The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-01-23
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS
VIEW OF THIS DISTRICT

butter here by the ton; Irish potatoes
come from Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri,
Kansas and other northern states; tur-
nips are shipped from Canada; apples are
brought from Ohio and a dozen other
states; celery comes from California and
Michigan; cabbage, to the extent of 200
or 300 carloads year, is shipped in from
states to the north and the south, and
peas, navy beans, lima beans and onions
are brought by the carload from else
where. Even In poultry and eggs the
local supply is only fraction of the
quantity consumed. So while this is not
exactly a virgin field. it is evidently a
place where opportunities exist for prof
table undertakings in almost every line
of effort.
Compared with New England. which
has an industrial life of well-nigh 275
years, for the industries were fostered
there from the very beginning of the CO.
lonial settlements the Birmingham dis
trict is no more than well out of the
shell. While 1t Is true that a charcoal
furnace was built here as long ago as
1918, and that some fifty years ago Abram
now known as the Birmingham district,
and through what was perhaps the most
complete expert report ever made on the
district he was well aware of the riches
1t contained, and was only prevented from
undertaking its extensive development
by the impending war, yet Birmingham
was not founded till 1871, and it was not
till 1874 that the manufacture of iron here
began to assume any degree of lmpor-
lance. Even in 1880 the entire iron pro-
duction of the state was no more than
7719O tons, so that the main development
has occurred since that time.
In the light of all the difficulties the
south has had to overcome. therefore,
there is good occasion for the surprise
manifested by all who come here to dis
cover the advancement that has been
made In a district that thirty-five years
ago was unoccupied save by scattering
cornfields there is now an Industrial COM
munity creating products estimated to be
of an annual value of $7O,O0O,OO0. While
the Birmingham district itself is usually
defined as including the city of Birming-
ham and the dozen or more cities and
tCWHS WHICH environ II LOT an extreme
stretch of twenty-five miles up and down
the valley, yet it is the fact that the iron
and steel industries of all the cities of
Alabama are an integral part of the Bir-
mingham development, and the furnaces
and works located in them are In most in
stances owned and controlled by the COM
panies operating in the Birmingham dis
trict.
The demonstration that Alabama ores
are all adapted to the making of the
| finest kind of open-hearth or basic steel
is a fact of hardly less Importance to the
district in its relation to the possibilities
of future development than Is the cheap
ness in the production of pig iron by
reason of the advantageous location of
the raw materials 1t was In 1895 that the
first successful experiments In steel
making were concluded here. While OPP
erations have continued from that time,
| /. has only been in recent years that the
science has been reduced to "a dividend
paying basis Chemistry, mechanics and
methods of management were all requir-
ed to play a part in the successful pro-
| duction of steel as commercial PROPOSE
| ton. and now that all the difficulties
have been overcome it is without question
| that there will follow rapid expansion OF
| steel making in numerous lines