The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-31
M E N w o M k N
 A ND T HIN c s

some of my friends have "kidded' me for running around so much with farmers and being so "daffy" on live stock, dairyins, the poultry industry and trucking.
 There's a reasonT'' for while the Birmingham district depends largely on it's mineral wealth and the things into which iron and steel are con verted, yet it cannot prosper on these two unless the crops are good.
 
 All business is based on agricul- tlral conditions, and so if the farm CTS prosper there will be large and increasing opportunity for manufac- turers to make cash sales this fall. Too frequently the farmer is looked on simply as producer when as fact he is also the big consumer.
 This is why l hold along with others who are in much better po- sition than I am to make forecasts that 1t is worse than useless for those in trade to become pessimistic over the outlook because there are some plants idle and some mines are at present shut down or working on half time. It is true that Birmins- ham caught the tail end of the na- tionwide depression.
 But there is small use to be down. hearted when over the broad expanse of 6,449,99S American farms good crops are being harvested and mar keted, and ready money is flowing into sweat-stained pocketbooks to rest only B bit before coming out to pay debts and buy not only the necessaries of life, but some of the luxuries, for the man in the country is no longer content to put up with Just anything in the way of living for himself and his family.
 have recently seen parts of Ala ban1a Georgia and Tennessee not hurriedly from train windows, but from an automobile, stopping fre- qIently en route> not only to get close up view of crop conditions, but to talk face to face with the men who made them, and I unhesi- tatingly say that what I saw was most heartening, and that what I am writing is not done in the way of boost" story, but mere tell ing of facts, and in way illustra- tive of conditions pertaining throughout the United States. IT l were manufacturer I would speed up production. If were a merchant I would lay in stocks. If engagements to carry liberal lines of credit, for it is an indisputable fact that the farm folks have the money, hut that they are going to spend it iii many ways. Many who have skimped during the past year by wearing their old clothes are going to get new outfits.
 One of the biggest expenditures will be for building, for many have been waiting for reduction in ma : terials, and are going to erect new houses. You can just watch out for new houses and new barns, and the amount of repairs is going to aston | iSh ,,aty hnx lat be spread on homes, outhouses and even fences. It's going to be a paint year.
 1 The demand for tools to do all the extra work will be great, for labor has come down to the extent In the country that many will be tempted to get the benefit of 1t, and even in the cities there is a distinct de- crease in the labor charges in all form of building and public works. There promises to be a veritable de- luge of road building which will call for men and material and require many trucks. Just watch the sale of automobiles. motorcycles, bicycles and tractors and other farm machin- cry and labor saving devices for the home.
 I am looking for good times in pi- amos, piano-players and the various kinds of musical instruments. for music is getting stronger hold on the American people each year. And when all the farm money gets into circulation the stacks will belch forth smoke, the lumber mills will begin to hum, the paint and piano and other factories to work night ane day. the coal mines to increase theii output and the merchants will have to put on extra clerks. I believe that good times are just ahead.
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