The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-01
Montgomery manufacturing cen

counter to the popular idea of .sla- buma's Capital. It fails to harmonixe with the popular idea of the city. an local based upon its historic past, light ed with the recollections of its strik- ing beauty and the memory of its gen. tle culture and refinement, whose stand ard raised in the opulent days of the Old South, endured through year after year of succeeding misfortune.
 Montgomery. the city of history and the city of culture, has on first view assumed a role inocngruous and inhar- monious. sIt would appear that the old city is assuming graces which are neither natural nor becoming. Mont- gomery in the popular mind is no har- mcrious or suitable stage setting for the noise. the smoke and the hustle of a center of manufacturing industry The natural and the improved beauty of the city which fulfiis its own reasons for existence and which confers Its own benefits has its own advantages in the popular mind, but 1t is no back ground against which brick walls, serried win dows and lofty smoke stacks shall rise.
 The gentieness of the city's people, their intelligence trained in other fields of mental endeavor, hi the pop uiar mind would be but upset by the thriving, bustling class that is an &C.,
 
 cry, the screaming whistles and the grimy smoke stacks of industry and of manufacture.
 But Montgomery is a manufacturing center!
 It's manufacturing industries for years have grown steadily and con- stantly in importance. In the four years of the new century they have gone forward in leaps and bounds The E~1x t~-~| s-. fk $taN S,, .faa !. turing interests in Alabama 1t is ex- celled only by Birmingham.
 e5,0s8,o00 in Manufactures.
 In Montgomery there are manufact- uring plants representing an estimated investment of $3,sS6,000. In these plants are employed. 4.29o people Hundreds, more than that, thousands depend for a livelihood upon those whose labor is in the factories of Mont gomery. A surprisingly large per cent of Montgomerys, people depend upon the factories for their homes. their clothing and their food
 In Montgomery, during this year there will be manufactured 100000 tons of fertilizer This year alone there will be ground up in the oil mills of the city 60,000 tons of cotton seed.
 Montgomery's clai mas a manufac- turing center are neither to be dues- tioned nor doubted.
 The growth of the factory interests of the city are nothing short of phe- nomenal. In two years the value of the fertilizer factories, the value of their output has doubled. The lumber in- terests have shown an increase of 100 per cent in Montgomery in four years. The value and output of the oil mills of the city has almost shown a corres- bonding increase. Proportionate in- creases are shown in other manufactur- ing interests of the city. All are prosperous and the future is fiattering and inviting.
 Again let it be emphasized that Mont gomery is a manufacturing center!
 The Industrial Spirit.
 The past of Montgomery is no handi- cap to an industrial present. it Is no obstacle to the fulfillment of the pro- mise of the future. A city whose origi- nal wealth was drawn from the cotton plantations of the surrounding country has learned the more complicated les sons of taking profits from manufact- uring.
 The lesson was not learned in a day nor in a year. The South is proverbi- ally conservative Montgomery is ty- pically and essentially Southern. It was not easy to break away from old commercial and industrial customs. It was not to be considered that the man W1O made money on a COItOn ton, whose father before him made money on cotton plantation, would suddenly break away from industrial habits and customs. And thus 1t was that Montgomery's factory building spirit was slow in conception. Its ear- ly growth and progress was in steady but slow stages.
 1t is to be rememberd that a city's growth is like that of a tree. There ia growth from within. The tree draws up from the soil it's strength and nourishment the leaves and the bark claiming from the atmosphere the need ed nourishment unite in making heart and wood.
 And so is the growth of a city. Its strength comes both from the inside and the outside. Capital on the inside and capital on the outside join hands in making common prosperity. Brains and energy on the outside and brains and energy on the inside unite in build ing a throne for prosperity and setting him upon fl.
 Local Money Invested.
 Those who seek a reason why so many townes stand still and watch the procession go by may find 1t here. The citizenship of a town which is afraid to venture it's own money in home inter- prses can never Issue a convincing in vitation to capital on the outside.
 Not only is capital as has been truly but awkwardly said, the tenderest plant that grows" but more than any thing else it demands evidence of good faith. Montgomery has not been slow in meeting these demands The city's faith in it's future has been shown by its deeds. It has never invited for eign capital to invest a dollar where it feared to put one of its own. It has not told alluring stories to out side capitalists and kept its own purse strings drawn taut It paved the way with its own investments for the en- trance of foreign capital and pros perity.
 Almost all the small plants. or plants of moderate size. are owned by local capital. There are but few of the large factories. in which Montgomery is not interested.
 But foreign capital or home capital fin union or alone would avail nothing surrounded by adverse, unfavorable conditions. Success does not come alone from brain and money. The two most have field to work in. Mont gomery affords an inviting field. The city, which only a few years ago gave promise of industrial prosperity has made good that promise.
 The Heart of Alabama.
 Montgomery Is the heart of Ala bama. Lee Spg to 1t and from it is a net work O. Nilrods. the great arter- les of trade along which comes the raw