The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-03

eAmong the articles in the 200 pages de- voted to Birmingham in the survey which which twill appear January 6 is one by Miss Ethel Armes, which is a picturesque and striking review of the history of Bir- mingham.
 Among other things Miss Armes writes:
 To begin with, Birmingham had back of it. in it's conception, the sincere spirit. It's founder, John T. Miner a civil en- gineer, was a man of distinctly patriotic strain, as he showed in the civil war and in all his works. He had not in the least the Spectacular notion as mother to his dream He conveived the city in the late 1s60s for a great workshop town as answer to the states. need. a vent for the great mineral resources which he knew to lie in the hills.
 An idea, then-so much to start with. It was then driven to fruit by a union of railroads, and fostered in it's beginnings by real estate man--stubborn, autocratic, your born speculator-James R. Powell, colonel, whom they used to call the Duke of Birmingham" the extraordinary head of an extraordinary. concern known as the Elyton Land company, which Miner originally projected. Not since old Colonel Powell was shot to death in a Yazoo sa- loon has any man stepped forth with h's heart so in the makngs of this town. In the old days it was literally borne aloft on Colonel Powells shoulders hailing the universe with millions in it." Caught eventually in barbed circumstances, the town fell, tripped on the verge of the pit of oblivion. Then came marching tla oa1 irn aon a
 After the crash late in the 1sS0's came an historic deal. destined to change in fu ture years the very map of the state. The little old Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company stepped down into Ala bama and bought up the big Pratt Coal and Iron company, then explained by Colonel Enoch Ensley, who poked fun at their "airs" and their plea to keep their name-"So the tail would wag the dog, eh,'' he said, and laughed a good deal. Then, all at once, this Tennessee com pany traded for De Bardeeben's great company, which owned "'all Bessemer and most of Birmingham and near the whole of Red Mountain" and for the vast Ald- rich Cahaba coal lands.
 Great times great times, those days after the great boom." Receivers just around all the ,corners Trades and trades again-pig iron up and pig iren down. d new mine opened, new furnace in blast, new company born, an old enc dead, DeBardeleben starting in again the game of foiiow-Ily leader: that's how 1t went, until finally the panic of '93 swooped over the place and let the town this tune clean over the preclpice and down to the bot tom.
 stunned thus in 93, all the folk In boom and crash and shuffe began to struggle out as best they could. The game of self interest got considerable headway At times. when the life and death of Birmingham had been hanging on the deals, nobody stopped to think of the place as a city. It. ran wild, grew any old way. At other times the unpro- gressive native element and public apathy and indifference stretched like wall across the pathway of the men who wante to do things. for there were some who wanted to build up the town as well as themselves along with it. They were merely in the general mass, commercially constructive men, gaining greatly in wealth themselves in what they made in Birmingham. They had go ahead grit, gumption. and. great business capacity; and if it has not been for certain of them, the Birmingham of today would not be half built
 In the year 1895. through the introduc- tion of basic pig iron making on com mercia scale, the Birmingham district was swung lnlO the way or Steei makfng, mineral property was trebled in value, and export trade increased. This was the work of George B. Mccormack, now president of the Alabama Coal Opera tors association, and president of the Pratt Consolidated Coal company; then. general manager of the Tennessee Coal. Iron and Railroad company. A first steel plant was at length begun at Ensley, where the first cast was recorded on Thanksgiving day, 1s99
 George Gordon Crawford is a leader, inspiring his men to press forward, to take the initiative themselves when oc-
 -''r cells. He stands in Birmingham as the leader of the steel business of
 south. a man of great constructive power. marked personal force and infiu- .nce. Inc plans and ideals of the Steel corporation he interprets in wise. kind, and far-reaching ways. In the orsaniza- ton of safety and welfare work in his company and in the corporation as whole he is an active factor. His aim is for efficiency. Facing the circumstance that Alabama ores. being low grade,