The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-10-07
A Message of
Good Cheer.

GOOu Oueer.
There Is nothing more cheering
these days than to read the Manufac-
turer's Record. It fairly bubbles with
optimism, the best kind of optimism in
the world-that which has a basis
Of fact. The editorials are backed by
the letters pouring in from all over
the South with news of increasing |
prosperity.
Among other good things in its
last issue, the Record said:
Not since the panic of October,
1907, has the situation looked so |
promising for the South as at present. |
The spirit Of optimism is spreading.
Quiekened by the very situation which
the South faced last fall, determined
that this section should not be
downed by one year Of adverse con-
ditions in trade, nor be made to stand
before the world as impoverished, un-
able to meet temporary difficulty,
the people Of the South are arousing
themselves and preparing to march
forward to victory over every un-
favorable circumstances.
No one can pick up a Southern pa
per anywhere from Maryland out to
Texas and Oklahoma without catching
the note of optimism which is being
struck by everybody in every direc-
ton.
The iron and steel industry is
crowded as it has not been since the
early part of 1907. Some furnaces
out of blast for ten or twelve years
are being made ready as rapidly to
blow in again. Advancing prices in
iron are giving a broader margin of
profit to the ironmakers than they
have known for years.
Cotton mills are fully employed,
and there are more signs Of activity
in the enlargement of existing mills
and the construction Of new mills
than for eight or ten years.
The lumber industry shows q re-
wing tendency, with advancing
prices and heavy increase in de-
Esand.
The phosphate rock industry, al
most dormant since last fall, begins
again to show signs of life, and, with
increasing activity, mines long idle
are now being started up.
Vast expenditures are being made
for the development Of shipping IA
cilities and port improvements along
the entire Atlantic and Gulf coasts
from Maryland to Texas.
Expenditures for municipal and road
Improvement work, and especially for
the latter, are on scale never known
before in the South.
The South's wonderful grain CROP
of 1900, 100000 bushels, or 46,0O0,-
900 bushels in excess of last years
yield, has been an illumination to the
entire country as to the grain-growing
potentialities of the South. Coinci-
dent with this is the heavy increase ID
the production of meats and the
greater attention that is being given
to livestock raising, hogs and cattle
alike commanding more attention ir
the South now than ever before.
And added to all this improvement
is the remarkable change which ha:
taken place in the cotton market
With crop of 100000 to $4,000,
600 bales now being picked added II
the stock of 100000 or 5000 .OOl
bales brought over from last year
the market is eagerly absorbing tn,
supply at advancing prices-at prices
which, indeed, would have been con
sidered very profitable only a few
years ago before the South was abb
to sell one or two crops at highe
figures than for many years.
Running over the whole range o
agricultural and industrial and rail
road activities, the situation is hope
full in the extreme. While some FEY
industries have not yet benefited b
the change that is taking place, the,
are very limited in extent as com
pared in the aggregate with thos
that are on an altogether differen
plane of activity as compared wit
last year, and many of them as com
pared with any period since 1907.
The South now only needs fait
in itself and the right kind of enerr,
well directed, to bring about a NOR
far-reaching and widespread and uni
versal prosperity than it has had sine
the palmy days of 1906 and the earl
part of 1907, when every railroad wa
crowded to its utmost capacity an
when every industrial enterprise wa
running to the limit of its avaiIabl
supply Of men.
"As a man thinketh in his heart, s
is he" is as true of country as it
of an individual. If the South think
broad world thoughts, if it thinks
terms Of material development base
on it. limitless resources, if it thinl