The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-24
BIRMINGHAM
Why It Is the Natural and Logical
Trade Center of Alabama


entered In prize contest of Birming
ham Business Mems League.)
It has been said that God made
the country, and man made the town.
This may apply to towns, but 1t is
the foundations for great trade and
Industrial centers.
The former are many, but the lat
ter are few. and are especially favored
by some basics for supplies for food
and raiment, which come largely by
we'll directed effort In conjunction with
the supplies and bounties of nature.
At Birmingham the basics consist of
several things, the development of cith-
err one Of which may be ciassed as a
barometer of trade For years, the lime
rock that lay about 1t was unnoticed.
The many miles of hardwoods that sur
rounded 1t was thought to be accident.
The finding of coal in the same terri
tory made the thinker think. 1t sug-
gested the testing of the vast beds and
seams of red and brown substances.
which proved to be the finest kinds
or iron ore.
Here was the secret. BY 1t the
plan of nature was revealed and the
fact demonstrated that God had also
had a hand in the making of Birming-
ham as we'll as the country. The fact
that, perhaps, no equal area was so
well equipped In limestone, hardwoods,
coal md iron-not to mention climate
and good water-settled 1t. Other places
had them; but, II SO fortunate, they
were SO far apart and required such
long hauls to get them together to
combine their values that such attend
ant expense was a profit that would
give the odds to Birmingham and en-
them.
Wise business men say this and
bought and builded. Labor came and
found waiting employment. More cap
ital wasAattracted and found the profits
unlimited in the converting of ma
terials into products that the outside
world needed and was ready to ex-
change money for
The process was mutual and cump-
|
to say nothing OF the prospective re-
manufacture into finished products.
The railroads saw the situation and
centered there. New banks were add
ed, and larger business houses took
the places OF smaller ones, as more
people flocked to It in the assurance
of profitable employment and remuner-
alive businesses
This was all natural-ismply the law
of supply and demand put into execu-
ton as soon as the Columbus had been
found. More people camel more were
ito feed, more to do business with, and
hence better roads brought the profit
sharing farmer closer in with his pro-
ducts; an elegant system of street rail-
ways came to take residents to and
from their homes, to palatial churohes
and to elegant school buildings. Mag
nificent playhouses, metropolitan stores
and convenient railroads with weekend
rates added to the visits from nearby
towns and gradually widening terri
tory that proflted in the reciprocity Of
interests.
These are the reasons why Birmingham
is now the natural and logical retail cen
ter of north Alabama and adjacent terri
tory Its growth to this distinction is
but modern history, and the same reasons
are equally as logical for doubling Its
population many times over, as its bust
ness circles widens. 1t Is equally as
natural, and far easier, for an Industrial
center to get its second than its first
Ino mn 1ot ion ha a
demands and interests increase. The
basics bring the first; the mandatory
of the basics into finished products de-
mand the hitter.
Already has natural gas been added to
its nearby territory. Already has it be-
gun to manufacture its basic products
into the finished; and this Is but the sec
ond step in the law of sequence and null
tiplied profits. Yea, verify, it is by no
means certain that Birmingham will long
ship out hardwoods and pig iron. She is
already sending out steel instead of iron,
and 1t is but another logical sequence that
the day is not far distant when all of her
products will be required to meet her
own demands in finished products
The above conditions have already
made The Magic City one of the most
marvellous in the history of this country.
Nearly all the great railroads. like the
country roads, already lead to Birming-
ham. 1t has one of the best and most
complete systems of street railways in
any country. 1t has an army of the
Invest and most wide-awake business men.
Its churches, schools and theatres are I'M
surpassed. Its stores are metropolitan,
with owners that invite new trade, and
use the low rates and weekend attrac-
lions to bring it. The nearby towns have
ceased to be rivals, but on the other hand
have Joined the profit-sharing farmer
in the community of interests.
OF the future, what Is the answer?
There can be but one, SO long as the laws
of sequence remain the same. The adj
ditional mills and plants for finished prod
ucts answer 1t. They are also coming
for cause; and to grind with the water
that has heretofore been past at the first
MILL They simply mean Greater Birming-
him, and with the new avenues of the
Panama canal. and the demands of other
countries that still are young. that is
limitations are beyond local circle, and
even beyond the seas. Nature planned
Birmingham.