The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-29
NORTH M|SLED AS ID
 CONDITIONS IN THE
 SOUTHERN STATES
No Sign of Hard Times, Says H. Cole Estep, Engineer ing Editor of The Iron
 Trade Review

Business conditions, as far as l have been able to judge from exterior appear ances. are not nearly as bad in the south as is generally believed: and especially as Is believed In the north said H. Cole Estep. engineering editor of the Iron Trade Review of Cleveland, O., yester- day. Mir. Estep has been here since Sunday, and has spent all of his time looking over various industrial plants in the district
 The general impression In the north" continued Mir. Estep, 'is that the south has already gone to pieces. In my trip l have only stopped at Cincinnati. Knox vile and now Birmingham. but I have failed 10 sec the signs which I expected to see of inactivity and hard times.
 "of course, 1t is impossible for any one to get an insight into real .3udi- tons merely from a casual observance of few days, but where there is fire there always Is some smoke and 1 have failed so far to. see the smoke of business de- precision in an appreciable quantity Tho south, of course, is at n disadvantage in she present extraordinary times We arc passing through on account If she conflict in Europe, due to it's cotton The pinch has not been felt as much in the north or west on account of the dif- ferent character of the sections agrioul- tural products. But the south is not in the same position by any means as 1t would have been had there been a cot ton crop failure. You have the cotton; what you lack Is the market. The cot ton will keep and eventually the market will come back and then this section will recover normal conditions. In the event of a crop failure you would have lost the entire value of years labor; but in the present circumstance you have ouiy temporarily lost that value, for when the market returns you will have the cot. ton 10 supply it.
 Western Farmers Prosperous
 Tn Minnesota. Nebraska, Kansas and those states through that section of the country an unlimited period of prosperity prevails. Those farmers are settling their corn and wheat at higher pficos thar ever before and business in general is booming. The country has not gone to the dogs by any means; what depres- sion we have is largely due to the scare and tim.dity of business resulting from the war.
 How long the war will last I ,ion't know. What will happen to us when il is concluded would be foolish fer me 10 guess. I do believe it will las. vory much longer than at first everybody seemed to believe. And when it is over do not believe we are going to expe- rience any immediate return to highly prosperous conditions. l look at it this way. Forget about the money part of it. If the world raises 100000 bushels of corn. for example. each family would have so much. If only 5,oOo.0Oo bushels were raised, each family would have half that much. Germany. France, England, Belgium and other countries have prac- tically been wiped off the map as far as their producing qualities are con cerned. They will remain that way for sometime after the war concludes Therefore. there is going to be that much less food. that much less machinery, that much less transportation. that many iceS nouscS diiu tilt NHOie WOTlu IS gong to be poorer in all those four things, which constitute business.
 At the Close of the War
 NOW it may be that this country at the close of the war is going to have by far the worlds ldrger share of the worlds supply of these four things, and that in the natural division with other parts of the world that will result our business men and farmers will greatly profit. But another thing will result. When the American citizen then buys food he will have to meet the heavy competition of these starving European countries and pay the high prices; when he buys lumber for houses he will have to do the same thing, when he buys machinery he will have to do the same thing. You can see for yourself what that may mean.
 Yes, sir. I think Birmingham is a wonderful town. It reminds me much of my former home town. Seattle, Wash This is my first trip here. You seem to have wonderful natural resources. I don't see why you should not become enc of the leading industrial centers of