Alabama State

Birmingham, the biggest city in the state and one of the biggest in the South. Birmingham is called "the Pittsburgh of the South" because it has great steel mills, just as Pittsburgh has. Only the Pittsburgh and Chicago areas produce more steel each year than Birmingham does. The northern part of Alabama is the "Tennessee Valley" section. This means it is the valley through which the Tennessee River flows. In the northeast corner of Alabama, this great river enters the state. It flows all the way across the state, and in the northwest corner flows back into the state of Tennessee. Northern Alabama is very beautiful.

The river flows through the Cumberland Plateau (a plateau is a region that is high, like a mountain, but level, like a plain). On both sides of the river, as it flows through the state, hills and mountains rise. Many "mountaineers" live in these hills, as they do in the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee and several other southern states. Less than a lifetime ago, northern Alabama was nothing more than farming country, and much of it was not even much good for farming. Too much of the good soil had washed away. Then, in 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority of the United States Government began to develop the river. Beginning at a part of the river called Muscle Shoals, which was a long section of rapids where the water flowed so fast and the river was so rocky that no boat could get through, the " T V A " built three great dams— Wilson Dam, Wheeler Dam, and Guntersville Dam.

These dams made big lakes where before there had been only the river. Water flowing over the dams turned great generators, producing electricity to run factories and bring electric light and power to cities and farms in several states. The dams also put an end to the terrible floods that for many years had damaged towns and farms along the Tennessee River. After all this was done, northern Alabama began to be as busy and prosperous as the rest of the state. Many an independent nation could envy the state of Alabama.

It is said that the most important things a country can have are fertile farmlands, so it can raise its own food; and forests, for wood; and coal and iron mines, to feed its factories; and rivers that can be dammed to produce electricity and navigated to transport goods; and a seacoast so that it can trade with other countries. Alabama has them all. The soil is rich, and the climate, though it often gets uncomfortably hot in the summer, is ideal for farming and cattle-raising, with an average temperature of 65 degrees and an average of 52 inches of rain a year. The mineral wealth in Alabama's mountains, and the power created by the Tennessee River, are the greatest in the South. Next to steel, the biggest industry of Alabama is textiles (cloth, yarn, and clothing, chiefly of cotton ) .

Next to cotton, the chief agricultural product comes from the trees, which are cut not only for lumber but for paper-making. Besides the Tennessee River in the north, Alabama has several big rivers in the south. Among these are the Coosa River, the Alabama River, and the Tombigbee River—all Indian names. The Alabama and Tombigbee run together and form the Mobile River, which flows into Mobile Bay. Railroads and highways reach nearly every part of the state. THE GOVERNMENT OF ALABAMA Alabama, like most other states, is governed by a Governor, a Senate, and a Legislature. The Governor and members of both houses are elected to serve fouryear terms. Judges are elected and serve six years. The capital is Montgomery. There are 67 counties in the state. Everyone has to go to school through grammar school at least. There are more than three thousand public schools in Alabama. Nearly half the schoolchildren go to big consolidated schools, to which they are taken in school buses. There are twenty-seven colleges and universities. Nine of these are free state institutions, and some of the others receive some help from the state.