The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16
ALABAMA'S RESOURCES
 FOR THE MANUFACTURER

If this is a good showing for coal, what can be said of the iron ore and limestone The Mesaba Ore beds. of the West, were hailed throughout the iron world as the, greatest find of the age, because of theff vastness and richness; but little was said of the distance these ores were to be hauled. and the cost of transportation. The fact of discovery and certainty of supply gave hope to the iron masters of the Pitts burg district of continuation of their supremacy. But Is this hope well founds ed, in view of the ores of Alabama There is one vein or iron ore in Red Mountain running parallel with the Alabama Great Southern Railroad. Q distance of 1e4 miles. whose average thickness is twenty feet by two miles wide, carrying an average analysis Of fifty per cent metallic iron, There arp iron furnaces at both ends. coal and limestone so distributed that in most cases no transportation Is necessary, and in any case the expense of haul- ing Is nominal There are numerous other veins or iron ore, both in the territory, equally as rich, or richer. and as inexhaustible, which have never been pierced by the pick of the miner. They. like other valuable minerals held in fthe bosom of Alabama, are lying. waitlng for the hand of the developer. But with the~ natural advantage of nQanufacture offered here. the low cost of production. by reason of the high ly favorable conditions. what chance will Pittsburg, or any other district have. in the race for Iron supremacy, when Alabamas mineral wealth reaches as high state of development as they have lafready attained? There Ia Eaer1S Ira sae~11 district alone. to supply every furnace in America, running at full capacity, every day and night for a thousand, years. Only a few. years ago the iron masters of Pennsylvania went to great pains to show that steel could not be made from Alabama iron.
 steeI-Making in Alabama.
 Today tHsFe is a great steel mill at Ensley, turning out boiler plate, rods and rail, at such profit to the owners, and prices to the consumers, as to make the steel trust not only sit up and take notice. but to cause alarm at the invasion of their hitherto ex- elusive territory. At Alabama City there Is another steel min devoted entirely to the production of blooms and btllets. and not day since it be- gan operation. has 1t been able to supply the demand for its product. And yet the iron and steel industry of Alabama is. in its infancy. It has barely started: for the ore beds and coal mines. have scarcely been scratched on their out croppings. Enough, however, has been accomplish ed to demonstrate the victories won by our fair State. in this bloodIess battle of Commercial and Industrial conflict. If our achievements in Iron making have been great, they have not been single centered nor confined to one industry alone
 Just now there isN a widespread awakening to the fact that along the Alabama river is found a high grade of cement rock. so rich and vast in quantity, as to offer the most alluring prospects for profitable investment. In the central part of the State, known as the Black Belt. Is found 8 deposit of Selma chalk. commonly designated rotten limestone. varing in thickness from 300 to 1.200 feet. There are sev- eral varieties of greater or less value, in making Portland Cement, but those referred to here, which underly the Black Belt, carry an analysis of seventy-five per cent. or more. of lime carbonate and are exceptionally valu- able as Cement material. on account of their softness and the ease with which crushed and quarried.
 These chalk beds of the cretaceous possess many economic advantages over most of the limestone which oc- CUTS elsewhere near the Atlantic Coast and are superior to the chalk deposits found in the North and West by req son of a higher percentage of lime carbonate. greater uniformity of es- sential ingredients. and less refractory in quarrying and crushing. Then, too, the benefioence of Nature is again shown in placing such great wealth in such accessible places. The clays necessary for mixing, lie along side the great white cliffs, inviting the manufactures to come and help him- self and his State, to bounteous and certain wealth.
 Located as these deposits are, on a river navigable all the year to tide water, and bisected by railroads reach ing the coal fields. what more invit- ing proposition can one wane than this offers.
 Portland Cement.
 Alabama is the pioneer Southern State in the manufacture of Portland Cement. and is just now becoming alive to the fact that in its development and manufacture are possibilities equal to. If not superior, to that of iron and steel manufacture. The Panama Canal will tax the output of American kilns to supply the demand for that gigantic undertaking.
 Millions of barrels of Portland Ce- ment will be used in the construction of the locks and dams and concrete work, necessary to be done The Ala bama plants are more favorably To- cated than any other in the country to fill this demand, because the pro. duct can be floated by barge direct from the kilns to the coast. at little or no cost; whereas other plants, in various parts of the United States, must not only ship by rail to the port, but must pay a higher ocean rate to the isthmus. on account of the longer distance; nor does the advantage stop here. The cost of the manufacture ia less to the. Alabama plant, on account of superior raw material and low cost of fuel which Is about seventy per cent of the cost of productions; SO that on fair competitive basis and