Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-04-13
INDUSTRIAL IMPROVEMENT
THROUGH ENTIRE SOUTH
Every Line of Industry Shows Improvement and lndi
cations are That Marked Revival Will Soon Be
Manifest in General Business

Baltimore, Md. April Through
out the entire South, in nearly
every line of industry and in almost
every phase of material activity, there
are signs of improvement. Indications
all point to marked revival in gen.
elal business activity, and especially
in construction work of all kinds
This is noticeable in great building
operations, in the plans that are being
made by railroads for increasing their
facilities by double-tracking portions
of their line where traffic is the heav-
lest, and in the extension of roads in
TO new mineral and timber sections.
But at the moment the most striking
phase of Southern construction opera
tons is that of hydro-electric works.
English and Canadian capitalists have
united with American investors in ia
thering many enterprises of great
magnitude. In Southwest Virginia,
the Appalachian Power Co., a $25 ,000,-
600 concern, has under contract work
for hydro-electric development which
is planned to have an ultimate horse
power development of 100000; the
Georgia Railway & Power Company,
recently organized with capitaliza-
ton of $510O0,O0O, is. pushing work
on some of it's big projects with a view
to the final development of 100000 to
100000 horsepower. This company has
been largely financed by foreign cap
ital, some of the leading concerns of
Canada and England being identified
with it, while the Alabama Interstate
Power Co., which is now formulating
it's plans for beginning construction
work on the first of it's power plants,
has in view the ultimate development
of about 100000 horsepower This
company, like the Georgia Railway &
Power Company, numbers among its
investors many capitalists of Canada
and Great Britain.
Leading engineers of Chicago and
banking houses of the East are unit
ing in an enterprise for the purchase
of number of street railway compa-
MES in Tennessee in connection with
the utilization of great hydro-electrc
mower plants to be developed at va
rious points in that state. Around
Macon, Ga, very large hydro-electric
operations are under way, while in
North and South Carolina, which for
long time took the lead in hydro
electric work, companies long estab-
re ed are extending their operations,
while new financing has made it pos
sible within the last few months to
take up and carry forward the work
at a number of points, the completion
of which had been delayed since the
panic of 1907.
Though these enormous hydro-elec-
trio operations will furnish in the ag-
gregate many hundreds of thousands
of power, they are not halting the ex-
tension of coal mining and the in
crease of coal output throughout the
South to meet the rapidly-eXpandins
demand for fuel. In West Virginia
Kentucky. Tennessee and Alabama
there is a marked activity in the en-
largement of coal operations, with the
demand for the output apparently
growing more rapidly than the pro-
duction. In part this excess de-
mand is due to the strike in Europe
and to the desire of manufacturers to
stock up for fear of possible strike
in this country; but the coal trade at
large, so far as the South is concern
ed, is getting into better and heal
thier condition. In the iron market.
where severe depression has been seen
since 1907, with the exception of
brief period when prices advanced
and trade was more active, there is n
decided improvement in the outlook,
and prices in Birmingham and other
iron centers are reported as stronger.
Considering the general inactivity of
business and the relatively small
amount of railroad construction work
as compared with former periods, the
of pig iron during the last
few years has been astonishingly
large. Whenever there comes any
marked revival in railroad building
%aAnM RaMNElM