The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-09
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
"RAMPANT OPTIMISM" RULES THIS
 SECTION.
Pessimist and Calamity Howler no Longer Exists, or Tell Their Story to Persons Who
 Heed Not.

Baltimore, Md, Dec. S.-(Special. )-- Editorial correspondence from Atlanta in this weeks issue of The Manufac- turers' Record says
 Rampant optimism rules the South. The pessimist and the calamity howler have ceased to exist, or, if they have not ceased, they utter their cries of distress to hearers no longer interested, for the fat pocket-book of the farmer and the heavy bank account of the merchant and manufacturer are potent arguments which have converted the South to the broadest optimism known throughout that section since 1860. There have been times in the past forty years when good prices for cotton helped the farmers but even then they were largely loaded with debt, and good prices meant simply a means to save them from succumbing to the disasters which still followed the South after 1865.
 There have been other times when the cotton mills were yielding large re- turns, and there have been other times when the lumber people and the coal and iron people were also prosperous. But 1t has never before happened that abounding prosperity reigned over the whole land, when cotton farmers were free of debt and had more money to their credit than they had ever known before, when cotton mills were crowded with business yielding exceptionally large returns, when the iron and coal and lumber interests were all rushed to their utmost capacity at prices that made glad the heart of the stockhold- CTS. But such is the story of the South today.
 "A recent hurried trip through the central South brought forth so many evidences of this prosperity as to al- nest daze even one long accustomed to the steady upward movement of the material interests of the South. Take put q few illustrations. One year ago the writer travelled South with bank CT from a little town in Georgia who had been North to rediscount the notes of the banks customers in order to tide ever the situation in that community brought about by the fear of 5-cent and Scent cotton.
 "The two banks of that town redis- counted their notes last year to the ex- tent of $250.000. The same two banks this year have over $1.000,000 on de- pcsit and more than $250.000 of it sur plus money now in hand for which they cannot find borrowers. A 1.000-acre tract of land a few miles from that town was offered last year for $1S,500 by khe owner who has now refused Sf0, ,080. Further Investigation on this point led to hearing the statement made, not only as to South Georgia, but North Georgia. the Carolinas and other sec tions of the cotton growing South. that the value of agricultural land within the last twelve months had over a great section of the South doubled in value. This in itself is the most startlingly important fact of the last twenty years connected with the material prosperity of the South. If 1t be true, as indicated ct tnfu of xx,If fpnffrior made. that there has been throughout the South an advance, not of 100 per cent, but of even 50 per cent, in the selling value of farms. the South at one bound has added to its real wealth an amount too great to be grasped. And yet 1t is quite possible. quite natural in fact, that this should be true, though it is one feature of Southern activity to which attention has mot heretofore been directed.
 Tn South Carolina prosperity is as great as in Georgia. One little town of 5000 people has four banks with deposits of $1,000, ,000, largely belonging to farmers, and much of this being from their accumulated surplus out of the profit of cotton growing. Throughout the Carolinas the amount of money on deposit in the banks is so large that many of them are sending out circulars to cotton mills and business people gen. orally, concerns with which they have never had business. asking if they do not want to borrow money, the supply in the banks being greater than they can ind borrowers for. A leading bus mess man familiar with manufacturing interests throughout much of the South stated that over a large part of the ter ritory with which he was familiar, tim Der lands have quintupled in value within the last five years, property which five years ago ranged from s5 to S10 an acre now commanding from S25 to $50 an acre.
 50 generally true is this as to the increasing value of timber lands that the question may seriously be asked whether 1t would not be wise for the Southern people who have sold much of their timber for a mess of pottage, forced thereby by financial necessity, to withhold their property now except in cases where they can secure a good price. Timber lands, coal lands. iron ore properties. water powers and all other properties of this character are of necessity so rapidly enhancing in value under the tremendous expansion of the business interests of the South and of the wide sweep of prosperity over that section that those who have for many years borne the burden of the day in carrying these properties should now reap a fair profit by selling only