Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1942-01-15
Page Sevs1

autos. trucks. sky scrapers. no
tanks, munitions, tools-machinery
of all kinds, from needle to q
harvester factory, the implements
of war and peace.
The wealth of nations has been
gold, silver and precious stones. We
can do without them all. They do
not represent real wealth. AS we
live today. the wealth of nations 10
iron. 1t Is iron that has made the
great, great tranformation. I un-
derstood that better when I came
to Birmingham.
Romance number one. In 1871
there stood at the place where two
railroads crossed a few houses in
the heart of Alabama. A group Of
| farseeing men, with some capital,
| projected city. They surveyed
| the land, and laid it out in orderly
streets, calling it Elyton. 1t is
Birmingham today, and has pop
| ulation of 100000. 1t has become
the industrial center of the south,
often called "the Pittsburgh of the
made an unsympathetic writer call
it IAN industrial monster in the
midst of a slow-moving pastoral"
The monster has absorbed a large
part Of the population, over one
tenth of the state. It's 500 plants
employ $4,000 men, whom they pay
$9O,O00,O00 year.
II AoI~
coal, iron-ore and limestone to pro-
duce iron. Nature here placed them
all together, as she did nowhere
else in all the world. All three are
mined at the same time, In the same
place. Isn't it odd, that hill of
iron, another of coal, another Of
limestone should be so accommodate
ing? Add to this cheap labor, and
you have the cheapest iron on the
globe. Iron pigs. and diversified
finished products are shipped by
way of Port Birmingham. This lies
18 miles away on the Black Warrior
river which carries the freight TO
Mobile and the world. Twenty rail-
road lines assist in distributing
$300,0O0,000 worth annually.
Romance number three. In 1927
Frank Gilmer, riding from Tennes-
see to Montgomery, over Red
Mountain, saw hard red clods pro-
truding above the red mud so COM
mon here. They called it then "dye
rock" Taking some to Montgom-
cry it assayed rich iron ore. Later
this section became known as the
richest ore producing section in the
world, supplies for centuries, or
milleniums to come. Slavery and
the war, prevented its exploitation.
Romance number four. Go back
a billion years. The ocean covered
this spot then, the mountains not
yet having been pushed up. Bac-
terra lived in the red slime of the
sea. They extracted the iron par
ticles, literally ate them, concentrat-
ed them in their own bodies, died
en-masse and left this treasure.
The Elyton Land company has done
the rest The rich Mesabi range Of
iron ore in Wisconsin has a similar
origin. Score one for the little
things in producing the greatest
things on the globe.
Romance number five. The great
est iron man in the world is Vul-
can, who stands on the top of this
same Red Mountain. He was cast
from pig-iron, for the ST. Louis
fair, 1898. 1t took many trains to
move him, being all one piece,
10000 pounds (60 tons.)
He is SO feet high, and is placed on
a pedestal 1913 feet high (176 in
alD. His thumb is three feet long,
weighing ITS pounds. Only the
Statute of Liberty exceeds this. How
they set him up on Red Mountain is
a mystery. None told me.
Romance number six. Vulcan il
Roman mythology was spouse of
Venus. He was badly out of pro-
portion, and when he limped before
The gods, it caused great laughter
On Olympus. The statue represents
this deformity. His shaggy colossal
head is all out of proportion to the
rest of his huge body. The statue
holds aloft an incandescent lamp Of
huge size. He seems to be chal-
Ienging fearlessly the lightning on
Red Mountain. Fearlessly? Yes.
He fears no lightning. He himself
made the lightning All Jove's
lightning bolts were forged in the
forge of Vulcan-Howard H. Scott,
Alabama, December
l5 1941