The age-herald., 1899-08-18
IN HOTEL LOBBIES
 AND ELSEWHERE

Judge T. ". Roberts, of Greene county. was up from Eutaw yesterday and spent the day among his friends in Birmingham. Judge Roberts has been probate judge of Greene county for the past ten years, and is one of the most popular men in south Alabama. He is a great deer hunter and has a record of having killed more deer than any other man in Greene county. General Shelley, Solicitor Ferguson, and several other Birmingham gentlemen, have accepted an invitation to join him in deer drive next winter. The Twentieth street deatn-trap crossing was the talk of tho town yesterday. Ev- erybody Is in favor of building viaduct under the railroad crossing. The railroads say they will cooperate. The street car companies will probably do their part, and there is a strong movement on foot to have the city do the rest. Accidents will happen as long as the present arrange mont exists.
 The city of Philadelphia is one of the richest and most prosperous in the United States, says the Nashville American, and is regarded as financially the most solid. In Philadelphia more people own theii own homes, approximately, than In any other city in the country, which is other good sign, and in Philadelphia there are 2O,000 factories, the valuation of whose products is over s600,00O,00O per annum, and this is another good sign. Phfladel- phia Is within two hours ride of New York and still is not overshadowed. Let us examine into some of the reasons of Phil adelphia prosperity; we do not say all of them, but some of them.
 In Philadelphia a factory pays taxes on it's real estate There 1t stops. Upon ma chinery, upon raw material, upon manu- factured products. upon debts due and upon cash on hand no taxes are levied for either state or municipal purposes. A writer in the Louisville Courier-Journal draws comparison between Louisville and Philadelphia in this respect. He says that in the latter city if a manufacturer in- vested s100,O00 in his business, $2O,0OO of it being in real estate, he would pay in taxes only s36S, while in Louisville he would pay $2,235, or more than seven times as much. The tax rate in Philadelphia is s1S5 for municipal purposes on real estate held and owned by manufacturers; for state purposes nothing
 We would not write in this strain if we thought it were talking of the impossible or impractlcable, but we are not. We have all the essentials here for a country every whit as progressive and prosperous as New England or Pennsylvania, and yet compared to them we poor Ought we not, therefore, to do all in our power to encourage the investment of capital and the building up of corporations which give en- ployment to labor, istead of giving heed to the demagogic cry which derides them
 If we had great manufacturing concerns here in this section of country which turned our raw material into finished products; great banking concerns, which would furnish money to conduct operations of business on a large scale; great insur- ance companies which could take care of our business, both fire and life, how much better off we would be. Millions upon mil lions of dollars which are sent north every year would in this way be kept at home. Tennessee alone sends out of the state each year over St500,000 in insurance premiums. The establishment of such concerns would open careers for our young men, would give employment to labor, and would keep with us money now going away.
 This is the extent of the taxation levied. In Louisville the rate is S1.S4 for municipal purposes and 691a cents for state purposes. and everything owned by the factory-reai estate, raw products, manufactured pro- ducts, cash due and cash on hand-are all taxed at about 50 per cent. of their value. The condition described in Louisville ex- ists pretty generally in all southern cities, except possibly in those of Alabama, where there are some exemptions
 We cannot say we favor the entire policy of exemption, although it has its good points, but we do heartily favor the policy of encouraging the establishment of manufac curing plants and the establish ment of corporations of any kind which are employers of labor. Every one knows- the chief reason why the North is rich and prosperous today Is account of it's cor porations, corporations to which the South pays tribute.