Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-08-29
Atlanta,s DECLINING Prosperity.

1t can hardly be possible that Atlanta
is finished city. One OF her prominent
business men, however, says that she
may fairly be so regarded. Much OF her
trade has gone to other cities, and the de-
mand for her real estate is not as great by
any means as it was a few years ago.
Rents have declined fully 80 per cent.
| The question which presents itself is,
what is the cause OF the decline in At
lanta's prosperity The anti-prohibition-
lists are, of course, ready with an answer.
They insist that prohibition has killed the
town. The prohibitionists will not admit
this, and it Is probable that they have ex-
cellent arguments to show that prohibit
ton has helped rather than hurt the city.
Prohibition has not been in force long
| enough to have any marked effect upon
the city's trade. The whisky trade
has, of course, been lost, but that was only
small part of the trade. 1t can hardly be
that those who occupied the 1900 houses,
which are now said to be vacant, left the
city because whisky was voted out of it..
| Neither can it be said that the loss of the
whisky trade has caused a loss of other
trade.
The truth probably is that Atlanta was
built too fast. Her facilities tor business
and the stocks her merchants carried
were greater than her trade justified.
Local pride is commendaole, and the
| people of Atlanta have enough of that
sort of pride for hah dozen towns Of her
size. They have talked up Atlanta and
written her up until they believe, and
have made others believe, that she is
much greater town than she really is.
We have no desire to say anything IN
kind of Atlanta. On the contrary, we
would like to see her prosperous, and
while at present she appears to be at a
standstill there is no good reason TO doubt
that In the near future she will go for
ward again. But she will not grow so
rapidly as she once did. When her bust
ness catches up with her she will be
ready for solid, steady growth.
The hard times have struck Atlanta a
pretty heavy blow because she was not
prepared for them. She was all the while
expecting to do more business than she
was really doing. Her estimates were
based on what she expected rather than
what was in sight. The prevailing bust
ness depression has made 1t impossible to
continue that sort Of thing.
Unlike Savannah, Atlanta hasn't a great
deal 10 depend upon outside of her whole
sale trade, and that is limited by growing
cities all around her. She has no great
extent of back country. When the hard
times came, therefore, they were hard
times indeed for her. However agrees
sive she might be she couldn't get trade
because there wasn't much to get. The
country merchants hadn't money, and.
therefore, couldn't buy largely. Without
their aid it is not to be wondered at that
AJlanta's business shrank.
OF course Sayannah's wholesale mer-
chants have felt the hard times, but Sa-
vannah is not wholly dependent upon her
wholesale trade. She is the second cot
ton market in the country, the first naval
stores market, and very large rice and
lumber market. She can stand the hard
times perhaps better than any other city
in the South.
Atlanta, however, is showing the right
sort of spirit. She sees that she must
furnish emplo ypneBt Tor her people in
order to keep then, and SO she proposes
to build manufactures. or course it will
require long time TO build up factories,
but she has plenty of pluck, and will per-
haps be able to get the necessary capital
to make beginning. Having made a
beginning she may finally succeed in be-
coming manufacturing city. 1t is
probable, however. that the situation in
Atlanta is not quite so bad as the anti
prohibitionists try to make out.