John A. Topping, head of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. and of the Republic Iron & Steel Co.--dominated by the same interests--had actually taken steps for the establishment of a market on the Gulf coast. In the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 the construction of locks and dams and other improvements on the Warrior River so as to give slack water communication between Birmingham, Ala., near which city the mills of the Tennessee company were situated, and Mobile, was decided on. But the matter rested there until Topping, by his efforts, secured an appropriation to carry out the improvements, since completed. Not only would the water route have been important to the Tennessee company in regard to the markets mentioned, but it would have enabled the company to enter the markets on the northern Atlantic coast of the United States, from which it had been debarred by the high rail freight rates. Reports that a steel merger in the South was contemplated or actually under way had been circulated from time to time. The three companies mentioned as constituting the consolidation were the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., the Republic Iron & Steel Co., and the Sloss Sheffield Steel & Iron Co. Other less important concerns were also suggested. The Sloss Sheffield company was engaged entirely in the manufacture of iron and was a rather small concern as compared with the steel giants of the day. But it was conservatively capitalized and managed and had at the time an unbroken dividend record in respect to its preferred stock. At its head was Colonel J. C. Maben, a veteran iron maker and one of the best known and most respected figures in the industry. Colonel Maben was approached by one of the Tennessee directors with a merger proposition, but refused to consider it because, as he has since said, he did not think the financial condition of the Tennessee company sound. If there had ever been any possibility of the merger going through Colonel Maben’s attitude would have effectually stopped it.