New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-04

plough handle or Jne QouDlc-plO'0"
axe. or perhaps the mill or factory
that has opened up Gust round the
cove" has taken him; his sons
and daughters, probably, have
gone to college; the Crack
or" has taken to work, and is very
much in earnest; the colored hand
has an earning power he never
touched before. Probably soon ne
will be well enough off to quit, this
last. With him 1t may be but a
transient access of ambition. | be-
lieve it is permanent with the first
two. For when the right sort once
takes a notion to desert the pastlme
of idleness for the business of work
there is no getting him back. And
there is good stuff in these dwellers
of the hills and Southern pine plains.
For long it has waited chance to
work out, and now it comes. You
, know it, they know it, in the ways
they live and play and work. Up in
the hay Appalachians or down in
the "piney" lands you sec a fuller
interest, whether it shows in the
crops they grow, the efficiency and
stir at cotton-picking time, or at
their neighbor-g gatherings for the au-
tumn's "hawg-killin' and husking
corn.
/ Signs, new signs, are at hand.
There is no question Of it. They
show in the fields, they appear in the
shops, they make noisy music in fac
tories new or charged with fresh in
dustrial currents. The railroads are
throbbing with trade; sometimes
they cannot even care for it, it is
/ suddenly so great. The rivers and
harbors are thick with commerce
banks fat with the financial incre-
ment of a busy people. And 1t is
not decreasing-not a whit OF 1t.
New rumors and old have simply
served to make the growth more
solid, to accentuate the strength of
/ it. Nor is it apparently passing
state of affairs, a thin or visionary
/ thing. Quite to the contrary, and
/ o.-.Io,oo Jooc not Loeb
Railroads have set new records,
, Southern lines stood firmly on their
( feet; financial institutions have been
/ helped and helping as never before;
great industries, Aladdin-fashion,
have come up overnight, but all signs
say that they have come to stay.
Agriculture has gained. 1t will gain
more. Though increases in the cot
/ ton crop last year were modest, due
somewhat to conditions which pre-
vailed at planting time, partly to
nationwide conditions of growth, its
value rose from $604,000,O00 to ST.
/ $50 100000, that of crushed cotton
seed mounting from S168,000,000 IN
| 1915 to $278,0OOOOO in 1916. In
creases along other cropping lines
have shown commensurate increase,
and the South has had no trouble IN
! finding high priced markets willing
to pay cash. It has gotten well over
the single-crop folly. In the market
ing and development of natural re-
sources, to take one notable exam
pie, the lumber cut of the Southern
States was, in 1850, just 1873 per
cent of the whole for this country.
In 1870 it had shrunk to ga. In
I 1914 this group cut All per cent Of
all the timber produced by the Unit
ed States.
! AS the Banker
Sees Ii
The other day Waldo Newcomer,
president of the National Exchange
Bank, of Baltimore, declared that:
All signs point TO a growing South.
Conditions are favorable for sustain
ing commercial, economic and fnan-
cial successes Of 1916. Az first the
South was hit hard by complete stop
page Of certain industries peculiar
TO the section, with disturbance Of
others. But a Southern-wide reor-
Ranization came about, and il has
gone ahead from 1915 on in spite Of
every drawback. Commerce, industry
and agriculture are achieving per
manently healthy growth from being
put in better working order. Local
interests are building on peace
footing, so TO speak. There is prac-
tically no expansion on inflated credit,
and almost everywhere new concerns
are able 10 pay as they go-and they
are doing il. Railroads, mining,
manufacturing, international COM
merce are very near the top of the
peak; all have set records. Person
ally / know that the South is max
ing a splendid think permanent
growth along solid lines. Her old
interest in agriculture does not abate,
but is On better, more fsr-seeing
footing; industries heretofore new
have steadily come 70 the fore, and
they have come 10 stay. IL is not
longer only the farming section Of
tLr ncputrv Ipduetrfa1Iy a pem