The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-28
CONDITIONS IN SOUTH
Glowing Outlook for Southeast At
 Opening of New Year

Columbus, Ga, December 27.-The Tn- dustrial Index says this week:
 Now beginning to purple the heights of the outposts of creation, the dawning year of 1912 comes with magnificent prom ise for the southeast.
 Nothing short of public calamity can keep it from unfolding and fulfilling the greatest prospects that this part of the country has ever known.
 Tt is easy to make such declaration, even though unsubstantiated by fact In this instance, it is founded upon fact
 'There was oil beneath the surface of the ground in Pennsylvania and adjacent states many years before the discovery of It gave riches to the fortunate devel- opers. Gold was hoarded by Mother Earth on the Pacific slope centuries perhaps be- fore a miller found it, and the precious metal attracted people from the four quarters of the globe and enabled them to lay the foundation of an empire. The sun shone just as brightly and the sea breezes cooled the summer atmosphere just as delightfully."- in California ages before even the padres built their chain of century old missions along the coast, but It was not until the salubrity of the climate became known to the country that wide areas were planted in oranges and other citrus fruits, great cities sprang up and there began a yearly migration that has had no superior in this coun- try.
 ''The southeast has no resources now has I, fo, Put they have been discovered. And with the discovery has come a development that expands with the weeks. The h. dustrial Index records week after week the establishing of more and more in- dustrial plants and the development of the more and more resources Steadily the lists grow longer, and this year the increase has been greater than ever be- fore in any year in the history of the southeast.
 Conditions here for manufacturing are most favorable, and money from other parts of this country and from abroad is being invested in industrial enterprises in ever growing volume. The cities and towns are being built up and their busi- ness enterprises are increasing in num- Der and growing in scope and import ance.
 Never before were farm lands in Ala bama and Georgia in such demand as now-because they have been discovered. But short time ago the trend of home- seekers was westward, This is changing. The tide has started southward-just started. it is true-and it is coming this way with doubling force and impetus.
 This section with it's fine water pow CTS, navigable rivers, great forests of hardwoods and of pine immense treas- ures in ore deposits highly productive lands, extensive and ever expanding rail- way facilities, unsurpassed climate and other resources that await opportunity to pay dividends is the last in the country to be developed.
 'Its development Is coming at time when there are more people in the coun- try who want homes than ever before. more capital that must have employ ment and more progressive and efficient ideas of business and of development.
 ''Under these conditions, the develop ,ment of the rich resources of the south- east win be the most rapid that the coun- try has ever known.
 "It is a precise business fact that in the past five years the southeast has in creased in business and development fast CT than has any other part of the coun- try The next five years will see an even greater change, and the years will be few before this section will begin to really come into its own-when it will enjoy to very much greater degree the sunshine of prosperity. as it now revels in rays of genial warmth over which the ice king has no power"