The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-24
For Good of
 the Community
Buyer and Seller Meeting on Plane of Fair Play Doing More Than Anything Else to
 Restore Normalcy


 Inounced. The producers did not call it a strike. It was more of a walk-out They stopped pro- 5ducing pending reduction in costs of produc- Ition.
 This business of existence is no one-sided game. He who takes must give. There is so much juice in turnip Squeeze it hard and long enough and it has no more. Two fix the price. Two strike the bargain for the exchange | of their goods. When one develops dictator ship, the other slides from under By common agreement buyer and seller have resumed business They have met on plane of fair play, each believing the other has yield led enough to establish a base that Withholds mo overbalance of advantage.
 The fruits of many trees are ripening at the same time. The farmers having taken in more cash for side crops by 100 per cent than in their history, looked about them and saw splendid yields of staple crops made at a minimum of cost. Their glasses of introspection showed them to themselves as far better off than they had dreamed of being
 Merchants in the cities, who had indulged scare of collections this spring and summer, glanced over their profit and loss account and found few discomfiting entries Bills had been paid The country merchant had not been hit as hard as he thought he had been and the wholesaler had not lost through him.
 Visualization of this condition brought the country merchant and the wholesaler together for consideration of the coming season. They had no difficulty in arriving at modus ope- randi and resuming real buying and selling based on confidence in the status of the farm ers Once realizing the soundness of underly- ing conditions they went ahead. That is the story of August buying that has been and is the best of the year.
 We in Birmingham depend also and pri- marily on our mines, mills and furnaces. It is good news about bunker coal at gulf ports. One of the largest concerns in the district catering to that business reports such an increase in theI demand for bunker coal at Pensacola and New Orleans that his coal mines have been on full turn for ten days.
 Just about that time the state public service commission gave a lift to the iron business by| reducing rates on ore and limestone to thel furnaces. That does not mean rush to resume operations, but it paves the way for getting back into the game gradually. Just little re- mains before buyer and maker strike the bar gain that has been made in other lines
 That bargain is nearing it's agreement. Un- Iderproduction has created low state of stocks that the melter is bound to notice He has quit |hammering the market In the east iron is upI
 
 the $19 base has hardened and tends upward9l High pressure pipe has also stiffened on theI ntal consent that like pig iron it had gotten las low as makers could stand. Birmingham is doing a fine business with thel Pacific coast out of Mobile. Ithas been won- |derful lift during period when, but for these ships with their lower rates, that pipe iron and steel could not have moved to the western em- |pire About 1000 tons of Birmingham pipe alone will have gone out of Mobile in less than month
 But the big outstanding feature of the bus- ness now developing is that men are not dis putting with one another as to price Buyer and seller are not wrangling. There is little talk of profiteering. There is splendid spirit of |sef-respect and tolerance by each of the claims of the other.
 Moreover this new business gait is firm, steady and reliant, cool and well-informed, 1..l