The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-09
BIRMINGHAM AND
 ITS POSSIBILITIES Writer in the Hotel World Tells
 of City's Greatness ITS LIMITS ARE GRANTED He Says Every Effort to Place the City In Position to be Given Credit for
 It's RIghtfuI PopuIa-
 tion Has Failed.
IFS LIMITS ARE GRANTED

By George B. Mcclure Staff correspon- l dent of the Hotel World.
 l Birmingham is rightfully called "the l Plttsburg or the South In the fol- lowing description. touching upon the l city's interest and her hotels, I realize l that it Is impossible for me to give your | readers A proper conception of the mag nitude of Birmingham and the immediate
 surrounding district. Birmingham is reached by five great trunk lines of railroad, with another practically ready | to begin operations. She has popula- l ton with suburbs of nearly 100000, ten or eleven banks, and banking institutions, 1 having a capital and surplus of $2OOC.- | OOO; she has the finest street railway well paved streets and miles upon miles
 of splendid driveways.
 cramped Corporate Limits. Birmingham suffers in the eyes of the | outside world because of her cramped
 corporate limits; practically the orig | inal lines of the city continue to mark the boundaries and the census figures contain and credit to Birmingham only those people found therein-less than half the number who really reside and do | business within the city proper. Every effort to place the city in a position where it it to be given credit for its rghtful population has so far failed. Blr- mingham is the center of the great coal, iron and steel district of the south. Twenty-seyen furnaces light the valley, and in the pas. three weeks a return to the more prosperous period. equaling that of last year. has set in. Furnaces that have been ldle are resuming operations, the rolling mills steel plants, and other industries ars humming with activity and the city tn. obs once more with pulse that speaks of life and growth. More than seventy per cent. of all the cars haundled under the jurisdiction of the Alabama Car Service association comes from Birmingham and the Birmingham districts.
 Coal Production.
 The coal production of the state has been on the increase each year, this year | a general strks affecting it somewhat since the first of July. The production has reached the enormous total of rearly F, 100000 tons annually, and the steel output cannot keep pace with the
 demands made. The total coke produc-
 llOn eXceeuS zioVOiVOu lOllSi HHllt tldb
 of iron runs over 100000 The output
 of pig iron in 1902 was 1.472,2l1 tons, while
 last year it ran over the million and a
 half mark. The estimated payroll of
 this immediate vicinity is placed at $3,000,OO0 monthly
 Regarding the hotels I may say that Birmingham has taken a lead in the conversion If hotels to the European plan, and in this respect is far ahead of most of the cities of it's size.
 Importance is Great.
 From what has been said it is evil dent that the importance of Birmingham
 is far greater than that representing the
 population and business located within
 it's limits. It is essentially a city sur rounded by suburban towns, all of which
 are of as much importance to the city as
 if they were within It's boundary lines.
 It is therefore proper to speak of Bir-
 mingham as the Birmingham District"
 which includes Birmingham with a pop ulaton of ever 45,000 people; Avondale, 1000; Woodlawr, 1000; East Lake, $500; North Birmingham, 5,000; West End, 5000; Pratt City, 1000; Ensley, 10000; | Bessemer, 1O,0OO; Wylam. 2O0O; and half dozen other towns. The foregoing are all incorporated. Jefferson county. of which Birmingham Is the county seat | had in 1850 population of S9S9 in 1900. | TAO, 42O, today 1t has without doubt 17O,- | OOS.
 Notable Buildings.
 Amonog the notable buildings of the | city are the Jefferson county court house, | one of the handsomest in the south; the l city hall, the First National bank build | ing, a magnificent ten-story structure; the Woodward building, ten stories; the | Title Guarantee Loan &s Trust Company's s building, nine stories.
 In the report of the Commercial club of the city for the year 1900 the gross volume of business in mining and manu- facturing IS placed at fifty millions, while the general wholesale and retail
 trade reached twenA seven millions. The increase in mining and manufacturing | for 1901 was about ten per cent, while 1.-the increase in the wholesale and retail | trade was about twenty-five per cent
 The bank deposits for the year ending l May l, 1903. were nearly twelve millions.
 Birmingham District.
 | What may be properly termed the | Birmingham District" includes the | counties of Jefferson, Blob, Walker.
 Blount, Tuscaloosa, Shelby, and portions 1 of Talledega, St. Clair. Etowah and Ma rion. It is said that there Is probably
 no territory of equal extent in the world l of greater natural wealth. The Warrior
 coal fields cover 7S10 square miles, the Cahaba field covers 400 square miles, the Coosa coal field covers 165 square miles; | the number of tons of coal to be found
 in these three fields is estimated at the | inconcevahle and incomprehenslble sum of 34.650 900 tons. This fact in con
 nection with the limitless supply of iron | ore and other mineral, makes it impossi- l be for one to conjecture what will be | the future of this young, growing and progressive city, which undoubtedly will some day nct so many years away, reach