The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-02
Expresses Views with Regard to Railroad Legislation
STATES RICH RESOURSES
Mir. erasty Believes Proposed Rate Legislation by U. s. Government Is the One Thing Menaclne
 Industrial Development.

will leave this morning. He is stopping
 at the Morris
 1 Having been instrumental in causing
 much outside capital to be invested here
 he naturally has a lively concern in the
 prosperity and progress of Alabama 1 Mir. Grasty gives 1t as his opinion that
 the sole menace to Alabama's coming su- premacy in iron and steel production lies in the proposed regulation of the railroads by the national government. It may be
 recalled that 1t was MT. Grasty who first induced John Sl1elton Williams. while president of the Seaboard Air Line, to buy a large acreage at Gate City and the old Mary Pratt property in this city. the ownership of which by Williams made
 possible the combination of the properties
 now owned by the Alabama Consolidated
 Coal and Iron company
 The controlling interests of the Alabama
 Consolidated at Baltimore manifested a
 disposition to part with their holding. MT.
 Grasty it is said, found in Joseph H.
 Hoadley a purchaser, and 1t is said that
 Hoadley is making extensive investiga-
 tions at MT. Grasty's instance with view to the acquisition for the International Power company of properties which will | form the basis of new plants for the man. ufacture of iron, steel and cement When these investments were being discussed yesterday MT. Grasty insisted that the re- suits referred to could never have ma terialized but for the general public con 1 fidence in the judgment of Richard Il. Edmonds, with whom he is associated in the ownership of the Manufacturers Record and in the high estimation in
 which Col T. c. Bush, now president of the Alabama Consolidated. is held as an
 iron master.
 Gray Ore,
 '.The one achievement" said MT. Grasty,
 ,in the development of Alabama's re- sources for which I can claim the lions
 share of the credit was, through per sistent endeavor and abiding faith con yincing my friends that the gray ore deposits in Talladega county were Of
 value in spite of an existing prejudice against the untried and unproven in ev- cry region where the supply of raw ma terial Is supposed to be larger than the | demand That is always the case in the | early stages of any sort Of industrial development where capital is in greater scarcity than resources.
 "But the world is now ready" continued l V. ago it was quite willing to wait for. | I cannot illustrate this better than by ouoting a recent interview with MT. Ed l monds, editor of the Manufacturer | Record, which was printed in the Balti-
 more Daily News:
 !" The total known ore supplies or the
 Lake Superior district are figured at about go0oO0. 900 to Oo00O,O00 tons. of which the United States Steel corporation owns about TOO OO0O00 tons, and at the time Of it's organization 1t figured it's capitaliza- ton on the basis of $1 a ton for the ore
 in the ground. At the present rate or consumption of over 30,0o0.oo0 tons or Lake
 Superior ore a year, the entire known supply of that region would be exhausted in 30 years, but so enormous is the growth
 of the iron industry that 1t will be but
 a few years before the annual consump-
 ton of Lake Superior ore Is 40,Ooo,oOO to
 50,0O0,O 600 tons year. The great question
 before the steel industry, therefore IS
 where to find new source of supply adeouate to meet the enormous expansion of the demand for ore. Alabama today Is the only spot in America, If not In
 the world known to be equal to meet this situation, and the tremendous de- velopments of the last ten or fifteen years in the Pittsburg and Lake Superior dis-
 tricts are now to be fully duplicated in Alabama
 "All of this points more conclusively
 to the fmmensity of coming developments in Alabama than the outcome or 'compi- nations and mergers that some or us
 have during the past year tried to erect
 and which John W. Gates has at last, to
 a certain extent, actually brought about
 The Railroads.
 But with all her resources and all her
 advantages the development of Alabama
 will he lamentably retarded if the CO., 4t. roiI da n o. velopment shall be curtailed by any dras-
 tic legislation of the kind so much dis
 cussed at Washington. The heads Of the Louisville and Nashville railroad and of
 the Southern have at heart (as they
 should have), the best interests or this district. As 1t prospers so Will the
 stockholders of those great systems be benefited.
 "But the interests of Alabama cannot he fostered by the railroads If any Iron clad rules are put in force-if help to new concerns shall be legally prevented
 The same rules and regulations which
 would make no difference to such lines
 as the Pennsylvania and the New York
 Central. would so cripple the railroads
 of the south as to deprive them or the
 ability to encourage new industries.
 rule that works well n section where population is dense and where manu- factories are legion. might be fatal In
  | industries few and far betweeen. | "This is admirably brought out in an 1 article by MT Sylvester rHvt"r in the | New York Sun, in w-..ch he shows how | in consequence largely of the efforts of | the industrial departments of the south | ern railroads, d great movement of cap | itp'. industry and population has been
 directed southwardly. In the discussion of l the proposed governmental interference | with. and regulation of the railroads, | there have been numerous expressions | from thoroughly responsible sources, of l the opinion that this movement is de- l signed to check the souths supremacy 1 in the production of foundry iron, and | to forestall and. if possible, prevent, the | south's supremacy in the manufacture | of steel.
 | of there is one city in the union whose | business men ought to oppose rate leg | islation that city is Birmingham. "The pernicious result to the south of { the proposed scheme for taking the con | trol of the railroads out of tne hands | of their owners has been shown from l business standpoint by Colonel Bush of Rirmin gham, and from the standpoint of | its tendency to undermine institu- | tions by Senator Morgan; and yet I find | that the average individual remains in
 blissful ignorance of the delay it would | cause in the souths material develop l ment. The fact that the Pennsylvania
 railroad officials have acaulesced in the proposed legislation ought. in itself, to | set our people to thinking.