The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-06
IN HOTEL LOBBlES
The Effect on Business.

/
business in the United States continues
TO increase and next year promises to
see new high records in every line of
finished product" remarked a member
of the Chamber of Commerce.
THE brisk condition of the iron trade
is. of course. we'll reflected in the Bir-
mingham district The pig iron mar
ket has been active for several months
| past and it is firm now at $15 on a
No. basis Twenty seven blast fur
naces in Alabama are in operation, and
/ before the end of the year S2 or 33 will
/ be running This will be as many as
We're ever available for operation at
the same time. The steel rail mill at
Ensley will continue to run double turn
! indefinitely. and by the first of the new
year the Southern Iron and Steel com
pany viii be operating its steel works
and its new rod and wire mill at Gads-
den.
"All these facts. combined with the
Tennessee company's recent announce
emnt of large expansion plans, make
the business situation in the Birming-
ham district look bright indeed, and the
future exceedingly promising. But
labor scarcity is being felt and will be
felt very acutely within the next four
or five weeks. What is a real menace,
however. to Birminghams permanent
prosperity is drastic prohibition While
this district is flourishng right now in
comparison with conditions here 81.
months ago, this city is not witnessing
a full return of prosperity evidenced
by the large number of vacant houses,
and if the amendment should win on
the 29th of November. fastening pro-
hibition in the constitution, the growth
of Birmingham will be seriously re-
tarded. l am told by officials of indus
trial concerns here that scores of white
families are preparing to quit Alabamo
in case the amendment wins. And all
this stands to reason. Skilled workmen
are needed in Chicago, Cleveland, Buff
falo, Ptsburg, and in all the othe
manufacturing centers of the north
And very many of the men we need
here want their bottle of beer and
maybe their high ball every day. I'M
der the stringent laws we have now
they feel that keeping liquor in their
homes is risky. There is too much sus-
picion; too much raiding. Life, they ar
kue, is too short for them TO be har-
raised in prohibition state, when they
can go elsewhere and get as good
wages, and at the same time have a
larger degree of personal liberty.
ing, is the water question. The Tennes-
see company has solved the water prob
lem so far as its own needs are con-
cerned, but after full discussion at the
Chamber of Commerce nearly year ago,
it was agreed that Birmingham, in order
to go forward rapidly, must have abund-
ant water at cheap rates for manufactur-
ers' purposes. The Birmingham Water
Works company has a splendid plant and
can supply pure water in sufficient
quantity to meet the domestic demand
of a city of 100000 or 100000 population.
But for large industrial plants there must
be an additional source of water. A
strong committee to take up and work
out this problem was appointed by the
chamber, but what has it done? Little
or nothing, so far as I know.
II am not a knocker; on the con-
trary I have been quite a loud booster.
But It does seem to me that the prohibit
tion agitators have kept everything so
stirred up and unsettled that we have had
little heart or mind to give practical bus
mess problems which require concentra-
ton and concert of action the attention
they demand. It behooves every man
who has any interest in Birmingham
or the Birmingham district to work with
all his might to defeat the proposed con-
stitutional amendment. The mere defeat
of that hurtful measure will not solve the
additional water supply problem. and will
not fill I'D all the vacant houses at once,
or bring diversified industries here all of
a sudden. but the tendency for good
would be far-reaching. With the amend
ment defeated men will take a livelier
and a more hopeful view of things and
the outside world instead of ridiculing
Alabama as it is now doing Will talk
cheeringly about Alabamas reaction
against frenzied politics and blighting
| fanatisism.'