The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-24

not HOW posSibie to buy Tor immediate delivery, either in the United States or anywhere in the world. small lathes. In the manufacture of lathes the products of the steel industry of the United States largely enter. At the present time, the demand for shrapnel and other ammuni- tion is so great that lathes of the size needed for the manufacture of this shap- nel are now substantially out of the mar ket that is to say, tools of this kind have been purchased by the manufae- turers or amn.uniJion and so largely that they have secui cd all that were available for immediate delivery. Probably the manufacturers oe lathes will push their plants to their utmost capacity realiz- ing that this demand will continue. They must therefore, purchase large quanti- ties of steel
 Promise of Better Things
 That the steel industry will recover and within reasonable time gain the volume of business which is it's best record since 1901 is believed to be certain. For after the war is over there will be a large demand for American steel commodities, and especially those which are needed for the reconstruction of industry. So. also, there should be such a revival of domestic business as will make it pos sible for Judge Gary to report, per haps at the next annual meeting unques- ttonably at the annual meeting of two years hence, that the corporation has regained its prestige and in doing that reflects general business conditions throughout the United States.
 Behind the testimony which James j..
 Hill is reported to have made to the rail- road committee of the Minnesota legisla- tIre a few days ago, brief report of which has just reached this city. there is clear intimation that the railroad com anv,fo f,f f1a Tx.f&o lfeved of the burden of embarra ssment which they have borne for several years and that this relief must be immediate It IS an interesting coincidence that MT. Hiifs testimony was given on the day when Judge Gary's report was made pub lie. For in that report is contained the statement that the decrease in production py this corporation was especially notice able in material used by railroads The demand for steel rails fell off nearly % per cent. By reason of this falling off a large number of the skilled artisans Of the Steel corporation found themselves without employment. There was nothing for them to do.
 MT. Hill also voiced a thought which has been sometimes spoken of in this city, and which contains curious commen- tary upon our business situation. He as serts that the railroads are so poor and so heavily embarrassed that they are now not able to compete with each other or with anybody else.
 One statement made by Mir Hill is in line with opinions he is understood to have expressed privately in recent con. versatons with friends in this city He Is persuaded that with the close of the European war the farmers of Europe will be busi1y occupied in the cultivation of wheat. There is clear intimation that at the end of the war and the be- giining of peace establishment Russia will have obtained the right to navigate it's comrEerce ships through from the Black sea to the Mediterranean. Rus sia and Roumania produce. if the weather be favorable, enormous crops of wheat Therefore, the chances are that an abund- an. and possibly an over supply of wheat next year will compel a reduction in the price American farmers will receive from their wheat. No doubt it Is felt here that in making this statement Mir. Hill had in mind the principle he has so long and earnestly agitated of dversification of farm industry-the raising of more beef for instance, and possibly of less wheat.
 This is precisely the attitude which IS taken by Mir Harding. now member of the federal reserve board at Washington, in a recent address to a group of bank CTS at Baltimore. MT. Harding is as familiar with the agricultural interests of the south as Mir. Hill is with the agricultural industry of the northwest. He knows cotton as Mir Hill knows wheat. In his address he counseled the planters of the south against overproduc- tion of cotton. believing that the wiser and more profitable agriculture for the southern planters to engage in would be that represented by a considerable di- vorsity of crops--a little less cotton, little more corn, for instance.