The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-19

are part and parcel of Birmingham's big

are part and parcel of Birmingham's big ness.
 The prsSdent of the big street car company here. the lines of which do not touch all the towns of Jefferson County, by any means, estimates that his road serves a population of 137,000. His figures may be a little high. but the time is not far of when this single county by reason of its big population will be entitled to have for itself one Congressman in the United States Con- gress.
 If the truth were known with exact ness, 1t is perhaps right now the most important county in the South. not ex- cepting the Louisiana parish in which the city of New Orleans Is built.
 Basis for Greatness.
 The basis, the foundation, for the im- rnense commerce, for the great wealth of this district is in the mining, mak- ing and manufacture of its three great staples of coal, coke and Iron. It would be a rich mineral district if not a single ton of iron ore were mined during the year, for 1t Is in the heart of the great coal field of this district.
 But it Is as rich in iron as 1t Is in coal. The principal ere suply is got ten out of the red fossiliferous ores which literally form the great peak Of Red Mountain. The main vein of this ere Is of a most persistent character, measuring about twenty feet thick at the outcrop and extending under cover at an angle of from fifteen to twenty degrees from the horizontal to depth which has not yet been reached. Some of the slopes on Red Mountain have gone down 1000 feet and have struck no bottom.
 This vein, bear in mind, runs ten miles northeast and fifteen miles south west of Birmingham. It has been es- timated that this vein, If mined to 6 depth of only 1000 feet would give all the furnaces of the Birmingham district emo 1gh ore to nun them $50 years. Such are its iron resources.
 Its coal resources are even vaster. A careful geologist. with the best in formation at hand. has estimated that in the coal fields of Alabama there are 42,157,500.000 tons of available coal. If this were mined at the present rate 1t would last 11,55o years before the supply would be exhausted. Alabama alone could supply the worlds con- sumption of coal for generations to come.
 What a source of greatness is all this for ths main city of the district. She could not avoid becoming great if she want ed to.
 In the exploitation of these buried treasures, in the development of below the surface wealth Alabama and her mineral district are making great stu dies -Cortez PiZarro and de Soto were cheap sort of adventurers after all, and they didn't know so much about treas ures as they were given credit for.
 Alabama is 1oi lg well with these buried treasures committed to her care and for use. With population of a,O0o.OOO people she is making half as much pig iron as the United States was making twenty five years ago.
 The State was slow in finding her self She was more than half cen- tury old before she began to look around anI utilize the treasures that were at ,r fset. There were a few furnaces of a private character and run in a half heart ad way at the time of the war. In 1871 the first general im- petus was begun and the city of Birm- inghari started in a night in Jones Valley. In 1874 and 1875 new impetus and new power were manifested in the Birmingham district and since then the growth of the city has been like fairy tale or the prophecies of modern real estate company with a new plat to sell to home seekers.
 The development all but started in 1860. In that year the late Abram S. Hewitt, the great iron master, realized the vast possibilities of this mineral section. He had his financial arrange ments made, anl was on the eve of in augurating a great development when the war broke out The great civil strife in this one thing retarded the State for nearly twenty years. It was another part of the enormous price, that the South paid for her convictions and her principles. Surely no county, no section ever staked and lost more in a struggle against oppression.
 TC Fhe day of his death Hewitt con- tinued to think of Alabama as one of the very richest fields of opportunity fir the United States.