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CHAPTER IX
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CHAPTER IX INTERNAL CONDITIONS OF STATE AND OUTBREAK OF WAR Struggles of the South and North Railroad. Alabama more interested in States' rights than in railroads. Cotton alone was " gentlemen's trade." Isolated condition of iron-masters. Facts are stubborn things. The State pronounced indubitably weak in industrial affairs. Gathering of the thunder heads. Civil War breaks out. Coal and iron business steps to the front. Josiah Gorgas appointed chief of ordnance of Confederacy. Career of General Gorgas. His command of Old Mount Vernon Arsenal. Marriage to daughter of Governor Gayle. Militaryfacts of South. Bird'lIere view of ordnance affairs. Limitations of Confederate States. Tactics of the master soldier. Steps in making of ordnance department. OrganIZation of Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau. Stimulation of coal and iron production. J. W. Mallet detailed at central laboratory. How the greatest department of the Confederacy was created "out of nothing." Testimonials of colleagues of General Gorgas. A great military feat. LIFE was not given to the South and North Railroad, the great State road, until the year 1860, when the legislature of Alabama passed the law adopting John T. Milner's recommendations as to the route and granting a loan of $663,135, "on condition that the entire line be graded and prepared for iron by the end of five years." Frank Gilmer at once merged his various other interests into the one railroad. A company was formed in the fall of 1860, with Milner still chief engineer, to complete the line in the five years stipulated. Just at this particular time, however, Alabama was more interested in discussing States' rights than she was in railroad enterprises. Cotton was the principal industry, the one idea, the one hope of the majority of Alabama men. Cotton planting was "gentlemen's trade," whereas iron making and railroad construction were considered of service where they contributed solely to agricultural interests. The sum total of operations in the coal and iron business in the various counties'of the mineral region was not then known. Owing to the lack of railroad communication and mail facilities each county was more or less isolated from the others. No union of coal or iron men was 122 THE STORY OF COAL AND IRON IN ALABAMA possible, or dreamed of. The few iron-masters of Calhoun and Talladega counties were as far away from the iron-masters of Tuskaloosa, Bibb, and Shelby counties as though hundreds of miles separated them. Nothing pertaining to the industry had then penetrated the State at large, as is evidenced to-day by the complete lack of public records or statistics referring to the matter. " Under the regime of the cotton planters Alabama is weak in her internal improvements," said De Bows, in 1856, "weak not only in the little already accomplished, but weak in the disinclination of capitalists to invest their means in a way to advantage the people and promote State welfare. . . . Facts are stubborn things. Let us then look them in the face, nor attempt to mollify harsh features. • . . What becomes of the twentyfive million dollars which our commerce distributes annually among the planters of Alabama? The census of 1850 states that in Alabama one million dollars only is invested in manufactures, a portion in twelve cotton factories, and fourteen forges and furnaces , as compared to Georgia's two million and Tennessee's three million." This plain speaking critic of early industrial affairs points out the prevalent conditions. He deems the causes, "lack of public spirit, no foresight, an utter indifference to the future, . . . an unsettled state of feeling as though Alabama were a temporary, not a permanent, home, • • . no means to fix population." And again John Milner speaks: It As yet, the State of Alabama has done nothing to divert the enterprise of her citizens in their internal improvement investments into the channel that would tend most to develop the resources of the State, and render her people commercially independent . Alabama has been a kind of public common, and all of our neighbors have quietly proceeded to partition her off among their own great seaport towns, with but little hindrance either from the people or the government. . . . " The State of Georgia charges two dollars per ton on Alabama iron seeking a market over her roads than she does on Georgia iron. We know but little of the future. Three fourths of a century ago the questions that now threaten to destroy the Union of the States were not felt at all. The history...