The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-06
VALUE OF CEMENT
REMARKABLE UNEMPLOYMENT OF
 THIS SOUTHERN INDUSTRY.
Growth In Output of Pig Iron Tn Uni- ted States Doesn't Compare With Increase Of
 Cement

Baltimore. Md. July .---(speciaLl l- Tn view of the rapidly increasing uses of cement and the possibilities of ce- ment manufacture Tn the south, The Manufacturers Record of this week Of the cement industry in the United States. ana says: In 1880. the United States produced 2, 3,S0o,o00 tons of pig iron: last year the total production was nearly 23,000, ,00O long tons. or a little over six times ter of q century ago. This is every where accepted as one of the most marvellous growths. in industrial his- tory. and yet 1t is not to be compared with the rate of growth in the man ufaeture Of Portland cement. Wher- ever one turns he can but be struck with the amazing increase in the use of cement for concrete construction.
 Not only in great ofE1ce buildings and immense factories, but in hotels, dwellings and in every other form of construction work, concrete is every where coming into use The creation of the Portland cement industry as Q result of this form of construction is one of the wonders of the industrial world. In 1880. the total output of Portland cement in the United States was 42.000 barrels; last year 1t was 34,000 barrels, or over 800 times as much: whereas in pig iron production the output of 1905 was only about six times as much as that of 1880. And yet the growth of the cement in- dustry has in no way hampered or in- terfered with the growth Of the iron industry
 On the contrary, but for the creation of this new industry, the construction development of the country would have been halted. or else we would have had an absolute iron and steel famine.
 "Outside of the general value to the country by the development of such a great industry with It's vast creation of wealth and of employment. there is the great specific value of having come at such a fortunate time to supplement iron and steel, and equally important in helping to save American forests from complete destruction. As con crete has supplemented iron, so has 1t helped the lumber situation by coming into many forms of construction where timber would otherwise have been es- sential The demand for timber will continue to increase to such an extent as to endanger even beyond what we have heretofore seen our forest inter ests, and but for cement this would become far worse. This industry. there fore has not only the value of d new creation NdSt extent lO US CTGQlLs DuL to this 1t adds immeasureable value as supplementing iron and steel and lumber. Cement has simply come in as an auxiliary to help maintain our vast building activity.
 There Is no likelihood that the de- velopment of cement in the future will be other than an aid to the expansion of the iron and steel industry, for the latter Is growing with as great rapid ity as capital and labor can be found adequate to utilize our ore and coal resources But as we seem to be stand ing just at the threshold of a still fur ther expansion of worldwide impor- tance in iron and steel. with world wide expansion of every line of human activity, we seem to be but at the beginning of a development of the ce- mnt industry which, while the rate of growth cannot of course, continue at the same great percentage of increase as for the last quarter of a century, will at least in all probability. contin- ue as great in the actual figures of ad- vance as of late years. As late as 1900 the total cement production of the country was nly S,4O0.000 barrels. The next year it jumped to 12,70o,v00 bar rels, followed in 1902 by gain of nearly 5 5,000,000 barrels, and reaching in 1908 an output of 22,s0o,oo0 barrels. from which there was an advance in 1905 to 34.o00.0 900 barrels"