The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-04

our largest manufacturing plants that, should the supply of these products be cut of. the production would fall to about twenty per cent of the normal
 It may be positively stated that without these ferro alloys, consisting of combina- tions of iron with chromium, manganese, vanadium, m0ly bdenum and silicon, we would be able to build neither modern hattleships, modern guns, submarines, aeroplanes, nor many other requirements essential in our national defense, nor in industriaIly with those nations having these alloys at their disposal. The fact that metallic aluminium. another Niagara sixty cents per pound in spite of pro- auction exceeding two hundred million pounds per annum. indicates the impor- cially attained. Compelled, as we are, to build Liberty aeroplane motors weighing but pound and half per horsepower in order to attain supremacy in the air, we now appreciate our dependence upon an adequate supply of aluminium
 Elctro-C Chemical
 Industries in Warfara.
 The electro chemical industries also play an important part in modern warfare. Through the electrical decomposition of q solution of common sat, compounds Of chlorine are obtained from which may be produced such an agent of mercy the Carrel- Dakin solution for the treatment of wounds on the battlefield or such de- stroyer. of life as the deadly chlorine gas. which has overwhelmed thousands in this war with ter~hle effectiveness.
 It has become evident that the United States Is to lose its supremacy in these great electro chemical and electro metal lursical fields if dependence Is placed upon Niagara Falls alone, and It must be evident that such loss is a matter of serious con cern to our nation.
 An effective remedy for the situation is to be found in the immediate development not nld yfoy. Is remembered that this situation and the remedy constitutes but one of number of equally compelling reasons which are being urged upon the administration for seems certain that the governments de-. cision to make this coreiy needed develop ment cannot be far distant.
 What Was Accomplished
 St Niesar. Falls.
 As an indication of what 66O,0O0 horse power sold at remarkably low figure would do for the locality. we have only to consider what has been accomplished at Niagara Falls. When the first project was undertaken there in 1890 the village of Niagara Falls was a sleepy summer resort of some 5,400 inhabitants One year after the completion of the first great project 1t was thriving little city of nearly 10000, and at present 1t is an industrial and man ufacturing center having a population of nearly 6o00O, a gain of more than 1000 per Ceut.
 The first advantage to the neighbors of Muscle Shoals, therefore, would be the creation of 8 great industrial center com prising not only the electro chemical and electro o-metallurgical industries, but other manufactures, such as paper mills cotton mills, coke ovens and chemical works mak- ing dyes, explosives, paints, etc., as well as steel mills and many other factories. What such . center would mean to the business of the merchants of Nashville. Chattanooga, Memphis or Birmingham would depend upon the merchant. It Is safe to say that the aggressive firm would not be disappointed in their rightful ex- pectation of larger volume of business. Prcducting centexs of
 Raw Materials.
 A moments examination of the map. which shows roughly the producing cen- ters of raw materials surrounding Niagara Falls, indicates at once that the center of industrial activity which grew up at the falls was not developed because of the abundance of domestim raw materials in that locality, but rather in spite of the lack of many important oney A compari- son of the domestic raw materials useful in the electro chemical and electro metal lurgicaI industries which are available comm ercially within $50 miles of Niagara Falls and within the same distance from Muscle Shoals, as shown on the maps, is as follows.
 within