The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-13

due time be, comparatively speaking, of as large figure as have been one or two of the other appropriations made by the Steel corporation, per haps as large as the Appropriation made for the establishment of the plant at Gary.
 Tn private conversation some of these managers speak with enthu- siasm 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 Pittsburg district. The Pittsburg district is likely to maintain pre-eminence be- cause nature has so abundantly foru- fled 1t with resources and transporta- tion has been so highly developed. But the resources which nature has lavished in the Birmingham district and in the Appalachian range of noun tains are very great and some of them have as yet been hardly touched. Fur thermore, the industrial developm ent of the south, which is one of the mar vels of American progress within the past quarter of a century, Is never theless believed to have only begun The steel managers know what the richness of the natural resources of that district are and they are abund- antly fortified with detailed informa- llOll I6Sp6SllHS llle lliuuSlIldt SION lH of the south.
 CHANGE OF SENTIMENT
 It 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 corpora tion took over the Tennessee Coal and Iron company there has been such change of public sentiment respect ing the United States Steel corpora tion that instead of hostility based upon the belief that the corporation was a gigantic trust and monopoly, there now prevails strong support for the principles, the policy and the methods which have characterized the corporations management. For it has been discovered that the corporation does not permit cutthroat competition with other steel and iron industries but instead believes that Charles M. 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 dis. trict are upon very great scale. They forecast oud 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 manufactures in the south, due to the utilization of water power converted into electric energy. This will justify the predic- tion by the late George Westinghouse in an address made atNAtlanta seven years ago when he said that by the utilization of the water power of the south and the conversion of it into electric energy that can be economi- cally conveyed many miles, the south would. in the course of time not dis tant, stand upon equal terms with any other manufacturing section in the United States. It is with a good un- derstanding of what the development of manufacturing in the south is to be that the managers of the Steel cor poration feel justified in expending millions in bringing to high develop ment the steel and iron industry of the Birmingham district.