The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-03

H AIRING some serious, unforeseen turn of affairs, there is every rea- 0 son to believe that the call for all kinds of merchandise that will come from below Mason and Dixon's line this fall will be the largest in years, if not ever This opinion is expressed by well known local dry goods merchant who has recently returned from trip through that part of the country. His accounts of conditions in the cotton belt are espe- cially optimistic:
 q speak most particularly of the Car olinas, Alabama and Georgia he said in a talk with Times reporter yesterday because my personal observations were confined very largely to those states. The most significant thing I saw in my whole trip was something that I had never seen before-both the mills and the farmers making money at the same time I have seen the mills make money in the past at the expense of the farmers, and I have seen the farmers make money at the expense of the mills, but this year the condition for both is as close to ideal as I believe it will ever get.
 ''There is no secret about the mills making money. They are making it, and they intend to go on making it as long as possible. This is the first time since the boom of 1907 that the southern cotton mills have been able to earn any, thing that resembled a really good profit, and you may rest assured that they are not going to overlook anything. As for the farmers, they are tasting prosperity also. Cotton at the present market means a comfortable margin of profit for them, and they are so well fixed financially on the average that they are able, when the market shows disposition to sag be- low the Recent mark, to put the brakes on the outlet until the price gets back to where they think it should be. This not only means money for them, but it gives the mill men a pretty definite basis on which to work out their calculations.
 Just how much the present good con dition of the farmers is to be insured by the diversi1cation of crops is question but the present position of the cotton market is Apparently going to act as a powerful incentive toward blowing other crops under and putting the land back under cotton. The high cost of seed gen. erally and the natural. affinity of the southern farmer for cotton are other reasons why diversified crops may not play much of a part in the south this year,
 .At the present time the question: is rot whether there will be larger acre. age devoted to cotton this year than last, but how great the increase will be. There are indications of quite liberal increase in cotton acreage in Georgia and of some increase in South Carolina and Alabama. This is foreshadowed by reports of larger sales of fertilizer in those states. But the biggest increase will doubtless be in the cotton raising states west of the Missis- sippi, particularly in Texas. There is no way of gaugng the increased acreage in that part of the country from the sale of fertilizer, however, because tine land is so rich that very little, if any at all, is required"
 At this point the conversation reverted again to the mills side of the south's s prosperity The question of colors came up, and, incidentally, questions regarding labor legislation and other things of vital interest to the mills.
 Answering your question about the ability of the southern cotton manufac- turers to get colors," the merchant went on. ..there is only one thing to say. It is undoubtedly easier to get colors now than was the case several months ago, but the drawback lies in the fact that they cost just as much now as they did then So on this score buyers of colored cottons can look for little change in the position of goods prices for some time to come.
 s'rhe labor unrest that is manifesting itself throughout the country has not yet been seriously demonstrated in the cotton manufa curing states beyond noticeable tendency of various legislative bodies to give more attention to labor measures.
 For instance, in one state a law has been passed which limits the hours of labor and which requires manufacturers to post in their mills notices specifying these hours and the amount of lost time, if any. that has to be made up. There are indications that this kind of publicity is not overpopuiar in some of the mills, but when the manufacturers get more used to it they will probably like it bet ter
 Another question of the hour in the south is that of railroad rates. Every body seems to be expressing dissatis- faction regarding them. The business in terests of the bigger towns resent hav- ing the smaller ones placed on an equal basis with them when it comes to es- tablishing rates, while the merchants and manufacturers in the smaller places