The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-26

S7 AM writing this on the edge of the
 heights that overlook Birmingham.
 The city lies in the valley, climbing
 hills on both sides. It is a great expanse of green trees, with wide streets cutting through the buildings and wind ing about in every direction. Out of it's center rise many skyscrapers, one of which Is 26 stories high. Beyond the city and above and below 1t are the smoke stacks of the foundries and rolling mills that have given the place the name of the Pittsburg of the south. As look l can see nine furnaces that are making pig Iron. 1 can sec g. dozen great manufact- uring institutions, and can pick out a huge rolling mill which has so many smokestacks that 1t looks like a vast pipe organ rising out of the green. Further over are the buildings of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company. an- other branch of the Steel trust. They cover 1s acres and form a great black spot in the center of the valley.
 As these industrial activities are point ed out to me, the Birmingham enthusiast who stands by my side tells me that pig iron can be made chaper right here than anywhere else on the globe. I raise my eyebrows and ask why. He replies:
 s'It is because the good Lord intended it so. This hill upon which we are stand Ing is one mass of iron. It is 1000 feet high, and the iron goes down no one knows how deep. It runs all along this side of the valley. Thosesh hills over there on the opposite side are composed of good colxing coal, and between them Is a great bed of limestone. Coal, limestone and iron are all that are needed for the making of steel, and the Lord has spread out here to feed our people mighty sandwich that is uneQualed anywhere else on the globe One slice of the sandwich is this red iron ore. the other IS the black diamond known as coal, and the limestone is the white meat between. IT you will look at the lay of the land you will see how the three are joined together and how they can be associated TOT the making of steel. We can run the Iron and coal by gravity down the nils to the foot of the furnaces, and the hine- stone lies just at hand. There are ron and coal mines running for miles along the two sides of this valley, and there are steel-maling plants going up every vsybera There are scores of furnaces, and can stand on the cupola of any or them and with a common Winchester rifle can shoot into bed of coal, iron or Hne- stone without turning around
 T.et us now stop and look little more ctoselv at the iron mountain on which we are standing. It is part Of the new
 Y. --a- and 5 fast being e-srs6 vith magnificent homes. It has
 .s,, s5Hls, bags oast $1O0,O00 to build,
 s-ssst itaa- e4undations of iron.
 -a ,~n7e ,ss agerywhere. It Is
 .-q asrh tae ts6 the roads, and -ee sJ ta arnats are walled with
 t ould be put into tho furnace and if properly treated be finally turned into armor plate steel rails or watch springs There IS house just behind us with oeautirui garden about it. It belongs to a steer millionaire and 1t has cost a small ror- tune. Its foundations alone were more expensive than many a comfortable home. They go down 4o feet. Why? When the man was excavating he struck an old iron mine, and he had to build up from the bottom. Another house IS punt of iron stone, and down in the valley are some made of limestone. On the op- posite side of the town are some thae stand close to the coal mines, and were it not that coal house would burn to the ground, they might have residences made of black diamonds.
 But I have but little space to write about Birmingham, except as a product of the iron and steel possibilities Of the region in which 1t lies The greater Birmingham takes in a. valley which Is r5 miles in length and about six miles in width. It has a population of 100000, and Is one of the live, up-to-date spots of our new industrial empire. The city is founded on iron. It's biggest shotel, which cost s15Oo,ooo, was built by an old iron man, who sold his furnaces and mines for over s20oo,000 and invested the money in 5 per cent bonds few months later the bonds were called h. and he used three-fourtfs Of this sum