The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-07
For the Good of
 the Community
THIS is no time for gloomy forebodings in Birmingham.

but It IS not fatal blow Birmingham has survived several periods of financial and ndustrialdepression; depressionsthatsent banking institutions and industrial and commercial concerns of other districts to the wall Birmingham suffered in these in common with all other sections of the country, but in the end she came out stronger and greater than before they came.
 She will survive the present critical De- riod as she has all others
 The foundation for greatness here is too deep rooted and the determination to grow and build is too deeply imbedded in the hearts and the minds of the makers of . Birmingham for them to waver or give up simply because of adverse legislation, or other conditions
 Birmingham may not be able to sell her iron in the north and the east or her coal beyond a very restricted territory, but in the end she will overcome these obstacles. Factories will be built here to convert the iron into finished products. The coal will be converted into coke and chemicals The men who now take gloomy view of the situation will be the leaders in the new movement as they have in others in the past.
 Birmingham industrial and commercial leaders are not the kind that quit because conditions are not just what they want them to be. They invite opposition and when 1t comes they work the harder to overcome 1t, to win tn battle and go on making Birmingham bigger and greater.
 Rumors are current of new factories soon to be built here to work up the raw materials into finished products that can be shipped into any part of the country and into foreign countries in successful competition with similar products of other districts.
 In the last week or two the local news papers have told of rivet plant under construction, of blow and agricultural i'm plement factory, of harvesting machinery to be made made here, new stove fac tory, automobile factory and several others.
 Rumors are heard of a score of big northern manufacturing concerns that are Investigating Birmingham with the view to building branches here to make machin- cry, tools implements, and other products for the Central and South American trade. The coal and iron and steel mined or made here, and the Warrior river open to navigation the year round, are induce ments that cause them to look towards Birmingham
 They are coming. Birmingham, at the head of navigation on the Warrior river, with it's cheap transportation to the Gulf of Mexico, thence across to the countries that lie south of us, offers advantages for these industries that cannot be duplicated elsewhere in the United States
 One optimistic Birmingham citizen pre- dicted day or two ago that within ten years Birmingham would be making more articles for the Central and South Ameri- can trade than any other city in the United States. He gave as his reasons for this belief the world of raw materials here, cheap transportation by way of the War riorriver and the dozens of northern con- cerns that have been and are Investigating local conditions. He has been in touch with some of these and speaks with the conviction of one who knows what he is talking about.
 < No, this is no time for gloomy talk in Birmingham.