Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-01-11
The South'S Outlook for 1916.

In discussing the WonderIul prospect OF
can business for the year 1916 Mr.. A. w. Douglas.
a distinguished authority economic affairs, de-
clares in the New York Times that in no other
section of the country is the general outlook so
encouraging as in the South. This is due not only
10 the sharp contrast between conditions as they
are now and as they were in the latter months OF
1914 when cotton, then the Souths main money
crop, was reduced to beggary, but also to new
methods and new energies which bid fair to excel
the most Astounding prosperity of years gone by.
The South has done more than recover lost ground
and lost strength. II gained fresh vigor and
wisdom.
Noting the fact that Southern States grew
thirty-hve per cent of all the and fifteen per
cent of all the wheat raised in 1915 besides great
quantities of alfalfa and forage, Mr.. Douglas says
that THE bountsOus supply OF food for live stock
forms basis for broad development in animal in
austries. It was the bitter yet wholesome expe--
rience of 1914 that turned Southern farmers so
numerousIy to diversified crops. The overthrow
of the cotton tyranny opened the way to agricul-
turaf freedom and progress The happy results of
a single twelvemonth of the new system is by the
fact that:
The first shipment of winter wheat to st.
Louis came from northern Louisiana. In
southern Georgia the old -four mills, long dis
used, ran night and day to grind the local
wheat A half dozen Southern States raised
more corn than Pennsylvania; Texas raised
more corn than Ohio Kansas. or than Mich
igan Minnesota and Wisconsin combined.
There were ten Southern States that grew
more corn tnan either Minnesota, Wisconsin
or Michigan
This remarkable increase in food supplies adds
TO the Souths wealth and independence. 1t means
relief and immunity from many debts which here
tofOre our farmers have incurred. 1t means that
the surplus from cotton earnings will be kept at
home for deposit in banks for investment in
improvements instead of being diverted to distant
sections. 1t means above all, however, that the
South has acquired new spirit of self reliance
and has caught vision of opportunity.
The all-cotton system tended TO exhaust the
soil and TO enslave the farmer 10 an economic
order that was at once inadequate and dangerous
The system of diversiicatOn tends TO conserve and
upbuild the soil and places the farmers affairs on
a more assured and more profitable basis. Scien-
tifc and busfnesslike methods of agriculture now
have wider, freer range in the South than ever
before. The result will be richer and ever-in-
creasing measure of prosperity not only for our
farms but also for the common interests of in
dustry and trade.
Commenting the South's resources other
than agricultural, Mr.. Douglas observes that this
region has the greatest uncut forests in North
America, except in Canada, and that in the Birm-
ingham district il has the richest natural assoca
ton of coal iron and limestone-the essentials
OF iron and steel manufacture-Of any place in the
world. OF textile Industries, he says:
The South Atlantic States are destined to
be the cotton manufacturing center not only
of this country but of all countries because of
plentiful raw material. cheap labor and cheap
and reliable electric motive power furnished
BY the innumerable streams that flow from
the Appalachians to the Atlantic"
In view of these resources, these achievements
and tendencies, the Souths outlook for the year
1916 is brighter than for any other period of its
history and brighter than that of any other sec
ton in the worlds most fortunate land.