The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-28
5T TO MAKE MILLIONATRES BY THE sec

f orous, and possesses q wider knowledge Of the iron and steel industry. He Is handsome, courteous man of 43-a man of i the business office rather than of the steel mill.
 We are still under the head of recon struetion down in Alabama" he said, l when I met him in his Broadway office. i "fhe Tennessee Coal and Iron Is now being run to make iron and steel not for 1 Wall street purposes Development-that Is our main object just now. We have re- gently placed hundred steel cars on our 1 tracks, for instance. the first that the south has ever seen. And all along the line we are flnging out whatever is finn sy or out of date"
 John w. Gates, when I asked him to outline the policy of the Alabama enter prise, painted a resplendent picture of It's future.
 Well spend from fifteen to twenty five millions on Improvements" he said. Topping will finish what Bacon began, and he will have the money-the sinews of war-to make everything good as it can be. This campaign of improvement will last for two years more. It will take nerve and cash but we have both. Why shouldn't we develop that property? We have d billion tons of coal. We have enough ore to last couple of centuries All we have to do Is to put our house in order and go ahead
 The second largest company in Ala bama Is the Sloss- Sheffield. It. too, has been a big money maker. It pays per cent. and has a surplus of more than two millions in the treasury. Two years ago 1t surprised it's stockholders by pre- senting them with a B 1S per cent divi- dend, payable in common stock. fin addi- tion to the usual profits. Pounded twen- ty-three years ago by Col J. w. Sloss an Alabamian, it was taken in hand by New York capitalists, and developed as an up-to-date enterprise. Today Sloss iron Is famous everywhere among foundry men. On one occasion Admiral Melville iocularly explained the memorable run of the warshlp Oregon by saying
 You know, she was built of Sloss
 iron"
 Everything new must run the gantlet In the iron and steel world, and the Ala bama iron trade has had to fight It's way mp in spite of hard knocks from the older states. Twenty-Five years ago, when the first Alabamians tried to sell their iron in the north, they were either laughed out of the office or suspiciously regarded as confidence men.
 Iron from Alabamal Rdiculousi Wait till you see me buying a car load of Alaska oranges and then you can talk about your Alabama iron!'
 We prefer to use Scotch pig iron,' other buyers said, until they discovered that Alabama iron was being exported to Scotland. Tt is only d drop in the bucket" they declared, until Alabama be- came the fourth iron-producing state m the union. Tt is, of course, of inferior quality" they maintained. until 1t com handed the highest price in the market. Tt Is we'll enough for pipes and small castings, but 1t will never do for castings in which strength Is required" they as- serted. until it was found to be almost in dspensable for the largest castings. It is first-class in foundries. but it will nev- CT make steel" they averred until the southern railroads began to lay their tracks with the steel rails of Alabama. Alabama Is cut off from the water, and therefore 1t can never havea anything more than a local market" they argued. until they discovered that Birmingham was shipping iron direct to Yokohama, Japan, at a through rate of only six dol lars ton.
 ture and obstacles of prejudice The more iron thirty years ago than this one commonwealth made last year. With beginning of fourteen rolling mills, Ala bama will, before its young men are gray-haired be competing with Pennsyl- vania and Ohio in all manner of finished steel products, instead of making the comparatively small profit that comes from the sale of raw materials.
 There has been obstacles that Bir- mingham has not yet been Titanic enough to surmount-the scarcity of skill ed and industrious workmen. the insuf-