The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-04

has characterized capital for four
years SO far as large inv estments are
concerned is being overcome. The
years of enforced economy in all lines
of business activity, and to a consid-
cradle extent in household expendi-
lures, have, in connection with the
great increase of our foreign COM
merce, caused a vast accumulation of
liquid capital. All the symptoms in
dictate that this capital is becoming
Apparently it has gained confidence,
no longer greatly fearing political or
demagogic agitation. Business seems
to have at last obtained an under
standing of what 1T may lawfully do
ard where the boundary line between
lawful and unlawful undertakings is
now drawn.
What is in progress in the far west
is also the condition in many parts of
the south. Various large business I'M
dertakings of unQuestionably good re-
pute and high credit are now ap
preaching the money market for the
purpose of securing capital with
which to carry On developments in
the south, and upon a very great
scale. This has been this week par
tfculariy observable in the case of
corporations which are engaged in the
cutting of lumber, and especially of
the kind of lumber which is exclusive
ly found in the south and in the
swamp LANDS OF the south.
There are, however, other evidences
of great Industrial and commercial ac-
tivity in the south, and 1t is the opin-
ion here that in proportion to the
wealth of that region, it's population
and it's banking facilities, it is not
surpassed by any other section of the
country in the vigor with which its in
dustrial and commercial resources are
now being developed.
A year ago Mr.. FIagIer discovered
that If the railroad which he built ex-
cIusively with his own capital and
an outpost of immense strategic i'm
portance, in view of the speedy open
ing to navigation of the Panama
canal, is to meet all the demands
which are made upon it for transpor-
tation it will be necessary to double
track it for the whole distance from
Jacksonville, at least as far south as
Miami
Railroad Double Tracking.
Mr.. Flagler is not alone in this de-
termination. Many of the railway
managers of the south believe that
they must speedily double track con-
siderable sections of their lines, and
this is true, especially, of the rail-
roads whose largest traffic is made
up of the products of the lumber and
mining districts of the south. The
hum of industry is there and it is in
creasing.
In addition to that, great deal of
capital is now seeking investment in
the south in the field of water power
development and the conversion of
that into electric energy.
Tt is just a year since George West
inghouse. in an address delivered to
the southern business congress which
was held at Atlanta, spoke with much
detail and with enthusiasm of the OPP
portunities which the water power of
the south offered. Mr.. Westinghouse
intimated that men of science had I'M
questionably perfected apparatus in
the construction and marketing of
which there is no commercial monop-
oily by means of which water power
may be converted into electric energy
which can be conveyed to commercial
advantage for many miles.
Mr. Westinghouse must have had
vivid recollections of the time. almost
exactly twenty years ago, when he,
with such eminent men of science as
the late DR.. Coleman Sellers. Roswell