The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-28
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
GREAT INCREASE IN ASSESSED
 VALUES OF PROPERTY.
Indications are That af Least Half a Billion Dollars win be shown --FfEures of Manufac-
 surerss Record.

Baltimore. July 25.-(special )---As- sessed values of property In the South this year are likely to show an in-, crease over those of last year of at least half billion dollars, judging from facts in such typical States as Texas. Georgia, Louisiana and Ternes- zee. which would indicate an increase In true values of at least $1.S50,000. .00o.s From various quarters of the South correspondence in this weeks Issue of The Manufacturers Record tells of re- cent progress In the accumulation of wealth and of measures to add still further to the store.
 Building permits at Memphis. for in- stance. exceeded last month those of any month on record and surpassed those of the corresponding month of the previous year by $200,0oo. While building undertakings ranging from $50, ,ef0 downward in investment have just been announced there, not to men, tfon plans for beginning work within the next month upon million dollar court house.
 the shipments of lumber aggregate 700,000,0 ,0o0 feet a year so great is the demand for labor in construction of new buildings that every mechanic is not only at work. but Is receiving re- cord-brealxing wages apartment houses six or eight stories high with numer- Hous rooms are rented as fast as they are completed. old-time residences and
 business houses are giving way to tall modern stores and office buildings and at least 1000 new houses could be rented with ease. Charleston, w. Va,
 Is increasing its hotel capacity at a cost of more than s100.000, and plans
 have been perfected for the establish ment at Huntington. in tlie same State.
 by large iron-pipe concern of New
 York state. of plant to manufacture
 iron soil pipe radiators, etc, to use
 200 tons of pig iron a day and to em-
 ploy ultimately E60 men.
 Work Is being pushed upon improve
 ments that will shortly permit several
 furnaces in Alabama which are being overhaulsd to resume operations and the shipments of iron ore are equal to
 the production there. At one point in the southern part of the State town of 250 persons has within the past
 since the beginning of spring has spent more than sIo0.o0o in substantial irn- movements while practically every stream in the county has been spanned with modern steel bridges. Somerset, to which the oil output of lower Ken lucky has been piped for transmission to West Virginia refneries. has not a 1GdAtt AAOOCG anu ID fHOEc than 100 homes. Within a few months its system of street railways will be add cd to its modern equipments.
 Tn Southwest Texas a tremendous i'm petus has been given farming opera tions by the spread of irrigation and extensive drainage projects arc bring ing large areas in Florida under cul- tivation.
 Recently the Deepwater Railway fin West Virginia has completed eighteen miles of construction, leaving forty seven miles to be built to connection with the Tidewater Railway, the Nor folk and Western has completed a
 twenty-two mile branch in West vir- ginia, the South and Western Railway Is advancing in North Carolina and the
 Central of Georgia Railway and the East Coast Railway of Florida are pushing construction on extensions Extensions of Railroads are under way 1 too. in Kentucky. Louisiana, Tennes- see, Alabama. Mississippi. Arkansas and Texas. and the indications are that while great deal of work of the kind | has been accomplished since the first of the year the railroads of the South
 will be busy with improvements and
 extensions during the remainder of the
 year.