The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-08

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 ficia1 state records or In the absence of state records. he must depend upor | the voluntary report of each bank In the absence of a law in Alabama requiring an examination of and re
 port on state banks, the comptrollel could give no definite information re | garding the deposits of these institu
 tions When law was passed in Ala
 bama that brought out these state
 ments the comptroller could include | them in his report and, in this way we observe the rema rl< able increase 1T total individual deposits in all Ala bama banks on June 30, 1909, were less than on June 30, 190S or 1907, and hard | ly per cent more than on June 30 | 1906. The best and most accurate H. | illustration of the true financial condi- | tion is shown in summary of the re port of the comptroller of the currency for 1909. This summary gives the population of the United States ano territories on June 1. 1909, the aggre- gate resources of national banks and | other banks on April 2S, 1909, and the average resources per capita" The av- | craze per capita resources of all banks | for the southern states including West Virginia and Texas was s71.19; New England, $433,S1; eastern states $450.19; middle western states. s19o.64; western states. s1e1.35; and Pacific states. s347.7f. In Alabama the per capita is s45.11. the lowest in the Unit ed States except Mississippi, the Caro- linas and Arkansas. In West Virginia the total resources are $112.66 per cap ita and Minnesota, S16095, and for the United States the average is s237.24. It Is the same old story; Alabama, the Carolinas, Mississippi and Arkansas are about on par in illiteracy, poverty and criminology Hawaii is 75 per cent ahead of these states in bank re- sources. The savings deposits in Ala bama amount to less than $l per inhab- itant; in Minnesota 1t Is over S1o; West Virginia, $7.5o, and the average for the United States is SAP. There are only 13.s2O savings. depositors in Ala bama: less than l per cent of the pop ulation; more than 65 per cent of the inhabitants of Massachusetts have say ings deposits with an average of S363.74 for each depositori in West Nir- ginia there are 42,1S9 depositors, per cent of the population; more than one third the inhabitants of New England have savings deposits with an average deposit per inhabitant of s66.2S. One fifth of the population of Austria have savings deposits with an average de- posit per iuhabitant of s40.53; one-third the population of Belgium has $23.65; one-half the population of Denmark, s7893; one-third the population of France, S24.4S; one-third the popula- tion of Germany, $51.79; in Norway, 40 per cent of the population has aver age of $49.67. and Sweden 40 per cent of the population has an average of S34S1. One third the population of Japan has savings deposits with an average of s2.01; only Egypt and Brit ish India have less reserve than Ala bama These comparative statistics in dicate that my inferences have not been exaggerated. In my first article l said the people of Ala bama have less reserve and are the poorest in the civ ilized world, notwithstanding they are the richest In natural resources. The reports of the highest auth ority in the United States show this to be true.
 The value of the wheat crop in 1908 was more than double the value of the crop of 1900, and all other crops raised In the north and west have more than
 
 in 1908 was only f5 per cent more than the crop of 1900 A standard reference book contains this statement: The United States raises over 80 per cent of the worlds cotton, yet exports less cotton goods than the republic of Switzerland, which raises no cotton and has not even a seaport"
 In an editorial note regarding a series Of articles written by MT. Daniel J. Sul- ly the magazine publishing these articles made the following statement: During the actual reign of cotton, when Sully was premier, s4do,OOO in gold was brought to this country and formed the substructure of the enormous bull market which eliminated in the spring of 1907. Then the south and the whole nation realized for the first time that the sue cess of cotton and the advance of civili zation go hand in hand" In the first article written by Mr. Sully, the intro ductory paragraph is in these words: American cotton planters, proprietors of the greatest gold producing staple in the world are poor. They are in practical servitude. It is tragedy of contempor- ary life that they who produce for the world the commodity without which mod ern civilization could not proceed are themselves absolutely subservieut and the poorest paid toilers in the United States. Intelligently the cotton growers are anu COtTttu Dy ld{3tOTS WliCH have no other purpose than to keep them in this benighted vassalage." Mir. Sully is a practical business man and he is very emphatic in stating facts ana infer ences that coincide with the views I have expressed.
 The south produces 30 per cent of the worlds cotton supply; the remaining 20 per cent is ''of an inferior quality and can not compete with the cotton grown in the United States. The world Is more dependent on the cotton crop of the south than on any other product of this country, simply because the whole world uses and must have cotton, and the area available for it's profitable cui- tivation is practically limited to the southern states. And the civilized world is more dependent on the south today than 1t ever has been, but we know that as far back the early sixties, the bread riots in France and England, in cident to the scarcity of cotton for the mills of those countries, following the blockading of the southern ports, moved Louis Napoleon to treat with representa- tives of the Confectionery, and we know that England seriously considered the aovisability of joining France in move ment to open the southern ports. There was no sentiment in France or Eng land that supported the Confederacy. It was commerce. the thing that usually moves nations, England especially, that gave the Confederate states a ray of hope for little while. It was our cot ton they wanted. and there were states men who believed that the story of that war would have been different if MT. Davis had been more aggressive and far seeing.
 The southern people should be the most independent, prosperous and intelligent people of this country. They produce the largest item of export, and the one with