The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-17
Bank Clearings Gain in the Northwest and as Far
 as the Pacific
ACTIVITY IN SOUTH
 VERY ENCOURAGING
San Diego Banks Especially Are Showing Great Gains as COm- pared With Same Months
 Last Year
Rv unIIANn

By HOLLAND
 New York, March -(special.) .)-Some-
 times the reports of bank clearings, es- lpeciaIly in the west and south. are scanned whether they. show evidences of prosper ity or the beginning of prosperity. These statistics are not exclusively relied
 upon now, although they are still regard ed as furnishing excellent evidence of business conditions.
 | Nevertheless, in the financial district, reports from the state of North Dakota
 recently received from competent author ] ity tell of a condition there which is re- garded as quite as good evidence of the kind of prosperity for which the coun-
 try is looking as are the reports of bank 1 clearings. For this North Dakota report
 asserts that so rapidly has the state ad- vanced in agricultural industry and in the raising of cattle that in the year 1915
 it had the largest per capita value of any state in the union with respect to these commodities The state statistician fig
 ures that the value of it's crops. horses, cattle and swine averages $682 for each |
 match between the sister states of North
 and South Dakota. The more southerly
 of the states is compelled to take rank
 as second in the union in this respect, al- though the state is only S20 per capita less than the state of North Dakota. ! The significance of these figures with , respect to continued prosperity is found ] in the fact that these two remote states | of the northwest are now contributing so greatly through the cultivation of the | soil and the raising of cattle to general prosperity that they stand first and sec-
 ond measured by per capita value of | these products, among the states of the 1 union.
 l If this be true of those states, then there is no reason why the other agricul- ! tural states of the northwest, especially Montana, should not contribute their pro- portional gart to the influence based upon good crops upon which so much of the
 continued and increased prosperity of the country will depend.
 WEST AND SOUTH 1 Cincinnati, St. Louis and Louisville are | regarded in the financial district as fur
 nishing the best evidences of commer- ! cial, industrial and agricultural activity | in parts of the south and in the south west Reports from Cincinnati speak of almost uneXampled activity at this time. | Louisville in brief statistical state l ment gives a hint of business conditions
 south of the Ohio river, for the banks of that city reported that the clearings in l February, 1916, were approximately $26- 0O0,0O0 greater than those for February, l 1915. This is not due to extraordinary or | exceptional conditions in Louisville itself 1 but reflects business activity in the border 1 states and farther south.
 1 Much has been heard in the financial district for the past five or six months | respecting the prosperity of the state of 1 Oklahoma Much of it, of course, is due l to the fertility of the soil and the indus try of the farmers of that state The oil | industry also explains a part of it. The result of this prosperity is made evident
 to experienced eyes in the statement
 which comes from Oklahoma City which
 shows that money is very plentiful in the | state and the banks of Oklahoma City
 have now deposit line greater than at
 any time since the state was organized l This report is in line with some which have come from other states west of the | Mississippi valley, and 1t is especially true of California and of Oregon. The boundary line between Canada and the | United States does limit this activity. | for the reports which come from Van 1 couver compare well with reports re- ceived from various states west of the
 Mississippi.
 i In Colorado, prosperity seems to be abundant, and that is especially true of Pueblo and the Arkansas valley Much building is now in progress in that vii
 cinity and there are many eager pur-
 chasers and would-be purcha sers of land | The Cripple Creek district maintains it's l prominence as a gold producing center. l for out of the mines in that district there | came in February nearly S0000 tons of l ore the bullion value of which was $1 125,- f1., v1l...
 tained throughout the year then Colorado
 is likely to press California very closely ! with respect to gold mining. The sugar | beet growers in the Arkansas valley
 were so encouraged by the result of their
 crops last year. which brought extremely | good prices, that they are now increas- 1 ing their acreage, expecting to harvest
 the largest crop of sugar beets in 1916
 taken from the soil since the industry be-
 gan there
 l San Diego Cal evidently is responding to the business impulses and the excel l lent agricultural conditions in southern | California, for reports from that city l show an increase of $1,500,000 in bank | clearings in February of this year as com l pared with the same month last year. | Shpbuilding upon. the Pacific coast re- fleets the activity in that industry in the eastern shipyards. For instance, at Ia | coma. Wash, three schooners of steel frame construction-each of which will | cost about $150000, are soon to be built on l Puget sound, and the building of them
 in addition to the proof 1t furnishes of
 the revival of the shipbuilding industry, also furnishes excellent evidence of the
 revival of the lumber trade which for
 some years was very stagnant in that
 vicinity. These schooners are for the
 offshore and coastwise lumber trade These examples of industrial and com
 mescial activity in the far west are taken from many of like tenor which within a few days have been received in New
 York city. They show that prosperity l has advanced from the Atlantic to the
 Pacific