Panama City pilot. (Panama City, Washington County, Fla.) 1907-19??, 1908-04-09
Southern Prospects.

president W. W. Finley of IL e
Southern Railway Company, who has
been looking carefully into CONNER
cial and industrial conditions in the
southern states, was asked for a
summary of the result of his in
quiries.
"While business conditions in the
southern states are not as favorable
as we would like to have them" said
Mr.. Finley. 81 think the situation
in that section is fully as favorable to
an early revival of prosperity as that
in any other part of the country.
Throughout the south, the banking
institutions are in sound condition
and although their managers are
generally pursuing careful and con-
sentative policies, soupd business
enterprises are generally able to OBJ
tain all of the credit needed. From
most localities come reports that
southern farmers are in prosperous
condition, and have substantial bank
accounts. In the United States as {
whole and especially in the southern
section, agriculture is the predomi-
nant industry. Last years crops
were sold at remuneratiye prices.
Largely as result Of the
purchasing power of the farmers,
retail trade in most southern com
munities is fairly active. In those
localities where cotton mill employees
and other industrial workers are
most numerous, there has, of course,
been more or less falling off in retail
business as a result of the industrial
depression. AS in all other sections,
there is tendency on the part of re-
tail dealers in all lines to buy very
cOnservatively and reduce their
stocks of goods. This necessarily has
the effect of curtailing the business of
jobbers, who in turn are conservative
in their purchases from manufac-
turers, and this, in turn, tends to ac-
centuate the industrial depression.
THAT the depression should have
been so widespread and serious is
due, think, not so much to funda-
mentally unfavorably economic con
dltlons as to the general uncertainty
as to the future which has prevailed
and to the consequent tendency on
the part of the American people gen
orally to econimize in their expenses.
The cumulative effects of all these
individual economies passed on
through retailers and jobbers have
fallen with full force upon the manu-
featuring and transportation interests
of the country, which are, cOnse-
quentlY, feeling the depression much
more acutely than other interests.
The question of how soon a revi-
val may be expected to begin is one
which no man can answer with GER
talnty, for the reason that some of
the reasons for the continuance of
the business depression are psvcho-
logical. This being true, one of the
most important results to be brought
about is the creating of a construc-
tive sentiment based on faith i'm our
selves and in the future. 4 few weak
spots in our banking system have
been eliminated; the natural resour-
ces OF our country have not been di-
minished and industry and enterprise
OF the American people are as great
as before. Under these circumstan-
ceS, before, as a result of the prOlOn-
CATION of existing conditions, eco
monte complications arise, it is the
duty of each one of us to look to the
future, rather than to the past, and
to contribute, to the best of his ability.
to the bringing about of such a sound
construction sentiment as will sub
stantially aid in return to pros
perity."