Evening star., 1905-03-17
BIRMINGHAM OPENIN GS
FOR INCREASE OF LOCAL
INDUSTRIES.
Alabama Buys Tools Of New England
Made From Her Own 1ron-Oppor-
tunities for Capital.
BY VIM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence OF The Evening Star and
ChicaCo Record Herald

paratively little of the pig iron produced
In Birmingham is utilized for manufactur-
ing purposes here, and therein lies the great
est opportunities for the investment OF cap
ital and the organization OF new enter
nrises The coal and iron deposits are
pretty well taken up and their value is
fully appreciated. Newcomers must take
advantage of the low prices of raw ma
| terial and labor and the demand for all
kinds of iron goods.
Birmingham pig iron is sold regularly IN
eighteen foreign countries The largest ex-
port in any one year was 2S7,000 TONS
About 5OO,O tons is sold in the south ana
is worked over into steel rails and other
railway supplies, sewer pipe barbed and
other wire, nails, castings, stoves, etc-but
still nearly everything of iron and steel
used in Alabama is manufactured else
where There are few engine works ana
boiler shops. in the state, but not single
manufactory of implements or tools. ~,
Practically all machinery, lathes, drills
pumps mining implements and other
mechanism used here is imported from out
side the state No rails were MADE IN Ala
bama until 1900 Now the mills at Birming-
ham are turning out about 700 tons a
day. which are used by all the southern
railroads and entirely satisfactory: :.
The capitalists of Alabama are not m
sensible to the advantages of diversified
manufacture. and they are aware of the
profits in the finished article; but up to re-
Gently they have been ABSORBED IN tne pro
duction of the raw material, Whch paiu
still larger profits and utilized all available
capital
There has been a good deal of interest
during the last two or three years IN manu-
featuring enterprises. Within the past M
teen months 14S new concerns with cap
ital of 5000, 600, have been incorporated IN
Jefferson county, nearly all of them for the
manufacture of various products OF IRON
hQi
about. Some of them are not only credit
able but notable, and are likely TO at
tract others in competition, because OF thelr
certainty of success. 1t Is most encour-
aging sign.
Folly Easily Seen.
A philosopher cannot but see the foily or
shipping out of the state hundreds of thou
sands of tons of pig iron to northern manu-
facturers and then buying it back again in
the form of merchandise, with 50 and Slo
a ton for transportation added to the profit
that the northern manufacturer has put in
his rocket The experts have figured out
that several hundred thousand dollars worth
of finished products, valued from SlOO 10
81 600 per ton which might be made III this
community is brought here every year in
exchange for pig iron at Sl3 per ton. ana,
taking Alabama all together, these imports
will annually amount to several millions OF
dollars But the same thing Is true or cot
ton Alabama is one of the most important
of the cotton growing states, and yet there
are villages in New England with more
spindleS and looms.
Southern iron is said to make the smooth
est castings of any produced in the United
States, and for many purposes satisfactory
foundry work cannot be secured without II.
No other state produces so large quah-
tity of foundry iron as Alabama, and yet
very little is used here. The largest DO
mestic buyers of Birmingham iron, l am
told, are manufacturers of machinery ana
! +<,sl,- to ha wv W
the New England manufacturers of cotton
mill machinery consume large quantities.
Some one who has been looking up the sub
ject asserts that nearly all of the cotton
1 mill machinery used in the south is manu-
factured in New England, out of Birming-
ham iron 1t IS especially adapted to loco
motive building. also, and large quantities
are being sent to Philadelphia, Providence,
Chicago and Richmond locomotive works
for that purpose. That is the reason why
the new International Power Company.
which has consolidated nearly all of the
locomotive works of the United States, has
secured control of one of the largest pig
iron concerns In Birmingham.
Local Manufactures.
| There are several notable manufactures
here however. For example. the Birning-
ham Machine and Foundry Company, which
! came here from Philadelphia, has been
making heavy sugar machinery and en-
| gines for the planters of Louisiana, and Is
1
| now shipping a good deal to Cuba. Porto
Rico, Mexico and the Hawaiian Islands. The
| HardieTynes Company southern insti-
| tuition is building dredses air compreSsors
| and engines of various types, which are sold
| throughout the southern states and South
| America, and are now being called for in
| the north. The Means & Fulton Iron
| Works, controlled by Portsmouth, Ohio,
| capitalists, are making steel plate tanks.
| towers, furnaces and stacks, but much of
| their ma teral has to be brought from Chi
cago and Pittsburg. Cast iron sewer pipe
| has been made here in large quantities for
| several years and the output is annually
| increasing. One of the foundrieS has just
| finished an order of 10000 tons of sewer and
gas pipe for New Orleans and is now
| starting on one of 10000 tons for the Pan
| anna canal commission. The Decatur Car
| Wheel Works are turning out from 500 to
600 car wheels a day, and the American
| Bolt Company from Lowell Mass, is max
| ing bridge and building rods. nuts, bolts and
| other things of that kind. There Is plow
factory, a mandatory of gas and gasoline
| engines, and various other enterprises of
| similar sort, but their combined output is
| insignificant compared with that of any one
| of the great furnace companies. They are
notable, however, as examples of enter
prise; as the forerunners of great divers-
| fed industries that certain to be located
| here and Illustrations of what may be
| done.
States Largest Corporation.
rbo G