The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-29
BY WILL T. STEPHAN.
he Heart of Alabama.

Dallas around and about and to the | renewed vigor of the commerce of the | historic central city of Alabama. | A fair title and just one. provided
 Montgomery does not dispute It: Mont | gomery, the capital city of Alabama, Montgomery in tothh with the mineral cultural section of East Alabama on | the one hand and the Black Belt and cane brake plantations of the west on the other. This is neither the time nor | the place for discussion, however, Of | the claims and the counter claims of Selma and Montgomery for the honor of being the pulsating center of the center.
 The vitality, the renewed vigor. of the business of the historic city here in the Black Belt is at this time the subject for observation, for study, and for comment. It Is here intended to | deal with the causes that have brought to eSlma delayed growth and delayed prosperity. Not that this agricultural city has not always been prosperous, nor that within her own confines her citizens have failed to lay up private fortunes. But the expansion of the city. the play of commerce to and fro' the entering into large and more ex- through fate ard natural conditions held waiting until their own good and proper time should arrive.
 Through more than thirty years slowly and sedately. diminishing none and increasing. but little. The city above all else Is typical of the South Even as the South was years in recoy- ering from the deep and keen wounds of civil war, so did Selma, so typical of her section, take time to recover her losses and her strength that she her place in the ranks and march for ward to the drum beat of progress. Fulfilling the Promise.
 The promise of the early days Is now in the fulfllment; the hope of her, ear ly makers is now in the fru1tion: Even as the predominant interest Of Alabama is agricultural in spite of the eral district of the State, so has Sell mas interest, so has Selma's wealth been agricultural She is nothing If not an agricultural city. Whether she be a subject for difference and a sub ject for discussion; but there is no room for the discusslon of the state ment that she is the heart of the rich, black lands farming section of Ala bama. There Is no dispute of the as- sertion that she is the heart. the cen ter of the level and fertile cotton fields of Western and Middle Alabama, a section whose welfare, whose being is wrapped up and intedlocked with the welfare and the well being of the farm and the plantation.
 So 1t came to pass that wnen Ssp pros so years on the farms of Alabama 1t made its abode, too, in the beautiful little city on the banks of the Alabama bama who depend upon the farm, who rise or who fall with the farm. And no city and but few towns are so iden- tified with the sowing, the gathering and the sale of crops as Is Selma.
 To these towns agriculture Is the ocean to. which every river, every @ and from which they gather the dew and the rain of their interest and their profits. It is such towns as these which have felt the intoxicating stimu- iant of the wonderful revival of the past five or six years of agriculture in Alabama, In past years 1t was the mineral district which thrived remark ably and which still thrives and 1t was then the towns in or near the mineral districts which grew strong and
 TheTe were boom towns, too, which had not the riches nor the strength of either the mineral or the agricultural towns and whose osSas pe1speTiy peeIpent n, reai wi pressing days which followed the in- evitable collapse they were ike a drunken man coming out of debauch with shaken nerves to take up the se- rious business of life.
 Causes and Changes.
 But the towns whose prosperity was of and upon the prosperity of the farm had only to bide their time and await the rehabilitation of Alabamas s rlchest And this rehabilitation Is now at hand; The towns winch moved slowly ana which grew slowly in the long years their ths5 iEstowe% iTst rewards. The towns which are most prosperous and Whlcn arS growing fastest are not the mineral nor the. manufacturing towns, put as tne distinctly agricultural communities, those towns whose arteries Of trace lead through and along the farms and the plantations. ,, Selma is remarkable" said State Treas urer J. Craig Smith. T have never seen anything like this unusual ana remark. ahle advance. In the last rev years property in Selma has advanced al most like the boom prices in the land speculation day in the North Alabama towns There Is a healthier feeling in the town in real estate Tn pusiHeSs ss than I have ever known before ana in fact I think property Is now toe hlgh for a healthy condition of real estate
 J. F. Hooper of a well known wnoie- sale grocery firm and President or the Commercial and Industrial Associatlon was even p,ore enthusiastic. This com mercial and Industrial Assoclaa'oh Ibts the way Is healthy and zealous: JUS us business men of the city. They have organized that Selma may reap the most of the benefits that are coming 10 the central portion of the state m mes mes "a
 They are, the members of this Assocla- ton. banded together to furnish the necessary impetus for the inner grown that every city needs to go forwar1,
 Tt is wonderful. this growfh or SeI- ma. this development of the city's trace in late years" said ldr Hooper, T do not understand 1t. l am frank to say that if l was pressed for reason, TOT a cause, of this growth I could not give 1t. It is primarily due, I suppose. 10 of our section. Still this could hardly explain the general development. the general growth of our city.
 Business Interests Doubled.
 T personally believe that every inc of business, evefy development of trade, I know beyond doubt that the business of thSacity has more than couoIed m the pasttten years. The bank clearings if they were examined, would am sure show this. ., ,-, ness. in the banking business, this ln- crease of more than lG9 per cent mas been oted.
 "City property Is held at a figure which Selma has not known betore. This is especially true of Broad Street and of residence property. A no less remarkable advance has been made Tn farm property. The market Tor ootn city property and farm property IS
 Selma has been very fortunate in her railroads. It is frequently the case, as you no doubt know. that the extension of a citys railroads hurts rather than helps q city. The advance Of the ral!, roads often build up new towns and This has not been the case with the railroads that have been built in our section within the past dozen years Every mile of new railroad in which