The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-02

Southern railroad. owning and operating
as it did something over 20 miles of
track This, however, has been remedied
by the repurchase of the road at cost
by the Tennessee company The Republic
owns, and always has owned. its own
railroad for the transportation of its
own coal which is cooked at the COM
pany's furnaces. where there are nearly
1000 oven in operation The Republic how
ever, has been much short in blowing
capacity, stoves and boiler power, and
as a consequence never has been able
to operate three furnace continuously.
The company's three furnaces are now
being overhauled and put in proper
shape. and by January 10 the company
will have by all odds the most model
blast-furnace plant in the SOUTH capable
of producing in the three stacks approx
imately 900 tons of foundry basic iron
per day, at perhaps 81 per ton lower cost
than it can be produced anywhere in the
world outside the Birmingham district.
THE Tennessee plant at Ensley has six
stacks Two of them, Nos. . and o. have
been remodeled into first-class furnaces
from the northern standpoint. No. Is
being dismantled. and will be rebuilt as
rapidly as possible. No. 3, and | will
follow. in order named, and when finished
the Ensley plant should have pig iron
capacity of from 1900 to 2000 tons per
day All of it will be converted into
steel by the basic process, and perhaps
10000 to 5000 tons monthly will go into
basic steel rails. which are acknowledged
to be the best steel rails rolled in the
world The balance of the Ensley steel
output win so into plates shapes, bars,
angles, etc.
''The Tennessee's seven other furnaces
will be rebuilt as rapidly as possible, and
when rebuilt the output of the Tennessee
- ~ IL. h. tA
tons of pig iron a day, in my judgment,
all OF which should be sold in finished
shapes: this, however is predlcated upon
our having a sufficient supply of skilled
and unskilled labor to develop our prop
erty and run 1t to its fullest capacity.
OF course, with scarcity of labor, as
now exists, our output would be largely
curtailed.
Man of Ability
''The Tennessee and Republic companies
are both managed by John A. Topping,
who is president of both concerns. He Is
a man of middle age, of great ability. who
has had practically a quarter of ceh-
tury's experience in the iron and steel
business Associated with him are lot
of bright. capable young men, who know
the iron business from A to u. The mem
bers of the executive committee are Grant
b. Schley, one of the best known capt.
talists in Wall street, and a man who
has had considerable experience in the
iron and steel business. l.. c. Hanna or
Cleveland, who has been in the iron and
steel business all his life; Il. w. Oglebay
of Cleveland who has also had life
time experience i'm the iron and steel
business, and myself. We constitute the
executive committee of each company.
and all of us are giving a great deal
of attention to the affairs of the COM
panies We are guided largely by Mr.. Top
pings suggestions and all OF us believe
that the ultimate outcome of the Two
southern companies will be very salts
factory to every stakeholder If they VIII
only be patient and stand by their guns.
"The directors of the Tennessee com
pany are spending money as fast as they
can do so, and do 1t intelligently and sys-
tematically, and are raising all or the
money for new construction by selling tho
stock to the stockholders at par, with
no bankers commission of any sort or
description-a thing almost unknown in
Wall street. They allow their stockhold-
ers per cent for money advanced until
the stock is paid for at 500 per share,
and then they issue a certificate. III TINS
policy shall be continued until the re-
building of all the company's furnaces in
the south shall have been completed ana
provided finishing mills are built to take
care of the product. the stock of the
pany will be selling at $500 share, and
be cheap at that price, and Republic COM
mon will be selling 100 points higher than
the preferred
There has been a good deal of talk
about the consolidation of the Republic
and Tennessee companies, but when that
will actually happen, If ever, | cannot
say; whether they are consolidated or OPP
Grated Independently. the result will be
practically as above outlined. as they will
not be subjected to the vicissitudes en-
countered by the iron and steel business
during the past fifteen years. during
which time 1t has been either prince
or a pauper some four or five different
times The value of iron ore for CONNER
cial purposes has been pretty well es-
tablished by the Hill ore deal. While i
do not know nor am / prepared to ex-
press an opinion as to whether Hill got
the best of the trade or not. Ii would look
as though 1t was a good trade for both
sides and as both sides appear to be sat-
isfied. | have no reason to complain or
crticise. There may be at some future
time a consolidation Of all southern iron
ore interests, but, in my opinion, that
is In the far and not near future. We
ourselves shall be very busy for the next
thirty or forty months getting our own
houses in order. and as l believe the
other southern iro more interests are be-
ing managed with much greater ability
than they were "a few years ago, / as
sumo they will be doing the same thing.
Would Be Unfortunate.
LAS affecting the possibilities of south
ern development / feel like expressing
the opinion that any tinkering with the
tariff would be unfortunate. in view of
.f ha