The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-21
For Good of
 the Community
Defldtion Caused Industry to Halt While, But # Has Started A gain and Sound Op-
 timism Preuails Everywhere

X7HAT was the whimpering about? What
 has really happened? How much has the average man been hurt? How many would have the post-bellum drunk again? How many regret that the inevitable reaction is past his- tory? Who have lost confidence?
 | Are there parents of young men who regret that artificial conditions have been removed in time to save them from forming wrong ideas of life? Would business men prefer that the spree had been prolonged until now so that the get ting back to normal would be that much more painful and protracted?
 There are few eternal truths. What is an eternal truth? A basic condition from which there is no escape. Fortunately for man these are simple laws, hence the rules of an orderly life and one that brings satisfaction form no difficult category
 Man is not happy unless he produces, be- cause what he wants must be produced Misery came out of the war because that is the op- posite of production. We could still produce, but other peoples had first to rehabilitate the machinery of production They had nothing to give us for what we could produce, so we soon had more than we wanted and industry paused.
 That is all that has happened Industry halted a while. We in America had to live off our fat as bears in winter cave. But we did it. We came to deflation with record savings deposits, Liberty bonds and other snug sums laid by. Where there was want among the un- employed the surplus of the thrifty supplied it. No soup houses and bread lines this time
 Then came August with suggestion of the coming harvest. Manful farmers, hit earliest and hardest, got their bearings first They trimmed sails, diversified, produced cash bringing side crops and trimmed expenses to the breaking point. On the eve of really splen- did yield they find themselves not near as bad off as they thought.
 The country merchant has recouped his con- fidence and gone to the cities to buy goods to- sell the farmers when the crop is marketed. These goods are moving out. Railroads burn more coal more is mined. Wholesalers self1 more goods It is agreed that the "corner has been turned.'
 Last to yield pig iron was last to feel the thrill of better conditions, but it has also turned the corner" Cast iron pipe, into which more south ern iron goes than any other product, has Turned the corner" What wonderful thing it is that has taken place since August 1.
 Were we wrong in being optimistic all this time? Was not this turn at the corner there? What can happen to that which is basic? Noth- ing more than waves do that beat about stout lighthouse and make great noise Beacons are turned on to save gallant ships in the storm laden offing They breast the buffetings of the angry seas and ride safely into port because the | lighthouse was there and on duty.
 It is sin not to be optimistic, because optimism is the law of life But for optimism Columbus would not have sailed this way, neither would Huguenot, Cavalier and Pilgrim Fathers have followed. Optimism is the truth of mems being. Without it the lulls which we have in our forward march to better conditions