The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-03-31

dollars either by the failure of opera
 tors to pay these debts or by their fail
 ure to develop large bodies of ore or coal to which the railroads had made
 costly extensions of their tracks
 When 1t became necessary to establish an export business in pig iron from this
 state to Europe and elsewhere, the rail-
 roads assisted the movement by specially
 reduced freight rates and by the estab- lisbmept of bureaus of information, char
 tering the room in steamships at theic own risk and expense, to accommodate the inland shippers who were not Ill touch with the movements or ocea-i vessels
 When it became apaprent that in cer- tain directions, iron was giving way 'o steel and some far-sighted people pre- dcted the failure of the Birmingham
 district and there was general lack or confidence in it's ability to make steel The railroads came to the rescue ana by the subscription of s40O,0Oo equally divid- ed betwen the Louisville and NashViile and the Southern Railway companies
 rendered it possible to complete s-'- scription of s1,10O0O0 for the steel "orhs o+ Enslev. this in turn made possible the
 nrovision of steel at that point and Jus- tified the location of the Alabama o'ee' and Wire company
 If to rectify complaints of slow set
 dement's of over-charges, the merchants
 lend their powerful assistance to Fih- dictiye and aggressive campaign againse
 these public servants, and make IL pos
 sible by wholesale reduction or thelr revenue within the state to drive the
 railroads to the alternative of either los-
 inc money or advancing their rates to
 r,ortet on inc products of our furnaces,
 mills and foundries, will they not ma that they have hurled a boomerang
 which will return upon themselves? We must realize this district depends upon shipping to other states So per cent of the pig iron it produces, and In nara times an advance in the through rates which might be rendered necessary II the operations of the roads were renuereu otherwise unprofitable, would shut down furnaces and in turn ore mines, limestone ouarries, coke ovens, and coal mines' throwing out of employment thousands of men. who there earn their living. Thousands of houses would be vacated pay rolls would shrink, and merchants would find a serious decrease in the de- mand for food, clothing, furniture, hard
 ware. etc. In turn professional men, doc tors. lawyers, journalists, and clergy men would find a diminution of patron age. Real estate would shrink in value, the credit and prestige of the district would suffer, immigration to it would cease. and the carpenters, brick layers, painters, plasterers and roofers, would
 require to seek other districts, where
 work was plentiful.
 The difference between an arid desert in the west and a fertile farm depends
 upon the irrigation system bringing wa
 ter and giving life; just so in the ab-
 sence of dense population and an ade- quate home market, prosperity of the
 Birmingham district still depends as 1t has done in the past very largely upon the fructifying and beneficent influence of the railroads under the administration of the far-seeing and broad minded men who fortunately control them.
 JAMES BOWRON. Birmingham, March 30. 1904.