Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1920-11-16
A CoUNTRYMAN, on returnin,


thought of the big city. Couldn't see
the city because of so many houses
and folk" he replied.
| A great many business men can
not grasp the value of the broad,
! fundamental developments of today
because of the troubles and discour-
agements they encounter hour by
hour. Yet nothing could well be
surer than that the stage is being set
! for the revival of brisk, active,
healthy business in 1921.
Every basic trend is moving toward
prosperity.
Just as bushes need to be
trimmed before they can bear a full
wealth of fruit; just as the decks of
battleship must be cleared before
she is in proper fighting trim; just
as steel spring has. to be pressed
before it can rebound, so our eco
nomic situation had to undergo dras-
tic treatment before we could ex-
pect the right results.
What has happened readjustment-
wise need not here be recapitulated
at length. Briefly: Prices in some
instances, such as coffee, wool, cop
per, rubber, hides. are already back
to pre-war levels; declines approach
ing or equallipg so per cent from
the recent maximum points have
been sustained by such staples as
wheat and corn and oats, cotton and
many cotton goods, silk and silk
goods, sugar meats, tea, furs; the
cost of living has declined 20 per
cent from the peak; buyers, both
consumers and merchants, have been
on strike for months, causing wide
spread shutting down of cotton,
wooden, knit goods, shoes, rubber
automobile, garment and other fac
tories, with consequent unemploy
ment or three or four day weeks;
banks tightened their purse-strings,
raised their interest rates, and there
by forced liquidation of goods as
we'll as securities and caused COM
mercial failures last month involving
the heaviest libalities for any month
in FIVE years; the optimism which
ruled in business circles at the be-
Ginning of the year gave way to pes
/ simism and, of late, the uneasiness,
apprehension and unsettlement have
been acute.
Prelude to Prosperity.
! Yes, very great number of cor
porations, firms and individuals have
been sweating blood to such a de-
gree that they have felt certain that
everything was headed for demoral-
ization, disaster and even panic. This
attitude was and is natural, for ad
mittedly conditions have been har-
RAISING and embarrassing to innum-
cradle concerns,
And yet all that has occurred and
is occurring constitutes necessary.
and inevitable, prelude to the inaug-
uration of period of genuine, sta
BILE, dependable prosperity. The
war-bred boom carried US off our
feet and off our heads, carried u
! off solid ground into the clouds. The
more unrestrained the boom became,
the more certain was it that the up
shot wound be a cataclysmic tinan-
cial and business upheaval, unless
drastic measures Were taken to start
! the descent from the clouds to sound
! levels.
At the opening of 1920 we were
moving toward disaster.
At the opening of 1921 we should
! be moving toward real prosperity.
Let us analyze the chief founda-
mental of the economic structure,
with view to gaining a clear un-
derstanding of whittier we are tend
! ing.
The six main factors which decree
either good times or bad times are:
( Crops.
/ Capital and credit
Labor (including immigration
/ TRANSPORTATION.
Foreign trade.
| Politics.
Good Times Factors.
Take crops. Our 1920 harvests
/ have, by and large, been most boun-
tiful. While it is true that both
grain growers and cotton growers
have been complaining bitterly over
| the fall in prices, nevertheless the
income of our vast agricultural pop
ulation. totalling upward of 100000
900, will be sufficiently large to in
vest them with tremendous buying
power, and it is universally known
that our farming people are not
niggardly spenders when they have
the wherewithal. "The backbone OF
the country" as agriculture is often
called, is therefore sound as Glbral-
tar.
Capital and creditor, rather the
lack of it-have caused many heart
aches during thelast six months. EX-
travagance was careering along SO
riotously that little new capital was
being saved. The constant advance
in prices was necessitating larger
and larger supplies of money and
credit to keep the three-ringed bust
ness circus goine. 1t had become
absolutely essential to apply the
brakes If catastrophe was to be avert,
ed ALTHOUGH it is true that credit
has been expanded several billions
ever since the dancer signals were
raised. and although it is true that
interest rates are still practically as