The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-24

interest to Birmingham. The an- nual report of Charles L. Harold, secretary-manager, which will be made at the annual dinner of the organization tomorrow night, gives full details of the accomplishments of the Civic Association during the past l2 months. The report fol lows:
 Annual Report
 To the Members of the Birmingham Civic Associations:
 In accounting for the fourth year of this unique organization, I have lrre-empted the customary function Of the retiring president. In pre- vious years he, and not your secre- ltary- manager has reviewed the &C., tivities of our organization, and prop erly SO, because under the guiding hand of the president the great poli- cies of the association are shaped and the executive secretary Is charged with putting them into ex- ecution with, of course, the active aid of the voluntary committees.
 But the modesty of our past presi- dent, B. H. Hartsfield, has caused me to be substituted for him in recount ing sthe achievements of whattI sim cerely believeFto be the prqudest year of the associatiof's history. After the four years of service with you, shoulder to shoulder with the ster- ling men and women of good old Bir- mingham, I am ready to greet you with the blessing of the sturdy apos- tie of old: You are the citizens of no mean city" To be very candid, you are the citizens Of the best city in the southland, and the sooner all of us realize it the sooner will we make l it the biggest city in the southland. Years Accomplishments
 There was an ambitious chart laid out by the directors and the staff one l year ago. In so brief a time the as- sociation is to be congratulated on the full accomplishment of many of the goals and on advancing others to strategic points where success is al- most in sight
 l Many are the discriminations that beset our city and have for two dec- ades held our progress in check. This is the steel city of the south, and by all that nature could decree for Birmingham, as matter of right, manufacturers of finished steel products should have been attracted here in greater numbers. The steel age began here in the nineties and progressed to the efficiency stage in 1908, when the United States Steel lcorporation began its large improve ments of the Tennesse company's l properties. But all the while, and
 even now, the secondary, divers man | ufacturers of steel products came to Birmingham with disappointing slow l ness, and many that were expected | have never come at all. Indeed, in
 certain sister cities of the south the steel fabricating industry grew more rapidly than in Birmingham, tf8 pri- mary steel producing center of the
 south.
 Pittsburg Plus As early as July, 1908, 13 years | ago, local manufacturers diagnosed the ills of Birmingham. One of them
 was found to be "Pittsburg plus | Although steel was being made in Birmingham at less cost than in
 Pittsburg, there wa san arbitrary l plus added to the rolled steel ranging | from several dollars per ton to thu full measure of the freight rate iron
 Pittsburg to Birmingham It re- l ouired no shrewd calculator to see that the development of the indepen' l dent steel fabricating industries IT Birmingham was seriously impedeo bv having to pay this heavy premium for the raw material, and also bear
 the burden of freight differential' higher than competitors.
 But the agitation of 1908 and 1903 was soon forgot. Southern steel rap rication dragged on for years. Then
 the south woke up, particularly DIT l mingham. to another discrimination Lthat shamefully circumscribed the m | dependent structural steeb industry 1 This was the inauguration every
 where but the south of the fabricat. trg-in transit privilege on iron and steel products Briefly. this is con- cession bN the railroads permitting structural steel to be shipped from Pittsburg, Chicago or other steel centersst ito the plant of the structural steel fabricator and. after peins worked, to be reconsigned to the ui- I innate destination of the bridge or building job, all on the through rate as if there had been nUi stoppage, ana as if the steel had moved throughout by the most direct route from mill to
 job.
 Big Contracts Lost 1 Now, Birmingham all the time paio Land, alas! pays even now-tne .wu locals as they are called, on every
 tor of such steel The difference rnns as high as s10 or SIP per ton
 which in hundreds of cases deprives local fabricators of big contracts Tn
 Tne Civic Association believed no
 r,ore substantiaf service could DC rendered Birmingham than to open
 warfare upon these two serious pai I riers to her just progress. And' m | chief the story of our past year
 worl, is the story of cur partial tri- ,rmph over these economic HIS.
 Th. fight against ~Pittsburs plus was carried to the federal trace conn mission. A violation or the clAy. .on antitrust law was--charged 10 .ne steel, mills. After several hearings
 whieb filled hundreds of pages in the | trade papers and many volumes or
 records irY the proceedings. the trade commission decided the "Pittspur | nus" practice was 50 apparently
 wrong and unjust to Birmingham ' C.hicaro and other districts that a l compiaint was issued against the
 steel corporation. Testimony VIII
 now be taken by the federal govern
 ment as prosecutor and judge to de- termtne whether the trade practice 1 complained of should not be abolished and Birmingham with Chicago given full freedom to develop. The chief counsel of thNtrade commission has notified the secretary manager of the com missions intention to hold formal hearings in Birmingham in the cele- brated case.
 l Preliminary Victory
 The association. therefore. has ad- .vanced this fight to a notable pre-