The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-28
M E N /, w O M E N
 A ND T H IN c s

stores on yesterday He had Just returneu from New York and said. Take it from me, conditions are better. here than in Gotham.
 | It set me to thinking about Birming- hams wide-awake merchants and other business men. for we have as good here as there is in all the land. Men Of daring, yet conservative enough not to plunge but to back their judgment and trust the district to absorb good mer- chsndise at a reasonable profit. Take the coal, iron and steel indus try. The pioneers who had the vision to see, the energy to acquire, and the cour- | age to develop the mineral resources be- longed to the race which settled and made America what it is-"the land of opportunity all who are ready to venture and to work. They opened the mines.
 l But alone they would have failed. Back of them were the railroad developers, the men who saw the chance for freight who came and laid rails and bought equip nent to handle the output. It took faith and money on their part. I hold no briet for the railroads, but I am willing to go on record as appreciating what the great empire builders have done to make trese United States the best place in which to- live and do business.
 1 Then after awhile came another type ot man Let us not forget the debt we owe to those who built coke ovens, erect ed furnaces and got ready to make the utilization of the raw materials a possi- bility here in the home market It's easy | to complain about the great slag piles which for years obstructed some of our istreets and grew bigger and bigger; but mighty proud day for Birmingham when the fires were lit in furnace and ovens
 The prospectors with pick prepared the way, the railroads followed, the makers of pig iron were soon on the ground, and then came. the era of steel. For a long jtime it wA questioned as to whether steel could be made out of our iron ores. Some experts pronounced against any such thing The controversy ragged long in the industrial and technical journals. And then one fine day men of skill and practical sense turned the trick, and | in spite of the detractors proved that tkeir produce was as good as could be produced.
 In the course of events there came into iexistence a need among the great cor lporations to expand their business, for it
 was found that the making of pig itself, while quite an achievement, was not suf- ficient; just as it later followed that the production of steel, while feather lin the cap, would become bedraggIed un- Hess the ingots could be used in Smanu- featuring articles here at home. Only a few in Birmingham know to what ex- tent the big companies are consuming the output of their mines by converting ithe raw materials into manufactured
 goods
 It's true that the small manufacturers lhave not yet come into their own in the humber and variety which sooner or later
 will dot this valley, but the wide-awake linen throughout the country are looking this way more and more each year, and
 the Chamber of Commerce, the CIVIC
 Association and other commercial bodies fare alive to the situation and utilizing every means at hand to land in the dis trict worthy enterprises to consume the surplus of iron and steel made by the
 large producers
 
 For a long time it was thrown up te the dwellers in the Magic City that they existed on coal, Iron and steel and thai
 a. any day the mines were liable to close
 and the furnaces to be banked and the
 manufacturing plants to become idle. T Twas no idle talk on their part for 2 lcng time in tke past, as many will re-
 call who had to pas sthrough the periods
 of inactivity, and were put to it whenever the smoke ceased to float over the valley The big corporations can take care o themselves without my help, but we nav' had recently h demonstration Of the wis , dom of some of the industrial captains | who during the war had the sense t
 stabilize the iron and steel industry ant B Set tulilSS III SHdpc so lh@t "AS'i -ai ] day of reckoning came in which ever.
 business must be liquidated, they wer
 in a position not only to give an ac counting to the stockholders but wer'
 enabled to let the public know abou
 their stewardship.
 My young friend who was in New Yorl -ibuying goods was enabled to brag abou business conditions in Birmingham beinl D better than in the great metropolis be , lcause of the wise commercial statesman ship of the truly big men who have seel ; to it that the old days of cut-throat com $ petition and .lockouts and other disturb 5 ances should not bring about pant and cause every one in business to rul . to cover
 have warm friends who are mer
 chants, and I have close friends wh
 are active in the big industries. It ha , been said that the condition of the mer chants is the best barometer of the busi mess health of community. No one ap f prec:ates more than do their servic
 to Birmingham. They pay their fuI share of the taxes, they furnish thei
 quota in giving employment to the peo lple they subscribe their part to ever, private and public charity
 | The success of a city is dependent ol ; many things. but in the last analysis tn