The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-26
BY WILL T. sHEEHAN.

espondence.) )-Iron is the great cen tral, primal fact in the Birmingham district It is the fixed star about which all other commercial luminaries cluster and all industrial planets circle, and by which all planets and lumina- ries are governed and directed.
 Iron is Birmingham's creditor for the greatness of the past. for the greatness of the present. The roaring flashes of fire from the steel mills in the west reflect the rosy promises of the dis trict's splendid future, but iron has brought 1t to the first view of the promised land. Steel may bring to the district an epoch of It's greatest glory, but iron has carried 1t forward and made 1t what 1t Is today. The pride of today. the pride of the past stands firmly upon iron, no matter If steel should enter upon that era of greatness prophesied for 1t.
 Iron 1t was that made Birmingham. And regardless of what steel may do. for some years to come, Vulcan will continue to be monarch. and not leaf of his laurel crown will wither.
 And should the making of steel so widen that 1t will fll out the fields promised 1t, still will iron be the main- spring in Birmingham's commerce, for without iron there could be no steel aud without furnaces there could be no steel mills.
 Birmingham wrought well, gratefully and truly, when a great statue Of Vul- can, made of iror, was builded and set up in the Worlds Fair at St. Louis. to stand for the greatness of the Birmtng- ham district. Such tribute at least was due the metal that had been such treasure trove to the Birmingham district.
 No Iron, No Birmingham.
 frnn w0tll6 have been no Birmingham. The antebellum vil- lage of Elyton would have continued the county seat of Jefferson County and Jefferson County would have ns- ured in the commerce and anairs or Alabama in the same way that her northern neighbor of Blount ngures. and perhaps not so largely. A railroad or 50 would have pierced the county, no doubt but this big county, the pride of Alabama, would have been no fa- bulously rich district as 1t Is today, but a wide expanse of hillside farms, more or less productive, broken here and there with poor and proftless pine ridges. It might be said that Blrmlns- ham is indebted to Iron for her very existence. Well may 1t honor and pay tribute to Vulcan.
 So great has pig iron made Birming- had, and so great has the Alabama DE iron become that today 1t makes the market for the world.
 The Alabama pig iron today domin- ates the iron market Of the woTIo- n has proved one thing that Alabama pig iron could be laid down at Liver pool at a cheaper figure than 1t could be hauled across England from the MiddIeboro district and sold in Liver pool. It Is sold today in every state in the Union, and it.is sold in eighteen foreign countries. England, e4ertnahy' f~tn a for f0Un- drv iron. the census figures of the United states Government are author ity for the statement that Alabama produces the best in the country
 There is widely quoted in the Bir- mingham district prophecy made py the late Col. A. K. Mcclure, the famous Philadelphia editor, as to the spIenolu iro,, ma lxing possibilities of this sec tion. He was a great believer Tn tne future of the mineral district Of Ala hama. this famous Philadelphia eoitor. He had many eloquent things to say of the State. and I feel impelled 10 quote his iron making prophecy: Whlcn Is familiar enough of the BirmingnaIi district, but which is not so well known fin other portions of Alabama. Some twenty years ago. before the industry had assumed anything like its present nroportions. when 1t night be said to have been in It's primary stages, Colo- mel Mcclure wrote from Birmingham:
 Colonel MeC1ure's Prophecy. "It is idle for Pennsylvania and other great coal and iron producing states 10 close their eyes to the fact that we have reached the beginning of a great revolution in these products. NO reg islation, no public money, no sentiment can halt such a revolution when the im- mutable laws of trade command It, ana | the sudden tread of the horde rom the anf certainty threaten the majesty of the mistress or the world than does the tread or the | trcn and coal diggers of Alabama threaten the majesty of the iron and coal felGs of the North. These les sons come to us as plain as the monday sun and 1t Is midsummer madness not | to read them understandingly. We | cannot war with destiny; we can not efface the benefcent gifts of Him who
 leads the waters to the sea and who sends them back in the dews and rains of Heaven.
 l Alabama has been gifted far beyond our boasted empire of Pennsylvania, and only the Southern siuggard nas | hitherto given the race to the North. | Now there Is a new South with new teachings, new opportunities. new en- | ergies and manifestly new destiny | and the time is at hand when large 1 portion of the great iron and coal pro- 1 ducts of the country which enter com | petinx centers will be supplied cheaper | from Alabama than from any State of | the North. How Pennsylvania will | solve this problem I do not assume to | decide. but the logical result would be | the transfer of the portion of the iron
 industry that can best prosper there | from the North to the South"
 The writer might have been inspired | so true have his words proven, Ala | bama has not only entered the conn peting centers in opposition to the iron | and coal products of Pennsylvania but
 she has seen the transfer of some DOT | tions of Pennsylvania's iron Industry | to the South as she has seen, too, such
 transfer of iron industry from other | sections of the North. Colonel Me- | Clure's prophecy reached its fulfllment
 when that day arrived on which Ala
 bama fixed the price for iron for the
 whole world.
 On Authority of Edanonds. l The statement has been frequentlty made that Alabama is more richly en- | dowed in iron and coal than any other
 section of the country. For such a
 statement to carry its full weight it must bear the stamp of some author- | ity, however, as such statements may l be easily made and they may carry no
 weight or thought The authority that | goes so we'll with such an assertion is
 furnished by Richmond H. Edmonds, | the talented editor of The Manufactur- CTS Record, who has said, Alabama,
 more richly endowed than any other i State in the Union in its ability to | produce iron and steel at a lower cost | than any other section of the world, Is I ats @Rk l,A lAa 1aeg nf