The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-31
Daily Business
 Editorial
Alabama Self-Sufficient From a
 Steel Standpoint
Bv RICHARD F. JOHNSTON

By RICHARD F. JOHNSTON
 In the building of the 10,000-ton freighters of the Steel corporation at Chickasaw yards in Mobile proof was given that Alabama need not | go outside for men, material or facilities for any manner of steel construction. From the ore, coal and limestone to the finished ship all was furnished and done in Ala bama.
 The ships were practically dug out of Red mountain. The iron was made here, the steel was made here and the shapes were fashioned here. The ships were three-fourths manufactured of the ore and coal mines whence came the raw ma terial.
 It may be said that the work never left the yards of the Tennes- see company. When the shapes were IlHlSHGQ at dlllAelo biSy went down the Warrior in barges that tied at the wharves of the ship /, building yards of the same concern in Mobile. From beginning to end they were the product of the one Alabama concern independent of the world for materials and work manship.
 Ships built in other places are products of various operations by various concerns. The ore comes 1000 to 1,500 miles. The coal is often at a distance. The steel is manufactured by parties not inter- ested in the shipyard. Building of the Chickasaw ships was the single act of one concern drawing every resource from Alabama.
 The Tennessee company went out of the shipbuilding business, but Mobile did not. It has ship building and repair yards of the first magnitude. Ships of great est tonnage may be hauled on dry docks there for repair and Mobile repair yards are always filled with them.
 The Tennessee company wished barges built for the Warrior serv- ice. There again the entire opera ton was an Alabama one. The Tennessee company made the steel and a Birmingham firm whipped the steel into the required shapes. Then the steel went down the War rior river to the Alabama Dry docks and Shipbuilding company's yards at Mobile and was put to- gether in form of the finished steel barge. These barges, which are to serve Alabama's inland water way, are also an all-Alabama product.
 i The Tennessee company barges are not of ordinary construction. )They are the last word in strength land capacity for service. They are so reinforced at every joint that heaviest steel rails may be easily slowed and handled without danger to the barges. They are to be per manent servants of the Warrior.
 The new barges are built of di- mensions to neatly fit in the War rior locks and hence will require a minimum of lockages. If the craft already on the river had been as snugly adapted to passing through the locks, Warrior opera tions would have told far differ ent financial story.
 When a building using steel is built in Birmingham the steel is fabricated here. Outside structural steel is no longer known in Bir- mingham and in Alabama. Bir- mingham's structural steel, on the contrary, is known in every south ern state. Jobs requiring thousands of tons in Texas and Louisiana have recently been fabricated in Birmingham.
 The new merchant bar mill of the Tennessee company is making speciality of reinforcing steel. That is more and more in demand and it stands to reason that the reinforcing steel made in the south will be used in the south to the extent of it's manufacture.
 Birmingham is making spikes, nuts, bolts, angle bars, frogs, switches and railroad crossings. Railroad track material of all kinds is turned out by shops of the Ten nessee company and independent operators. Birmingham is becom- ing elf-sufficient from a steel standpoint. There is no minimiz- ing the meaning of this new indus trial milestone.