The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-21
IRON IN THE SOUTH
INDUSTRY GROWING WITH EACH
 MONTH.
Mir. Eclkel of the United States Cseolog- ieaI Survey Gives Interesting and Important Facts on
 Subject,

Baltimore. Sept. .--(Special. )-m an article in this weeks issue of The Manufacturers' Record dealing with the importance of the South as factor in the American iron industry. Edwin c. Eclei. formerly of the United States Geological Survey, writes:
 ''The great strength of the Southern iron situation lies in the quantity, quality and advantageous location of it's supplies of fuels and iron ores. From the Potomac to Central Alabama four ranges or belts stretch, closely parallel, the westernmost and broad est of these belts containing the fuel supply of the South, while the three easterIy ranges carry, in turn, the Clin- huxing rocks of tho valley, and the magnetic and specular ores of the Blue Ridge and It's extensions.
 From this peculiar geographic ar- rangement of the raw materials it is obvious that every east and west rail- road from Virginia to Central Alabama will cut across all the sources of mate rial supply. and will find on its own line coal. three kinds of iron ore and an abundance of fiuxing material. This is true of the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Norfolk & Western, the Deepwater- Tidewater and the Atlanta. Birming- ham & Atlantic Railways. all of which out across the entire series of deposits.
 If the belts of raw material were everywhere exactly parallel and every where equally rich there would be no particular advantages as to location along their outcrops. In that case a now furnace might as well be located at one point as at another. But the ranges arc not exactly parallel. and the ores are not everywhere equally good. It is this fact which gives a peculiar natural importance to points like Birmingham, Gadsden and Chatta- nooga,
 Tt is the ease and cheapness of as- setnbly of the various raw materials that gives the Southern iron industry its peculiar advantage over the iron trade of any other part of the United States. Pittsburg furnaces, For ex- ample, haul their coke and limestone but a short distance, but their iron ore, all coming from the Lake district, has been carried thousand miles by water and several hundred miles by rail Furnaces in Maryland, Eastern Pennsylyania and New Jersey use ore from the Lake district, from Cuba. Spain and elsewhere in connection with some local ores. On their Cuban ores there Is a water haul of over thousand miles; on their lako ores there is a similar water haul. with additional land carriage of from 500 to 500 miles.
 ''When transportation problems such aa those above noted are compared with the simple hauls of tho Birming- nam and Chattanooga districts, or even with the longer hauls of the Virginia iron producers. 1t will be seen that the South possesses an advantage which could hardly be counterbalanced by any possible difference in grade of orc. As d matter of fact, the ores now used In inc South are not strikingly inferior in grade to those shipped today from the Lake Superior district.
 s'It only remains to call attention to thA remarkable cheapness of Southern are lands. as compared with similar Dronerties In other sections of the UnI- tad states. In the Lake Superior re- zion. for example. the Great Northern ore lands were leased by the United States Steel Corporation last year on a basis equivalent to paying s5 cents per ion for the orc taken out this year. and n hiqher rate each succeeding year. The ores thus leased are not supposed to he of particularly good grade. as Lake ores go, nor was their acquisition a matter of supreme importance to the Steel Corporation, The price. there- fore set level for future purchase by ' other interests. and a short timo later | an Eastern company bought Lake ore land on a basis or Sl Ion Tor the ore in the ground.
 tbosa common in the South. The re- cent Potter ore lease by the Republic ana Tennessee companies is supposed to ha m a basis of barely one cent per ion for the ore In the ground. Of course. the Great Northern ores and inc Potter ores are slightly different in zradA. say, 50 per cent as aTAin"A HH