The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-26
LOGAN WRITES INTERESTING
 ACCOUNT OF HIS TRIP TO THIS
 CITY FOR NEW JERSEY PAPER

C. T. Logan, who conducts a flour ishing business in New York city. and whose residence is at Palisade. N. j., spent several days in Birmingham about month ago. and in recent is sue of the Palisadian tells the story of his trip It is narrative of uncom- mon interest. MT. Logan says. in part
 TO a man who has been 20 years away from Birmingham. the city is so changed he wouldn't know it. Indeed, it would be really difficult to pick out a landmark. People of the north are so in the habit of seeing and looking into the growth and development of cities in their section that they really do not stop to bother about anything so far away as Georgia or Alabama. A Modern Wonder
 Birmingham is modern wonder. It has grown so marvelously in the past 20 years. and grown without blow or buster, that the outside world has not been given a chance to catch the spirit of enterprise that has pushed it ahead in spite of an apparent indiffer- ence at home. If the Alabama metrop oils had been given over to the same spirit of getthereness that has char acterized Atlanta, it would even now be a much bigger city.
 "The latest census bureau report on I Atlanta gives that city now 179,0o0 1 population. while Birmingham is cred ited with 166.o0o. But in 1910. Atlanta had 154, 300, Birmingham only 1s2,ooo. | Thus in five years Atlanta has added l 25, 900 only, while Birmingham has put on 34,000.
 l "Another startling fact put out by l the recent census figures is state ment of the population of Atlanta and Birmingham within 10-mj1e ra- dius. Sticking a pin in the center of l the map of each city, the government nose counter finds that in circle of 1 10 miles around each city there was l in 1910 popula tion of 20S.000 at At lanta and 212,000 at Birmingham These figures have been given out al Birmingham but not at Atlanta, for the 1 two cities possess an intense jealousy of each other.
 Great Potential Strength
 Birmingham, on the other hand. Is waking up. Her potential strength lies | in the bowels of the hills that sur round her on all sides. It custs Pitts burg s11 for every ton of iron she turns out. In Birmin gham they make It for s6 to sS per ton And there is as much advantage to Birmingham on 1 the nations freight haul as to Pitts burg. At Pittsburg they bring the ore away from the Lake Superior shore by lake barges, and it gets to Pittsbure I over long, long haul. The coal and coke are close enough, but still the l limestone is lacking there, also, and 1 Birmingham has all three of the basic 1 clements entering into the manufacture 1 of iron Not only that, but all three are close at hand.
 I aJudge Gary, chairman of the United i States Steel corporation, when he saw I Birmingham predicted a wonderful flu | ture for it. And only within year I he has predicted 100000 population there before any other city of twice her population today gets halfway t1 l 1,000.0 .000 That is some prophecy, vel it Is not quite so bold as the on' l made by the late John ". Gates who I when he first saw Birmingham a few years ago. and little while before h' ' died. said there would be 1000, 0o' population there in 10 years. That, o course. was stretching the blanke some but there Is no reason whatevel for doubting 500,0oo by ls2o, ana
 ought not to be much or an enor'
 that.
 Il sTo tell the story of Birmingham within the brief limit of villag' newspaper, or even metropohtai T newspaper would be hopeless task The town is barely more than 40 year old now, so that as the lives or i'm portant cities run, it Is stll! In swad l ding clothes--at least still in kne' brooches. Tn the early seventies 1 got it's start, and by 1882 had begun l to crawl with the establishment O Il the original Sloss iron furnace. Ih' hills around bulged with brown hema tite ore on one side, and lime TOOK oi the other Then down in the eartn un derneath were the Warrior and Cahabi
 coal fields, more than b0oo squaf'
 miles. or bigger territory than all O
 nnecticut--nothing but coal
 After long struggle. almost 40 year of struggle. Birmingham began to se the light of new day. the dawn or lnew era. The great steel interests iihai''
 saw the blazing furnaces rom aiar' ah' taking over the Tennessee Coal, ifo' land Railroad company. financlal coul that Roosevelt helped along by not frown ;np ,,non A measure coupled with mucl
 doubt as to the moral status Tn turnln'
 lit over to the steel trust. and then BIT
 mingham-the real Birmingham n-aros from its long sleep. It wasn't phoenlx like arising nor yet Rip Van WinlSi
 
 from a state of sdorment inaction Una had puzzled the Birmingham dreamer no less than it had amazed those wh'
 knew the great forces that lay in Jones
 valley undeveloped yet impotent
 The steel interests have now Just pc gun to develop the power latent Tn blr l,ningham Within year past about So'
 oo0,0o0 has been expended in their plants
 The wire industry of America Is grea lproduct The steel interests have bi
 wire mills at Worcester. Mass. cleveland and other northern cities and now thei latest mill--the very last word in per
 fected wire manufacture-is at Birming
 ham,
 Three New Benz0l Plants
 The European war has largely benefite'
 Birmingham, also. In addition to fiilin
 tremendously large orders for shrapne
 and munitions in mills running day an night, three big, new plants for the man II ufacture of benzpl have only recent started. One of thGse by the Steel people '} another by the Woodward Jronworks J and third by Edison. Benzol is by product which was formerly wasted. an which at one time was considered useless then later it went into the manufactnr
 of cement, and now into benzol. Ediso