The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-12
Comedies Closely With Ut- terance of President Far
 rell of Steel Corporation
TWO IRON CENTERS
 TO DOMINATE WORLD
Mayor Hewitt of New York Said One of These Centers Is North and Other Near the Gulf
 Coast
By HOLLAND

New York, November (speeial.) The late Abram s. Hewitt, who stood almost pre-eminent as business statesman, especially when the iron and steel industry of the United States was under consideration, had the courage to predict at about the time when inc
 united States Steel corporation was under organization that within n faw years the great centers of the iron and steel Industry, not only of the United States, but of the world would be one III the extreme northern portion of the
 united States and the other within q Few hours of the southern norts nm, the Gulf of Mexico. MT. Hewitt re
 iefred to the Lake Superior region be- oause there are found almost inex- haustible deposits of Bessemer ores and to Birmingham, Ala, because it Is the center of the vast region containing rich deposits of basic ores.
 MT. Hewitt said to the present writer in 1900 that nowhere else in the world mad nature combined resources of such magnitude and high quality of the kind needed to develop tn iron and steel in- dustry as she had done in the iron and steel region of Birmingham. Ala. He went further, venturing to predict that within the first quarter of the present century, certainly within a generation
 beginning with the first year of the century, the Alabama region would dominate the basic steel industry Of the world.
 Twenty years earlier MT Hewitt had dared to say to the British Iron and Steel institute, which represented that industry in Great Britain, that within
 20 years the United States would take the prestige as the leader in the iron and steel industry of the world from Great Britain. II was a source of much
 qualification to MT Hewitt that he lived long enough to see the justifica- tion of his prophecy
 MT. Hewitt's prediction was accord ing to reports received in this city. brought to the attention of the Amer Iran Iron and Steel institute at its an
 nual meeting at Birmingham the lat ter part of October In private con versation, MT. Hewitt often said that | he meant, in part by bis statement | that the iron and steel industry of the world would be concentrated at two | points in the United States. one on
 our northern and the other near. olrl,
 southern boundary; that the time would
 speedily come when we should not only | have complete control of our domestic l markets, but also a partial mastery
 of the markets of the world of iron and | steel commodities.
 l When MT. Hewitt was a member of Congress, representing one of the New York city districts, he gave nearly all
 of his spare time to investigation into the resources of the south which ul = timately, in his view, would enable the south to gain pre-eminence in the
 worlds Iron and steel industry. But MT. Hewitt was member of Congress
 before the development of this industry of the south was undertaken. He in tended after he retired from Congress to give further study to the subject, but his election as mayor of New York city and his service in that office made this imnnssihle