The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-05-22
CAPT TALISTS TALK
 OF SOUTHERN TRIP
Believe South's Industrial Growth is Just Beginning
MIR. MIDOENDORF'S VIEWS
Mir. Edmonds Points Out That the Ton mage of the Entire Wheat Crop Is But Little More Than Ala
 bama's Coal and Iron.

The Baltimore and Richmond stock holders of the Alabama Consolidated who spent yesterday in and around Birming- ham looking over the properties of the company express themselves as vel pleased with the affairs of the company under the present management. They speak in flattering terms of Birmingham and 1t is felt that their visit will mean much for the district, representing, as they do, vast amount of capital.
 They leave for the north this morning at s:1o oyer the Southern in the private seaboard car No. and the special Pull man car St. George.
 Edward H. Thomson, vice president of the International Trust company of Bal timore. departed last night for Mississippi in the interest of the trust company.
 J. William Middendorf, vice president of the Seaboard Air Line, who is with the party, is a well-known banker. He Is extensively interested in a number of financial institutions. He comes to Blr- mingham frequently and has shown his interest In this district by the efforts he has made to get the Birmingham exten- sion of the Seaboard finished as soon as possible. Mir. Middendorf said last night;
 Proof of Confidence,
 Tt Is very gratifying to me to see the interest the members of our party have shown in the properties we nave seen. Their presence here is proof of the con fidence they have in the future of this district and in any investments they might make hero.
 'Of course the present trip is made largely in the interest of the Alabama Consolidated, and we have given no time at all to the seaboard. I should have liked to show the members of the party the fine terminals that have been secured for the Seaboard but our time was so limited that I could not do so.
 Much of the interest that has been aroused among the members of this party in the industrial development of the south has been due to MT. Edmonds of the Manufacturers Record He has been hammering away at 1t for twenty-five years. and I believe with him that the industrial development of the south Is just beginning"
 Edmonds Enthusiastic.
 Richard H. Edmonds, editor of the Manufacturers Record of Baltimore, and director of the Alabama Consolidated, is as enthusiastic as ever about the south and its phenomenal industrial develop ment
 People In the north are wondering why every railroad that runs within three hundred miles of Alabama is making such efforts to get Into the state" he said 'It is because they want share of this vast coal and Iron business. There is a great commotion among western roads as to how they will manage to handle the great wheat crop this year.
 ''It Is estimated that the crop will be 800, 900, GOO bushels. That makes 24,0OO'O)O tons. The iron and coal business of Ala bama alone is 2O,OOO,OOO tons-only 20 per cent less than the tonnage of the en- tire wheat crop. Is 1t any wonder that southern roads want to come in and get some of this buisness.
 And Birmingham is the center of it all.
 "Just as Boston Is the center of the entire manufacturing business of New England, and Plttsburg is the center of the Pennsylvania coal and iron fields, so is Birmingham the center of the coal and iron business of the south. The business in these minerals Is increasing every year, and Birmingham is getting the benefit Alabama Is now mining one-fourth as much bitumnous coal annually as was being mined in the entire United States as late as 1SS0."
 William c. Seddon, prominent banker of Baltimore and a director of the Inter national Trust company and of the Ala hama Consolidated, Is brother of the late Thomas Seddon, who was for many years president of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron company. His father was secretary of war under the Confederacy. He said:
 Something New Every Time.
 q have been coming to Birmingham now for; thirteen years and find some thing new on every trip. The members of our party, many of whom have never been south before and some of whom had never seen a furnace, are delighted with what they have seen. One would think that the visits to coal and iron mines and furnaces would grow monotonous to them, especially during this warm weather but they are as enthusiastic as children Their visit ought to mean great things for Birmingham.
 I've find the properties of the Ala bama Consolidated in excellent shape and are pleased with Colonel Bush's manage ment of them. The new furnace at Gads- den will not be ready until about August 1, and that will add greatly to our ca- pacity It ought to have an output of be- tween 200 and 250 tons daily"
 FOR RELIEF OF RUSSIAN JEWS. HN...Y ..Y,,tftae tn MAet T0nInht at TAnDIf