The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-09
DIMMICK TALKS
 OF HIS OLD HOME Words of Warm Praise for
 Birmingham ClIYS RADIANT PROMISE Improvements at Pipe Works-Msrser Discussed-speculatively Helpful, It Would Be commer ,iaily
 Harmful, Says te.

and whose son, r. D. Dimmick, is pres
 dent of the Dimmick Pipe Works com pany of North Birmingham, talked con fdently of Birmingham and the whole Birmingham district yesterday afternoon. Mir Dimmick's s visit here combines bus iress with recreation. Suffering from a severe attack of the grip, he came south | from Philadelphia. going first to Palm Beach, Fla, and coming thence to visit | friends and relatives of his in this city. While here he has renewed many de- lightful acquaintanceships, his old friends insisting upon llonizing him in spite of his somewhat impaired health. He will return to Philadelphia as soon as the weather there permits him to do so. Has Confidence In Birmingham. aInasmuch as I an living in Phla- delphia now" said MT. Dimmick at the offices of the Dlmmck Pipe works in North Birmingham yesterday. my views on subjects that relate to Birming- ham can be of little public interest. I | may say however, that I have abiding confidence in the continued prosperity | O. Birmingham and t1e Birmingham dis | trict.
 ''rhe new plant that is going up here l in the yards shows what this company l thinks of Birminghams future. We re- gently determined to enlarge the plant | of the Dimmick Pipe works 100 per cent. l This work Is now under way 1t will l be completed July l. We shall also in- l crease our capitalization from $20O.000 to 0OO. The company's maximum pipe now is thirty-six inches in diameter. l N hen the new plant Is in operation we shall be able to make a maximum pipe l of sXty-four inches in diameter. I cite these fact merely to indicate that per- sons who direct tho affairs of this com pany havc firm faith in the prosperity of the Birmingham district
 Merger Proposittr.
 Tn the New York Herald of Febru- ary 26 continued MT. Dimmick, was 1 printed an article on the proposed south- 1 ern merger. The whole article was in- l teresting and there was one paragraph tfat was especially Illuminating. The writer in the New York Herald pointed out that the British Tariff commission, which. acting under MT. Chamberlan's 1 ideas, made an inquiry into the cost of l iron and steel production in Great Brit 1 ain. Germany and the United States, and which reported to Parliament last July, found among other things, that the Alabama district of this country was l the cheapest producer In the world. Then the writer in the Herald made l this significant point:
 With this tnamely the fact that iron and steel can be produced more cheaply in Birmingham than anywhere else in the world) as a basis. union of the i large plants with a fair capitalization and abundant capital for modernizing and constructing steel plants might be- come the most important factor in the iron and steel industry of the world
 John Wanamaker's Views.
 "rhe article from which I have quot
 ed was reprinted in the Philadelphia | North American of February 27. l saw 1t while l was at Palm Beach. MT. John l Wanamaker, the merchant prince of Phil adelphia who owns the North American, was at Palm Beach at the time. He was 1 greatly attracted by the article, and. in commenting on the subject to me, said that he had no doubt that conclusions reached by the British Tariff commission
 were correct He also said that the Bir- mingham district was, in his opinion, des- tined to leap forward with tremendous strides
 "There can be no question that Br- l mingham is attracting constantly in- creasing attention from the financial and l commercial world The feeling every where is strong that great industrial de- l velopments practicable here, and that they will take place in the next few years"
 Views on ,he Me ger
 "Do you th.nl, the proposed merger would help the Birmingham district, and l tend to develop it's iron and steel indus 1 tries?" was asked
 1 "Well, I hardly care to answer that question specifically. The subject Is one
 upon which the opinions of experts differ. There are men, whose judgment I value | iulal xsrbO There are others, whose opinion l respect great l ly who oppose it. I am, on the whole, in- cl.ned to take the view of those who op- pose 1t. In doing so, I do not mean to re- l fleet unpleasantly upon gentlemen who favor it. If is merely a question of in- divdual opinion.
 Lamp of Experience. "In business. as we'll as in politics, there 1 is only one lamp by which our feet may be wisely guided. and that Is the lamp of experience l feel that experiments re- gently made in industrial combinations 1 do not encourage conservative business men to support consolidation as rule. l These experiments prove that recent con- solicitations of separate industrial plants 1 are not commercially helpful though they may be successful from the specu- l lative point of view When l say they are not commercially helpful. I mean that they do nc. generally become regu- larly dividend paying investments. Too l often the water has to be squeezed out of | these mammoth corporations before they | get on a sound financial basis. The re- suit is that the public suffers, and the reputation of the corporate units of the | business suffers also. I do not mean to say that this always follows. but numer- ous cases might be cited to justify the 1 opinion I have expressed.
 Conservative Course.
 "rhe Birmingham district is naturally very rich. and already it's resources are being developed in a way that is highly 1 satisfactory. 1t seems to me that it is wise to follow the conservative course in our industrial development here. When you get to the bottom of this matter there is only so much wealth In these undevel- oped resources and that wealth is just as great when represented by separate units as it is when represented by one mammoth corporation. In other words,
 it's simply a case Of the old mathemati- cal axiom that the whole is not greater than all it's parts.
 'If developing work needs to be done. 1t can be done by the separate and smaller corporations as readily as it can be by their combined efforts, directed by one enormous company I hope that the spirit of individualism will be cherished by per- sons who are engaged In this industrial