The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-14
Commercial Birmingham.


 ! By Robert Jemison. Jr., President The Commercial Club
 Birmingham is a city of Nov" In it's 1 immediate vicinity more than thirty . stacks are making iron from two to three | dollars a ton cheaper than can be made elsewhere. Hence the saying "Birming- ham fixes the price of pig iron for the l world" No panic nor failure of crops, nor national diversity can rob Birmng- | ham Of it's pre-eminence in the most inn | portant of all industries.
 | Even more startling has been the ad | vance made in the manufacture of steel. | The steel mill at Ensley is turning out | the best metal made, and convincing proof | of this is found in the fact that the Bir- | mingham rail commands a dollar ton more on the open market than the Pitts burg product. Another steel plant, rep resenting an investment of millions of dollars, to afford employment to thou sands of men, is now in course of erec- tion The iron ore beds of Alabama con tains 2,0OO,00o,OO0 tons and the coal fields contain 5o,0o0 900 tons.
 Birmingham is -eminently a manu- featuring centre because of the cheapness of fuel and the abundance of raw ma terials. Her heavy plantation machinery, boilers, engines, gins, water pipes. gas pipes and soil pipes find a market in all
 
 of iron are melted daily to be trans ! formed to finished product One-fifth of the sugar house machinery used in the United States, Porto Rico and Cuba is made in Birmingham.
 The finest clays in the United States are to be found in the Jones Valley. Hence clay working is rapidly assuming rank among the most profitable and inn portant of the industries. Bricks of every variety, fire-proofing, terra cotta, pottery, pipes and other clay manufac- lures are contributing to spread the repu- .tation and increase in wealth of Birming ham. Cement and concrete industries are likewise progressing with leaps and bounds. As a lumber market Birming- ham is making tremendous strides, and is now the seat of tremendous traffic in yellow pine. It has cotton mill of more than 40,000 spindles, and a hosiery mill in the textile line Altogether there are over 300 manufacturing establish ments in Birmingham, representing an investment of more than s100,00O00o and having an output of more than $S5,OOO GOO.
 Birmingham is destined to be the great est of the southern cities. Her geogra- phical location in the center of the cotton belt and in the center of the most won derful mineral region in the world, her opportunity for manufacture, her prox- unity to a rich agricultural section, with every blessing of soil and climate that man could desire, foretel her advent as the metropolis of the south
 John w. Gates, that shrewd observer of men and events, who has invested millions in the Birmingham district, may well be quoted in conclusion: "The direc- tors of the Tennessee company are spend- ing money as fast as they can do so and do it intelligently and systematically, and a al a nf for struction by selling the stock to the stock holders at par, with no bankers comms- siona of any sort or description-a thing almost unknown in Wall street. They allow their stockholders per cent for money advanced until the stock is paid for at the rate of $100 per share, and then issue them a certificate If this poAcy shall he continued until the re- building of the company's furnaces in the south shall be completed, and provid- ed finishing mills are built to take care of the product. the stock of the Tennes- see Coal, Iron and Railroad company will De selling 100 points higher than the preferred. l believe the four largest cities in what we term the south are New Orleans, Memphis, Birmingham and At lanta, in the order named. I believe, however that by 1920 Birmingham Ala will be largest of them all. I see no reason why Birmingham should not have 100000 people twenty years hence. It Wal certainly be the largest city in America not on navigable waters Pitts burg, or what is practically Pittsburg Pittsburg and vicinity), has a popula- tion of over 100000 people If Mir. An orew Carnegie had started out in Bir- mingham instead of Pittsburg, Birming- ham would today be the iron and steel center of America instead of Pittsburg, in my opinion"
 In brief form some of the things that Birmingham does and has are as follows.