The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31
WORK OF GEORGIA
 DURING PAST YEAR State Has Every Reason to
 Be Thankful  THE PROSPECT FOR 1912 State Has Had Eventful Year Politi- cally and Number of Changes Have Been Made in States
 Official Family
THE PROSPECT FOR 1912

Atlanta, December S0.-(special. )-Geor- gia closes the year 1911 with many inn portant steps taken in the direction of ma terial and financial progress.
 With the unfortunate exception of the low price of cotton, which has been ma terially felt throughout the country, Geor- gia has had a splendid agricultural year. The state has made more corn than ever before. and other crops whose prices have held up, is outside of cotton. and effect of the drop in the staple has not been seriously felt as would otherwise have been the case.
 Georgia has had fine business year." said Governor Slaton. Despite disad- vantages, chief among which has been the cotton market, trade has been good and I am glad to be able to note that the farmers generally are in splendid condi- tion, and better able to cope with crop difficulties than they were ten years ago. The outlook as I see 1t, is even brighter and better than it was a year ago, and l confidently believe, with a conservative administration and profiting by what has gone before us, the year 1912 has great things in store for the state"
 Commissioner of Agriculture T. c. Hud- son is of the opinion that Georgia farm CTS will give themselves more than ever of diversifcation next year. The lesson of too much cotton has been a severe one. and the advantages of cereal and oth- CT crops have been so we'll illustrated by example, that he confidently looks next year for the planting in grain crops of such of the acreage that has been gen erally given to cotton.
 Railroad Commissions Statement
 Evidence of the fact that Georgia has had a good year despite set backs. is found in an interesting year end state ment furnished by Chairman c. M Cand. Ter of the state railroad cimmission, ir which he says:
 According to the reports made to ths commission by the public service corpor- ations in Georgia, 1911 seems to be a ban. ner year-1910 was the biggest year-bott as to gross and net earnings, Georgia railroads ever had, surpassing 1907, whici up to that time was their red letter year
 Complete reports for the fiscal yeai ending June 30, 1911, have not yet been tabulated, but they show large increases over 1910 Weekly and monthly reports since June 3O 1911, to date, show continued increases over the same periods for last year, and I have no question but that gross and net earnings of all public serv- ice corporations in Georgia for the 1. months ending December 31, 1911, will bt the largest in their history.
 'I take it that these conditions fairly indicate, also, general business conditions in Georgia. ..N vs.A .f "a "The relations between the public serv. ice corporations and the public. generally in Georgia were never more harmonious While the commission is daily handling complaints and adjudicating disputed questions, it ss quite natural that these should arise. The refreshing fact to the commission is the willing acquiescence ot all parties in its adjudications. Only one order of the commission, so far as I can recall, has been carried to the courts in the past four or five years. and that Is somewhat in the nature of willing litiga- tion to have a legal question judcally settled.
 'The commission has recently had com pleted physical inspections of four of the ldi 6ci iiilto oI llc Sttlt dllu OuI lilSpSc- tor Is on the road. In the main the physical conditions of the roads inspected are good, showing that average sums are being spent on maintenance of roadbed tracks, depots and equipment"
 Over in the office of Secretary of State Philip Cook, a healthy increase is shown from the records, both in new corpora tions and new banks. There are likewise indications from the registration list that many Georgians are much better off than they were a year ago, for they have year, for which the secretary has been asked to furnish state numbers.
 Ninety New Banks
 Ninety new banks with an approximate capitalization of $3,000000 were granted charters by the secretary of state during the year, and dozen new insurance com panies, several of them large, old line companies, have been added to Georgia's list The increase in state banks, while not a record breaker, surpassed the growth in 1910 when only 62 new banks were added to the list. Georgia now has total of 635 state banks with an approxi- mate capitalization of s35, GOO. There is scarcely a town anywhere in the state now, no matter what its size. and even when it may be without railroad, but has its banking institution. Georgia farm CTS have learned their value, are using them constantly, and ten Georgia farm CTS have bank balances now to one a dec- ade ago.
 It Is impossible at this time to obtain a state treasury statement. State reports are not made out until June in time for the presentation to the legislature at its annual session. It is stated, however that no special significance attaches to the fact that the cash balance in the treasury is now unusually small, much smaller than on January 1, 1910. The state has just paid out $500,000 to her school teachers. which took up about all the spare cash; but the main trouble is tha' collections of taxes are about 25 per cent behind what they were last year at this time.
 Comptroller General w. A. Wright says the low price of cotton accounts largely