The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1921-11-21
CAST IRON PIPE INDUSTRY KEEPS
FURNACES GOING

praises of her cast iron pipe plants. They
have melted her pig iron ever since it was
made. They continue to melt more of it than
all other local concerns combined. They ship
pipe all over the Unied States and into foreign
countries. They are the mainstay of the dis
trict's iron production.
Not Birmingham pipe plants only, but those
of Gadsden, Admission and Talladega. So far
as the consumption of iron is concerned, they
also are Birmingham institutions because they
all use Birmingham iron.
These pipe plants have taken the lions share
of the iron made in Alabama this fall. They
have kept fires in blast furnaces that other
wise would not have been lighted. Birming-
ham sanitary pipe went by the thousands of
tons into the heart of the east in the early fall
and tens of thousands of tons of water and gas
pipe went to the Pacific coast last year and
this.
There were four high pressure pipe contracts
announced in Chicago last week. All four
came to Birmingham shops. Birmingham pipe
sets the price for pipe in American. The Bir-
mingham base is the base by which the trade
is governed.
quarter of a century ago Birmingham pipe
went into the water mains of Copenhagen and
Honolulu. Like Birmingham iron it travels
far afield.
Alabama makes more cast iron pipe than
any other state in the union. Birmingham is
the largest high pressure pipe manufacturer
BOATS NOT AS SLOW AS
AS THEY SEEM TO BE
Among the other interesting statements to
which Henry Ford has recently given utterance
was this:
"River freight is cheap freight and it is fast
freight compared with the average freight
train transportation of today"
At first blush, it seems almost ridiculous to
talk about river freight being fast, yet water
way transportation has been found to be just
that Several years ago the Sloss-Sheffield
company shipped iron from Sheffield furnaces
to Ohio river crossings by barges and it
shipped also by freight cars. In many in
stances the barges arrived at their destination
before the cars did. The barges Travelled
slowly like the tortoise, but they did not go to
sleep at sidetracks and in congested switching
yards.
Fast steamers plying between San Francisco
and New York this year made greater speed
than transcontinental trains carrying the same
kind of cargo.
Undoubtedly freight trains move faster than
ships while moving but it is equally true that,
waterways, free of sidetracks and switches,
eliminate delays.
HOW STRONG is THE MILITARY
CLIQUE IN JAPAN
The Age-Herald has received from Tokyo
voluminous and carefully prepared publica-
ton, issued by japanese news agency, which
contains articles written by Japanese states
men and leaders in civil and military life Its
purpose is to set before the people of the
United States what Japan hopes to do at the
arms conference in Washington. Far eastern
problems and the relations of Japan to Amer
lea and China are discussed by the ablest men
of the country.
Most of these articles are friendly and con-
ciliatory evidently written with the purpose of
clearing up misunderstanding and removing
the suspicion engendered by some of Japan's
policies. Only one or two show tendency to
criticize America. in regard to the Philippines.