The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-07
HARDWARE TRADE OF CITY
 SHOWS REMARKABLE GROWTH

period of five years which o,osed with the night of December 31. In 1t was recorded the highest price that cotton has reached with the exception of the abnormal figure created by the artifi- cial demands. following the cotton famine of the war between the states. And in those five years the average price of cotton has perhaps been richer than the average any five years could show. Small wonder. then. that con- dition of great and satisfying prosper ity followed, and small wonder It IS, too, that the hardware business which in Montgomery is almost twin and brother to the business of raising cot. ton should leap forward with almost increditable strides
 It is meet and proper that the condi- tions which create demand for the higher class goods the conditionss use, modern labor-saving devices, should be given further consideration. Two factors enter into this develop cerned. first. the inevitable question of negro labor. and, second, the coming to Montgomery of considerable colony of moneyed. intelligent and experi- enced farmers from Kentucky and from the West.
 The Labor Question.
 Mfr. J. D. wyman of c. W. Barnett & Co. is of the opinion, however. that so far as the question of negro labor Is concerned. Montgomery County Is bet ter off than perhaps any other agri- cultural county of the State. although labor conditions are bad enough as they are. MT. Wyman, in speaking Of the rapid development. on the business of selling improved farming implements. said that it was due in a large meas ians and the westerners who have come to Montgomery County and farmed in the intelligent. thorough manner that characterized the farm of their section of the country.
 "A great deal of the increased sale of the agricultural implements ill Montgomery county Is, I think, due to the example set by these men from the North and West. said MT. Wymap. ''of course the increase in every de- partment of the hardware business n Montgomery has been unusual. not to say remarkable. But easily the larg. est increase has been in the sale of agricultural implements of moder1 and labor saving nature. So far as ' have been able to learn. however there is less of this sort of business in Mont gomery county than Tn the other farE- territory of Montgomery. This is due to the fact that the labor question has not become so acute in Mont ntgomery county as in some other counties of the State. although existing conditions arc bad enough. Still in Montgomery coun- ty more improved la.bor saving machin- who have come from the west and from Kentucky have shown their neighborS the fine advantages that are to be derived from them.
 Farmers are becoming convinced of the fine advantages to be derived from the use of the big blows, which are MontEomery county farmers have, how ever. gone beyond that. Two of them at least have invested in steam blows, an an unheard of thing five years .ras aga: 2: who have fitted up their farms with steam blows are w. H. Vaughan and Hunter Roquemore. both of whom op- smaller place cannot afford to buy steam blow. There is not enough work on his place for such a. heavy Vaughan. however, use the traction en. zine which run by steam is used to pull the blow for other purposes"
 Improved Implements.
 Tn the sale of hay presses, fine blows and similar goods the hardware busi- ness throughout Montgomery has Mention should be made, too. of Sthe way the sale Of material for house building has increased. I should say that our retail business here in Mont gomery has increased at least 100 per cent. in the past five years. This Is largely due to the remarkable build gomery for that time. There has been any amount of building soing on m the city. far more than the average an important share in making the big increase ip the hardware business
 The estimated two million dollar hardware business done annually :n Montgomery embraces one or more firms whose principal line IS not hard ware. But the hardware business their firm transact is included the general total of two million dollars. It may no seem such large sum after all, but goods shipped and more profits made than if the trade had been in wholesale groceries. It represents higher de- than if the amount related to other mercantile businesses of this city
 Attention to his was drawn by Mir Tullis of the firm of Snow-Tullis Hard-' ware Company.
 Tn proportion would say. that the hardware business is at higher de. the city" said MT. Tuiiis. T mean that there is more capital invested, more goods shipped and more men en- in any other line of business in the city. Under normal conditions the hardware trade does not form so large a part of the general business of the city as it does here in Montgomery. The trade in this city has been consistent ly intelligently and energetically wid- Montgomery no little trade in Georgia and Florida as well in the largest DOT tion of the State, of Alabama,
 T should say that more than twenty travelling men are kept on the road by Montgomery hardware houses In this list I include the kindred trades to hardware, the trades which carry line of hardware. Nor does the twenty men include all the men who are travelled by the National Harvesting Machinery Company Now, travelling man covers a lot of ground, and the list number have given Illustrates in a way the importance of the hardware business to the commerce of Montgomery as a whole.
 Branching Out.
 Not content with the splendid agri- 1 cultural territory which was hers by right. and which she has continually | amplifled, Montgomery is widening out, 1 branching out into other States This | was made clear in an inf nr,.inuv ,,ith 1