The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-23
.EUTAW MAN SOUNDS
 HIS D|SAPPROVAL South Is Making Millions, But It Goes to Swell
 Eastern Golfers

To the Editor of The e-Herald:<
 I was amazed to read in your issue of Monday the astounding figures pre- sented by the Manufacturers Record of the south's annual production of wealth on farm, in mine and mill, in the out put of her forests. etc. The figures pre- sented of the 80 year record sound like the production of a magician's wand.
 Reflecting over these figures I won- dered where all tho wealth of the past 30 years has flown to. and to what haven of accumulation the annual pro- duction of the south's wealth---as given by the Manufacturers Record--drifts each year. Certainly it has not and does not remain in the coffers of the south, for the financial condition Of our farmers Is deplorable as compared to 25 years ago. I say without fear or
 contradiction that 50 per cent of our farming lands are mortaged at the present day, while not more than 20 per cent were mortgaged 20 years ago. Eighty per cent of the merchants throughout the agricultural section are at present living hand to mouth pol icy, while in years gone by, before the Manufacturers Record made us rich, they were the princes of our civ |ilization. 1t was an easy undertaking for a sound business merchant, with good judgment, to get rich 30 years ago, while at the present it Is a task as difficult as moving the pyramids and the great majority of them are in- volved almost to the same extent as the farmer
 In regard to the business conditions Iar oft nP tho south I am not so well informed, but would not be surprised if most of their real estate and buildings were not financed in Boston and New York, and
 that their business men had paper hypothecated in banks almost contin- uously throughout the year.
 Of what profit is 1t to the south to produce s85O, 100000 worth of cotton an- nually if she Is exploited $1,000, 100000 in accomplishing such a feat? The fact is the more we make the less we get for it, and the poorer we become. Have our timber resources proven to be an Alladin's lamp to open the door or wealth to our easy entrance? Certainly not. Ask the land owner who sold the timber and the mill man who has cut it for market and listen to their story of bankruptcy and woe The records will show that over 50 per cent of the timber cutting companies wind up in bankruptcy and the farmer has not received enough from his sale to pay last years interest on his mortgage, besides having his property deteriorated
 by the ruthless devastation of his for est. Still the demand for lumber is increasing and prices should be going
 up constantly.
 The cotton manufacturers of the south tell me it is difficult to make ends meet and we know from the echoes we hear from your district that the lights of prosperity are glimmering but faintly since the steel octopus has reached out and gathered your indus
 tries in her loving, but death dealing, embrace. Still you must fondfe the hand that smites you Why? Why?
 The ledger balances of the banks seem to show favorable individual bank deposit. but If they were charged up with the rediscounts that have been negotiated to secure these balances they