The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-06
Southern Railway President Spcaks0f Conditions Affecting
 Trade and Transportation
SOUTH STANDS UPON
 SUBSTANTIAL BASIS
Financial stringency Has Caused Cur tailing of Production and This Ar fleets Railroads, But Times
 Are Not So Bad.

Washington, April 5.-President W. w Finley of the Southern Railway company, who has been looking carefully into com- mercial and industrial conditions in the southern states, was asked today for 4 summary of the result of his inquiries
 While business conditions in the sotIth- ern states are not as favorable as We would like to have them" said MT Fin ley, T 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 condi- ton, and although their managers are generally pursuing careful and conserva- tive policies. sound business enterprises are generally able to obtain all of the credit needed. From most localities come reports that southern farmers are in a prosperous condition, and have subslan- tial bank accounts.
 Tn the United States as a whole and especially in the southern section. agrl- culture is the predominant industry. Last years crops were sold at remunerative prices Largely result of the pur-
 
 in most southern communities is fairly ae- tive. 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 busi- ness as a result of the industrial de- pression. As in all other sections there is tendency on the part of the retail dealers in all lines to buy very conserva- lively and reduce their stocks of goods This necessarily has the effect of curtail- ing the business of jobbers. who in turn are conservative in their purchase from manufacturers. and this in turn tends to accentuate the industrial depression.
 That the depression should have been so widespread and serious IS due, l think not so much to fundamentally unfavor- able economic conditions 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. erally to economize in their expenditures The accumulative effects of all these in- dividual economies passed on through re- tailers and jobbers, have fallen with full force upon the manufacturing and trans portation interests of the country which are consequently feeling the depression much more acutely than other inter-
  ests.
 "The question of how soon a revival may be expected to begin is one which no man can answer with certainty for the reason that some of the reasons for the continuance of the business depression are psychological. This being true, one of the most important results to be brought about is the creating of a consecutive sen timent based on faith of ourselves and in the future. A few weak spots in our banking system have been eliminated; the natural resources of our country have not been diminished, and the industry and en- terprse of the American people are as great as before. Under these circum- stances, as before, a result of the pro. longaton of existing conditions, when economic complications arise, 1t is the duty of each one of us to look to the fu- ture, rather than to the past, and to con- tribute to the best of his ability to the bringing about of such a sound construc- tion of sentiment will substantially ald In return to prosperity"