The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-06
MILLS OF THE SOUTH
WEEKS REVIEW or THE TEXTILE
 NDUvTRY.
New Companies Arc Being Organized According to the Manufncturers Record--Alabama Contfnues
 to Show Progress

Baltimore. July B.--(Special,) )-In re- viewing plans for additions to the tex tile equipment of the South during the past three months, aggregating nearly 230.000 spindles, The Manufacturers Record says:
 New companies are being organized and established corporations are add ing to their equipments of machinery, and the additions announced for estab- lished plants are about 125 per cent more than those reported for the new companies. There is probably no more emphatic recognition of Southern ad- vantages for cotton manufacturing than the continued movement of the Southern manufacturers to increase their spindleage from year to year. It is evidence that Southern cotton mill managers anticipate no difflculty.in re- taining their present position and even- tually predominating the words mar kets. This record of the second quar- ter of 1907 shows a considerable in- crease over that of the first quarter, when but 122,46s spindles were an- nounced The total for the second quarter is 227, 7,736 spindles. which means the investment of about $6,000,000. The
 established mills will install 167,s76
 spindles, an investment of about $4,-
 000, 1000, and the new companies will in-
 stall 69,s60 spindles. an investment of
 about $2.0oo,0oo.
 ''The figures by States are: Ala
 bama, 37,736; Georgia, 39,b40; North
 Carolina, 10s,460: South Carolina, 2s,-
 900. and Texas, 1s,0o0 spindles. These figures are for spindles authoritatively
 announced as to be put in position. but
 not necessarily already added. Thou
 sands of these spindles, however, have already been put in operation, other thousands are being installed ct the present time and thousands more will be placed in the mills within the next few months"
 In closing an interesting review in The Manufacturers Record of the iron industry of Virginia, Prof J. J. Porter. of the University of Cincinnati, sug- gests that the next few decades will show a decided concentration of the iron industry of the United States into three principal districts-frst. along the borders of the Great Lakes, from Buffalo to Chicago; second. in Alabama and adjacent territory, and third along the Atlantic seacoast. Prof Porter ex- presses the belief that in the course of time Alabama will outrank Pennsyl- vania as a great iron making center and quoting B. c. Eckel, formerly of
 the United States Geological Survey, as
 estimating the minimum tonnage of
 ore available in the Lake Superior dis trict at from 1,500, 100000 to 5000, ,000,- 900 tons. and in the Alabama district at 2.225, 900. 900 tons. he points to the con- clusion that the lake ores cannot be expected to last beyond 1850 if the present annual increase in consumption
 is continued. while. on the other hand,
 Alabama ores have been merely
 scratched, and, in consequence, have
 much greater possibilities for future development. The third great center of iron and steel making for the future, as Prof. Porter forecasts 1t, is on the Atlantic | seacoast The iron interests to be es-
 tablished in this section will, in his opinion, draw their ores from the mag
 netic ore regions extending from the St. Lawrence river to Georgia, but will largely depend upon foreign ores from Spain. Cuba, and ultimately South America. The fuel will come from the western borders of the Appalachian
 coal fields. The location of the fur naces in this third belt will. in his opinion, be governed by several fac- tors. chief among which is the position
 with respect to fuel supplies. and on
 this question he thinks there are but | few points more favorably situated
 tuary of the Chesapeake. the James
 river in Virginia, connected. as that
 district is, with the coal fields of the Norfolk & Western. Chesapeake &
 Ohio and the Virginia railways Ac-
 cording to the views thus outlined by
 Il careful student of the natural advan- tages for iron and steel making. two of | the three great iron making centers of | the country for the future are to be in
 the South-one in Alabama, which in
 his view is to surpass Pennsylvania,
 and the other in the lower part of the Chesapeake Bay region.