The Washington herald., 1917-08-13

inevitable that they should regard
general industry of all kinds as GER
tain to be maintained to the capacity
of the industrial plants. Production,
therefore, will continue upon very
great scale after the close of the
war, unless the managers of the steel
and iron industry have made a serious
mistake in their forecast.
Some time in the midspring several
OF the managers Of the United States
Steel Corporation visited the Birming-
ham district in Alabama and made
thorough study OF the Tennessee Coal
and Iron plant. AS an immediate re-
suit Sll,OOO,0tO Of fresh capital. taken
from the earnings Of the Steel Cor
poration presumably. were placed at
the disposal Of the Tennessee Coal and
Iron Company so that much needed
expansion and improvements and pos
sibly some harmonizing OF the plants
could be secured.
But the reasons are excellent for
surmjsing that this 81, 900, 900 represents
no more than beginning of expendi-
lures on the part OF the Steel Cor
poration in the Birmingham district,
the aggregate of which may in due
time be, comparatively speaking, of
as ldA SC q heuAt as nave Dttn one
two of the other appropria tons made
by the Steel Corporation. perhaps as
large as the appropriation made for
the establishment of the plant at
Gary.
In private conversation some of
these managers speak with enthusi-
asm of the development of the iron
and steel industry in the South and
especially in the Birmingham district
The possibilities are regarded as un-
surpassed excepting at the Pittsburgh
district. The Pittsburgh district is
likely to maintain pre-eminence be-
cause nature has so abundantly for
titled il with resources and transpor-
tation has been so highly developed.
But the resources which nature has
lavished in the Birmingham district
and in the Appalachian range of
mountains are very great and some
of them have as yet been hardly
touched. Furthermore, the industrial
development of athe South, which is
one of the marvels of American prog
ress within the past quarter Of a GEN.
tury, is nevertheless believed to have
only begun. The steel managers know
what the richness of the natural re-
sources OF that district are and they
oiS Win utldlltu
information respecting the industrial
growth of the South.
1t has been observed that in all
parts of the South where there is
good understanding OF what the de-
velopment of the Birmingham steel
and iron industry has meant for the
South, and especially what it has
meant since the United States Steel
Corporation took over the Tennessee
Coal and Iron Company, there has
been such change of public sentiment
respecting the United States Steel
Corporation that insead of hostility
based upon the belief that the cor
poration was gigantic trust and
monopoly there now prevails strong
support for the principles, the policy
and the methods which have char
acterized the corporations manage
ment. For it has been discovered
that the corporation does not per-
NIT cutthroat competition with other
steel and iron industries, but instead
believes that Charles NJ. Schwab
spoke the truth when he said there
was opportunity enough for all.
The plans for the future develop
ment and expansion of the steel and
iron Industries of the Birmingham
district are upon a very great scale.
They forecast our command of mar
kets in Central and South America
which will be more conveniently ap-
preached from Birmingham and with
less cost than would be the case
with commodities sent from points
farther North. Then. too. there is
to be undoubtedly a great expansion
of manufacture in the South duo to
the utilization of water power con-