The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-18
Bright Future Ahead

DTlgHt fuIuFe Aneau
But one of the brightest omens for the
hardware business in this city is the fact
of its general boom along big manufae-
turing lines. If for no other reason the
trade would be certain of an extraordina-
ry growth within the next decade.
The hardware men themselves are fun
of confidence in the greatness of their
future.
1T is impossible to tell how fast the
wholesale hardware business in Birming-
ham will expand" said one prominent
man. But there's no doubt about the eX-
pansion. Let's look over the situation.
In the first place we've got to keep our
eye upon the fact that this city is par
uculasls favored above all others of the
south, by having about ii a populous ter :.
ritory of high class, prosperous consum-
ers-people wanting the best goods and
willing to pay cash for them at the near
est market when they get them.
1T is class of consumers who do not
hang onto the old tools and implements
when they see that they have gone be-
yond the stage of successful repair 1
wouldn't ask better territory for "a mar
ket, except of course, in some of the
great agricultural cities of the north and
northwest And as hardware Is one of
the most essential necessities of everyday
life you combine that fact with your class
of trade and you are literally forced to
the conclusion that hardware in Birmins
ham is bound to expand even faster than
it has before.
Just at the Dawn
another thing said the hardware
man with enthusiasm. I'VE must remem-
Der that Birmingham is still only in the
youth of it's development. The railroad
facilities of this city alone force the en-
tire people of tremendous stretch of ter
ritory to look to this city for their neces-
sites in this line. 1t all augurs rosy
dawn for both the city and the trade and
cannot find any one of the hundred men
engaged in similar business who does not
agree with me that we are on the eve of
tremendous expansion in every depart
ment OF the trade
One of the newest branches OF the hard
ware trade that has developed with such
rapidity as to virtually force itself to the
forefront of the business is that of cab
met hardware and cabinet notions. The
articles of Importance in this line are in
Guiding now carpets and mating, as well
as door-knobs, leather, upholstery, hinges.
floor coverings, davenports, draperies and
many other accessories that the hard
ware store never thought to carry in its
line of stock when it sprang up jointly in
the new town alongside the grocery
store Now the hardware business has
developed almost as widely and variously
as the grocery business; it's friends insist
much more variously and it is astonishing
to one who remembers the hardware
stocks of 10 years ago to scan the half
hundred departments in the modern Biz
mingham concern.
If you will take the trouble to go
about among the big hardware houses in
Birmingham said the hardware man
again, you will discover a constant hus-
tie and activity among them that would
convince you more than any words OF
mine could how really bristling with de-
velopment we are right now. And then
you continue to keep your eye on us.
Youll have to admit that hardwarers in
Birmingham are really and truly making
things hum already and are out to make
them hum even faster as the city grows
along