The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-05


 A Weaver. president of the Columbus h. surance and Banking company. who re- cently suffered physical breakdown on account of overwork and took 8 trip to Cuba to recuperate, has returned. His health has been completely restored ana he is looking and feeling better than at any time for several years past
 -~-~>~-~~~~>~-----~~~- ~~----~-~-~->~~~-~~~~~~~~> many not su much of food as of supplies needed tC carry on the war.
 On March l there came authoritative an- uouncement from Washington that one of the great chemists of the United States who has been working at Columbia uni versity in New York has achieved so greatly that the United States will be wonderfully benefited by his discoveries, while on the other hand the commercial strength cf Germany even after war is ended will be greatly injured Edison was the first to set the example of utilizing American raw material so that the defl- ciency in the supply of certain finished products which before the war were bought in Germany by American manu lecturers could be made good. Edison vepture1 to say that we have in the Urited States the crude material ample for making certain finished products. heretofore almost exclusively made in Germany, such as dyestuffs. The great chemist who taught John D. Rockefeller how to eliminate certain harmful quail ties which made vast oil fields in the Ohio valley of no marketable value and who afterward taught American capital how to capture the inexhaustible deposits of sulphur winch lay many feet below the surface in Louisiana. was reported at one time to have said that the men of science of the United States have not be- gun to put to commercial use all of the .f.t. tar. He thought it was a pity that we. should have permitted the men of science of Germany tc utilize some of the by products of petroleum and coal tar to very great commercial advantage. In Febru- ary Prof. Walter F. Rittman chemical engineer of the bureau of mines at Colum- bia university. perfected his process by means of which petroleum may be made 0 yield q vastly greater amount of gaso- line than present processes have made possible and. Furthermore, was able to show the government at Washington q process by means of which petroleum can be made to yield great amounts of a refined product which is the basis for a manufacture of dyestuffs and also of high explosives.
 The fact that the announcement came from the administration at Washington, and was indorsed by Secretary Lane jus tifed the belief that as one result of the war the United States was at last able to maintain, exclusive of any aid from Ger many or England. the manufacture of dyestuffs as well as material which is the base of hish explosives.
 Should the war be prolonged, American manufacturers who are to have the right to use thesL processes will thereby cut off one of the chief sources of Germany at the r;esent time of income derived from foreign trade. Incidentally that will con tribute to the policy of starvation which the allies are confident they can thorough ly enforce and. moreover, after the war we shall maintain this industry. Star walton, however, either of food or sup plies. is saio by the men of finance to raquire long time for successful re- suits to follow the adoption of the policy. If the states of the south which consti-. Il tuted the Confederate government were able to maintain for four years their de- fense against the Union army there seems to be no reason why Germany, very rich sure 10 possess sufficient food, with great industries and with highly skilled arti- sans. should not be able to maintain her self against the policy of starvation very much .lcr ger than the Confederate states could do.