The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-08
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
WALL STREET DECLINES CAUSE
 NO HALT.
Two or Three Years of Good Prices for Cotton Have Had Q Marked EReet--Nanufacture Re-
 cords Review.

Baltimore, Aug. 7.--(Special. )-From many quarters indications that the pro- gress of the South is not to be halted Dy the recent declines In Wall Street Two or three years of good prices for cotton have had a marked effect for pros- perity in many Southern lines. which Is renected In number of letters published tnis week In The Manufacturers Record from hardware and machinery dealers fin the Cotton Belt. among the first to feel the Influence of better conditions of the farming class comparatively unaffected by the chills and levers of the speculative centers of the. country. Moreover. the actual work of material. development is going on uninterruptedly and bids fair to rapidly expand with the turn of capi- tai from speculative operations to leeit- innate business undertakings. Tn support of this statement The Manufacturers Re- cord notes the following important facts:
 First may be mentioned the recent am noNncement that the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company will make a 5000 900 im- proyement at Altoona. Pa, erecting a great roundhouse which t is said will be the largest in the world, besides a mann moth foundry plant and large number of. houses for the thousands of employees who will be given work in the new shops Next is the awarding of the contract for building the eastern extension of the Wa bash Railroad, the plans of the Gould sys- tenn like those of the Pennsylvania, pro- ceeding without regard to the fluctuations of the financial barometer Right in the same territory the Baltimore and Ohio is going ahead with its projects for improve ment--a short line to be constructed here and double track to be put in there-so that the system will. in the course of few years be practically foretracked for large part of it's length, especially in the crowded regions of the Pittsburg dis trict and the coal territory of West Vir- ginia and Maryland.
 Tn the South the Southern Railway Is actively double tracking its main line be- tween washington and Atlanta, the Sea board Air Line is pushing on to Birming- ham, the Louisville and Nashville is driv- ing away at its extension to Knoxville, which Is to make a direct route from Cin- clnnati to Atlanta. the Southern has just begun an extension through Rabun Gap for the purpose of making a low grade coal road from the Tennessee Mountains to tidewater. the Norfolk and Western and the Chesapeake and Ohio are going ahead vigorously with their extensive plans in West Virginia and Kentucky re- spectively, the Frisco is actively at work upon it's New Orleans terminal idea, the Missouri Pacific is busy building it's line down the west bank of the Mississippi River and is furthermore building a big roundhouse and twelve shops at Kansas City. and contracts are being let for the Union Depot and it's approaches which are to give the National Capital at a cost of many million dollars one of the great est depots in the world"
 Many of these railroad undertakings in the South are concerned with plans for reaching tidewater either on the Atlantic or on the Gulf. and especial interest just at present seems to be centering at New Orleans, giving rise to many rumors, but at the same time emphasizing the fact that railroads in the Middle West, those controlling the trade of the Mississippi Valley territory, are interested in New Orleans as they have never been before, and that a volume of business will be thrown In that direction by these roads, which will be of utmost importance in determining the status of that city as an exporter and importer.
 With these facts in view added to the facts, of greater activity than ever be- fore in the movement of immigration southward, the absence of all labor trou- bles throughout the South since the Ala bama miners have returned to work pend ing the settlement by arbitration of the question of wages. the whole situation, so far as the section is concerned, is one of great business activity. and increas- ing prosperity this fall and winter. From the West comes reports of a threatened car famine. the traffic already taxing the increased facilities provided during the last twelve months, and with the begin ming of the cotton movement Southern roads will be in the same condition.