The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-20
7START SOMETHING"
 ADVICE BY HARDING. .OF RESERVE BOARD.
Tells Bankers of South That "There Is Now No Occasion to Hold a Wake Never
 Down and Out

Washington. September 19.-(Special)-- Gov W. P. G. Harding of the federal re- serve board at the. recent meeting of southern bankers with the war finance corporation, made some informal re- marks which are being construed as highly encouraging to the south
 His advice to southerners might be summed up in the expression start something" Extracts from his talk are as follows:
 I think that there is no occasion for us to hold a wake There is no use in taking the position that we are down and out in the south, because we are. not. That is one section that never gets down and out.
 But there is no doubt in the world, gentlemen, that southern problems which are closely related to the problems of the west and all agricultural sections of this country are very grave at this time They are very acute problems. You may have different views as to the causes which have brought about present condi- tions. 1 think it is unnecessary to dis cuss the question of cause just now. This is no time for "reminiscences.
 What we want to do is to see how the present situation can be tided over and where the ultimate means of relief are going to be found. The south produces raw materials which are essential to manufacturing and industry for con- sumption in other lands very largely I think the great difficulty in the south today lies in the fact that it has on hand a quantity of products which in ordinary circumstances would be moved abroad, but which cannot go on account of pres ent conditions. I do not think there is any actual overproduction in this coun try of any raw material or essential products. We thought year or more and that there was an actual shortage. The slogan used to be Increase Produc- ton Consumption, however, has been reduced, so that whatever overproduc- tion there is is relative rather than ab- solute.
 WHEN DEMAND FELL OFF
 About year ago it began to be mo- ticed that the insistent demand for va- rious commodities was falling off. From that position we advanced step to a point where we found that there was no shortage as we had thought, and then it developed that we had a surplus.
 While last year was one of physical plenty and the crops were bounteous, the consumers demand fell off. That is due primarily to the lack of a potential buying power in other countries. I think
  tural depression in this country because we all know that the agricultural sec tions not only produce foodstuffs and raw material needed in comrpercial and manufacturing communities, but they are also the great consumers of manufac- tured products, and anything that im- pairs the purchasing power or the credit ability of the farmer is soon reflected in the manufacturing and commercial cen- ters. That applies not only to local trade, but to our foreign trade as well.
 This situation was anticipated by some of us as early as 1919, when atten- tion was called to the need of doing something to stimulate our foreign trade and to keep our exports moving abroad in a steady stream. It happened, how over, that the credits advanced by the treasury of the United States under act of Congress to the foreign governments which had been associated with us in the war, had not been exhausted in 1919. At the time of the armistice there were still available about two and one-half billions of dollars of credits. These were prac- tically exhausted, and then exporters and bankers all over the country extend- ed credits in various ways and financed foreign trade to the extent of, perhaps three and one-half or four billions of dollars.
 EXHAUSTED BUYING POWER
 "Now we have reached point where it seems impossible to finance foreign trade in the old way--by bills of short