The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-22
For Good of
 the Community

balcony of Pharaoh's palace calmly con- templating the dry winds that had com menced browning the fields and twisting the stalks of grain, ushering in the reign of the seven lean years, his face was illumined with the satisfaction of deed we'll done.
 So Birmingham, while congressman and senators are playing battledore and shuttlecock with the tariff, the War Fi nance Corporation and hundred and one artifces for obviating the inevitable consequences of natural laws, serenely looking about on what has been done for her the past twelve month and smiles. The granaries of her power to sustain herself and forge ahead have been we'll filled. Out of the tremendous reserves piled up by several years of prosperity she has sufficient to carry her over a period of slowing up. She has better than that; she has had placed the things that count for permanency.
 Each of the new by-product coke ovens that were built this year stand for a re- duction of $2 per ton in the production cost of pig iron in addition to the revenue derived from the sale of the by-products That is basic That reduced cost in the manufacture of iron counts not for today only, but for year in and year out in the competition of Alabama iron with the iron of the world
 Six of the fourteen ocean freighters made of Alabama steel have come from the ChickaSaW yards this year with eight more to be built. That plant also is basic Alabama entered into the business of steel ship building in 1920 This added another outlet for the flow of the product of Birmingham steel mills. This also is permanent. These ships are plying the !, ports of the world carrying the names of : Alabama cities and Alabama products to ] the four corners of the earth.
 The Fairfield steel mills are perman- ent. They represent a widening of the scope of steel manufacture in Alabama. surance of work and money and prosper-a ous merchants for the years to come.
 The pressed steel car works, soon to be completed, are basic and permanent. They mean another steady and continu- ous exercise and use of raw material con- verted into the finished product
 The year closes with the power dam at Muscle Shoals within two years of com i pletion. They may fret a bit at Washing ton about appropriations for it's comple-j tion but the money will come. That also is basic and counts for permanency. It ] counts for the introduction of the electro-' chemical industry in Alabama.
 And the year was not out before the Alabama Power had begun the work of giving Alabama another power dam on the Coosa. That also is basic and per- manent. When this state shall have the power of the Coosa and that of the Ten nessee harnessed to it's cart of industrial progress, there will be no speed limit
 In the year the Warrior was given three ports, three sets of terminals, freight diff ferentials and new craft with more to come. Great coal terminals at Mobile are assured. The Warrior has been placed in the service of the people really, truly and substantially. This likewise is basic. This counts for all time
 Finally, the district easily weathered all the industrial disturbances that shook thp fO11p6 atiOn of O+bo,c ;p J,,,+,,,l IL: