnaces will have to go out
  ket will result in a diminished demand for pig iron. Railroads are among the larg- est consumers Many of them are failing to float their securities and so will not place orders for iron. I believe the price of pig iron will continue to fall, al- though l hope not. l have been connect ed with the Sloss company for thirteen years. The Sloss Iron and Steel company never paid but one dividend of per cent. This was about 1s99 It was organized in 1887 and capitalized at s5.000000, and s4,- 000, GOO of bonds at 41s and per cent The Sloss-Sheffield company never paid di- vidend on it's common stock. The Sloss Steel and Iron company owned four blast furnaces and the Sloss- Sheffield company own six furnaces and three-quarters of another The Sloss company owned an acreage of 10000 acres, and the acreage owned by the Slcss.S Sheffield company Is about 135000 acres. The Sloss never paid but one stock dividend of 3 per cent. The company has paid 1% per cent quarterly four years on preferred stock of s6, 700.000
 The common stock is 7,5O0, 900. There are s2. .OCO 900 of per cent bonds and g. OO0, ,000 of 4h per cent bonds.
 Prosperous Four Years.
  four years has been most excellent We began to sell in 1899 and continued selling up to August i, 1900. The market fell $1 per month for six or seven months, from February 1900. On the announcement of the result in 1900 1t began to go up and kept up until last year, when we had a runaway market"
 There was considerably more foreign iron brought from Germany and Eng land in the last quarter of 1902, and the first four months of 1908. The tariff on pig iron is a.
 On Freight Rates.
 Our troubles in this district begin with freight rates. We don't use 10 per cent of our production in this dis trict. The freight rate to Pittsburg to- day is 4.s7. Rates are very unfavorable to us as we must find our customers north of the Ohio river. The freight | n