The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14

Just as mother nature, the Bard of Avon and June weddings have decreed that in the spring time a young mans fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, Father Time and commercialism have set aside this month as a season of stock taking and counting the gains and losses of the legacy left by the dead year. So, an inventory of what the new 1912 finds in Birmingham as a nucleus for the de- velopment of this city as a. community of smaller industries can hardly be inconsist- ent with the January coupon clipping habit, the annual directors meetings and various other customs of the business world in balancing the debits and credits of 1911 with a survey of the field as an outlook for the success of the ensuing eleven and half months.
 The figures quoted above show that practically each output in the series could be doubled easily, as the capacity given is that approximately gauged for the present equipments of the concerns. But. In every instance, the demand in this. city for homemade products has not taxed the plants to their limits, and, ac- cording to each manufacturer, this is in large measure due to the patronage given other cities and disregard for the Trade in Birmingham" sign that night ly flashes a brilliant admonition from the roof of the Chamber of Commerce building, to spend your Birmingham made money in Birmingham built goods.
 In the paper box industry, which is comparatively new one for this city, the greatest competition is in the boxes for iniady's headgear creations, as many outside factories will pay the freight on these and sell them at just a trihe below local cost to get their goods into cir culation. The brooms built in the west ern pententiaries by prison labor are sold cheaper here than free labor. far removed from the western broom corn fields, can manufacture this household necessity, and 1t is this factor princi- pally that keeps the Birmingham broom market from soaring.
 Outgoing freight rates slice off an in crease of 9 per cent in the production of writing tablets, as eastern manufac- turers have the advantage in this, which gives them access into territory that Br- mingham can and should supply more than she does at present It is just here that the railroads can play an important role in the encouraging of local work shops by giving them freight tariffs that will permit them to deliver their goods as economically to their customers as other cities The Chattanooga wooden boxes and crates are sometimes pur- chased by Birmingham dealers for a half a penny less on the dozen than the local article, which is regarded as unusually desirable by the wholesalers from Key West, Fla, to Wilmington, N. C., where they are ordered In large quantities. It is only too apparent after an investiga- tion that Birmingham is capable of turn ing out anything yet invented or any s.. 1tpa .Nf wooden and paper carriers with broom. mop tablet and coffin facilities that even Atlanta, Ga, might be proud to claim as her own.
 Broom Factories
 To make a clean sweep of the situa- tion, one might consider the making of biooms as a beginner. There are two broom factories in this city, the Bir- mingham broom factory on Fifth avenue and Thirty-sixth street. north, and the Eagle broom factory, First avenue and Sixteenth street The daily output of each is respectively 40 and 20 dozen, with the former also producing 50 dozen mops' and the individual payroll includes, re- spectively, 15 and 5 persons. Oklahoma broom corn and Michigan wooden handles are converted into eight grades of ware house, common house, hearth and ceiling brooms. Selma, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery. Mobile, Taladega and other Alabama towns are partial consumers of this out put. 4ss
 In the very heart of the cotton mill district in Avondale, almost within the shadow of this busy place, Birmingham s only wooden box manufactory, the Bir- mingham Box and Veneer company, is located. with lumber yard attached and railroad lines going to it's very doors. Chicken coops and egg cases are made here as well as baskets, vegetable and fruit crates and veneer department even builds porch swings when there Is a de- mand for them. The weather, conditions that spoil the early peach or berry crop are felt at this factory as keenly as in the orchard, for if the frost nips the
 buds of this crop, there will be no use for holders The problem of disposition of the bits of waste wood, shaved from
 the gigantic logs of sweetgum and white tupelo, brought from the swamps, has not | been solved by any by-product plant for l this industry as yet, so it is thrown into 1 the steaming vats for fuel. Wooden | boxes of every description are to be | seen scattered about this plant and sight of the basket making process is in it. self little education.
 Making Paper Boxes
 In brick building of recent con- Structlon on Ientn avenue and SlN- teenth street. north, facing the rail road, stands the American paper box factory, which gives promise Of being one of the most thriving of the city s future industries. force of 40 peo- pie, which varies with the work on hand, presdes over the ma chinery that cuts put and pastes together the suit, confectionery and other boxes that go into many homes of Birmingha The lighter things of life, it Is true, such s 1912 models of hats, college cut clothes and assorted candies. furnish the chief reasons for the existence of this sub stantial shop, but businessMlike file boxes, cloth covered wooden shelf boxes, and pasteboard utilities of sev- eral varieties are also arranged side by side with the prettier specimens of workmanship. The boxes that belong to the more exclusive class of 200 per day do not mingle with the ordinary cases of red glazed paper that hold the penny a piece cocoanut bars as their cover ornaments of a ship scene or beautiful maiden were imported from Germany. America does not manufac- ture a complete line of such finishings. About twa car loads of pastebord is used by this plant month and all the tiny .cr.r~ oP pa v,or fhroUn aStd> hv tb~