The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-18

tpAt III A'Aft Nnt EOsl lS DOW OV Ct1LS d hcl ton on raw materials.
 In 1914 we shipped iron to Chicago at cost of $4 a ton: Chicago furnaces had delivery charge of 7o cents a ton We now pay s ton to Chicago The former rate to St. Louis, one of our best markets, was s a ton; it is now s4.9O.
 The records show that over a period of years between Birmingham and, Chi caSo and Gary and Pittsburg, the spread was about s, which took care of the transportation cost. The reason we were able to make pig iron s a ton cheaper than Chicago and the other places was that our labor was cheap We paid comnon labor A day, while the Chi cago and Gary basis was S3 and $350 a day. We used lean raw materials but saved in labor. Our labor is now on the Chicago basis.
 Pig iron is selling today at $267 75, and Birmingham must pay S15 freight to Chi cago; while the Chicago furnaces hava to pay only 90 cents to the consumer There are only IS furnaces in blast in the Birmingham district today and no chance of blowing in any others as there are still idle furnaces at Chicago and Gary and Pittsburg''
 Referring to the workman's compensa- ton act, which has been passed by the senate and will be passed in the house. and which MT. Bush said the operators to the producer. He said that the coal are afl for. will further increase the cost operators in Alabama began on a small scale and that they have put back into their properties all their earnings and that very few of them could stand a very serious accident that would require the payment of heavy damages. He said insurance under the compensa- ton act would be equivalent to about six cents a ton on coal and iron ore and that this would bring the cost per ton of pig iron to GA cents. Adding the proposed five cents a ton tax on coal and three cents on ore and the total cost per ton of pig iron will be increased by s4s3. If the labor situation were the same now as in 1914 MT. Bush stated, the cost of insurance and the proposed five and three cents tax bama pig iron producers then had over Chicago.
 He said it is now costing the best com panies in the Birmingham district from s24 to BPS, a ton to make pig iron. and that it is how a hard thing to get out of Birmingham except to points half way between Birmingham and Chicago and Gary and Pittsburgh.
 Alabama is at standstill,' continued Mir. Bush "No new furnaces have been built since 1903 One was completed at Battelle, but 1t was torn down and shipped to India. Other markets in which we formerly had a monopoI- have beer taken away from us by the high trans | 1 ortation cost We formerly had a monop- oly on the Pacific coast. but that is lost to us They are putting up finishine plants out there. They will use scrap and iron from China. and the high trans portation cost will keep us out of that market"
 Mir. Bush said the tax on coal and iron | is economically unsound; that if Alabama were the only state having such tax 1t would be like the United States put tariff on Alabama products and left other states free; that tax on coal and iron would increase the cost of everything made in the state in the manufacture Of which power is used, and would further i limit the market for Alabama manufac- turers Increa sing the cost of production in the state would keep others from com l ing here, he said.
 "If any state needs money" he added l "it is Alabama. We have the resources and the brains, but we can't do anything with our hands. Others will stop coming to Alabama.
 Alabama is the only state in the union l that I know of that would have this l tax There is a small income tax in i New York, but there is no comparison be- tween Alabama and New York. New York is a highly developed state. She does nor have to go elsewhere for money. We hor- row money in New York The income tax rate is one per cent on incomes up tC s10,o0O
 NO DEPLETION
 'It is said that mining coal and iror is depicting the resources of the state and bringing nothing in. There is nothing in 1 this statement. Alabama is losing ter ritory. Alabama made s6s,000 tons less of pig iron in 1918 than in 1917. We have lost i 121b per cent of our pig iron trade because | of the situa ton I have described. When | you put on this proposed tax the situa- ] ton in Alabama will be more precarious 1 than ever.
 Alabama has only one finished produc: of iron cast iron pipe. About one-third of the iron produced in the state is melt l ed into finished products at the east iron rdpe plants at Birmingham, Anniston, Bessemer and other places in the state The cost of labor at these places is the same as at Chicago
 When I went into the cast iron pipe business, we shipped our product to Bos ton We now ship nothing further than 1 Pittsburgh and a little to the middle west
 We are shut out of the west by Chicago Indiana, Ohio and Buffalo. Louisville Is
 now getting ready to expand her pipe 1 industry because of the $i.50 advantage over us in freight cost. Plants are getting ready to open at Los Angeles and other
 Pacific coast points, and that will shut
 us out of that market
 "The water pipe people are in the same fix They used to ship to Philadelphia Now there are two plants on the Della
 ware river that get iron cheap as we
 do. They load their product on vessels in the Delaware river and ship it for
 less than we can. We lost a big contract in Galveston only a short time ago be- | cause the Delaware river plant could underbid us A split of ten cents may cost a contract. What will happen when
 it is $1? The cast iron plant at Bessemer is idle, one at North Birmingham and one at East Birmingham are running only 60 per cent The soil pipe plant is run ming only 60 per cent"
 MT. Bush stated that his company was shut down from December 1 to March 1, and that 1t now has orders for co days, and when they are filled he does not know what will happen.
 "Therefore. in the district of Bir- mingham, which should be one of the | biggest in the country" Mir. Bush con- | tinued "it is a question of going back | We can't go north of Louisville. There is little market here. Alabama, Geor- | gia Mississippi and Louisiana are sparsely settled. Large investments are required to operate mines ard make pig iron and cast iron pipe and other products. AS Mir. DeBardeleben stated yesterday, we are trying to go to South America. but conditions are different there. We tried to sell pipe there and found that it had to be madc in different sizes and shapes. We were compelled to go to Scotland and get man to take charge of the plant