The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-09-06

work all the harder for a repetition OF
Wilson's 1912 victory when the dem
ocratic plurality was 1920 over Roose-
welt.
After this week the presidential
campaign will have on full steam, and
political excitement in New York and
the other pivotal" states will con-
tinue at white heat until the polls
close on the evening of November Z.
NE ARCONI is quoted as saying
lVl that the United States car
never be invaded. With all due respect
to the famous Italian scientist whose
achievements in wireless telegraphy
have made the world his debtor, his
statement is not one to be taken I'M
Ireservedly.
While the war experts believe that
it would be extremely difficult for a
foreign power
Differing Slightly to penetrate
With Signor Marconi any distance
inland, t h e y
are not so sure about the invulnera-
bility of such places as New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and
in fact all the principal cities of the
east, while it is conceded that the
Japs might find no difficulty in cap
turing San Francisco and Los An
geles.
If foe ever attacked the United
States the plan of campaign would
probably be based on delivering swift
blows against the principal seaports,
particularly New York, with the like
lihood of bringing the country to its
knees without a foreign soldier being
seen further inland than a few hun
dred miles from the seacoast.
With our first line of defense
strengthened, dangers of that sort will
be reduced to a minimum, but an in
vasion in the sense that foreign ma
ton might land troops on our shores
could at present be effected easily
enough, as was demonstrated in the
recent "war game" of the "Red" and
"Blue" fleets.
TOR most sections of the country
l. this is an uncommonly prosper
Gus year Steel makers have never
known anything like it before. Manu-
facturers in many lines have earned
enormous profits, and never have
wageworkers been
Business Activity so well compen-
in Most Sections stated for their toll.
New high records
of production have been the rule in the
industrial centers of the east and the
middle west. These records may soon
be broken.
Some of the Astounding prosperity
results from war orders, but the
greater part is domestic and normal.
Notwithstanding bad crop reports
from the south and falling off in
the vests wheat yield, general trade
keeps up remarkably we'll. The fed
eral reserve boards recent summary
of conditions as reported by the twelve
regional banks, was decidedly encour-
aging. In several regional centers
general trade had been exceedingly
brisk all summer and was especially
active in August.
An optimistic feeling is wide
spread, and September, which is usu-
ally quiet month, promises to be
one of the best. There is every prom
Use that the last quarter of the year
will be far ahead of the same period
of 1915, and that period was one of
thrift
Just what 1917 has in store for
American industries and American
commerce no one can foretell with any
degree of accuracy, but the outlook for
the first half of the year is exceed
ingly bright Certain it is that 1916
will pass into history as red letter
year.
TT used to be that in harvest time
the New York banks began te
pile up money which would be needed
little later on for moving the crops
The cry of tight money was always
heard at this season of the year. But
the federal
Beneficial Effect of reserve sys-
Federal Reserve System t e m h a s
changed all
that. The banking and currency act
adopted by the Sixty-third Congress
which created the reserve banks, was
the greatest financial legislation ever
written upon the statute books. 1t
made money panics well nigh impos-