Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-13
Prebare for Business!
DVISING the merchants Of the so

DVISING the merchants OF the south
~ to "put on steam and prepare to han
die the business of tomorrow" Gov
ernor Harding, of the Federal Reserve
Board, cites substantial indications of for
ward trend and future rich with opportu-
mites. Surplus goods, ofwhich there was
an excess when the period Of depression
set in, have gone into consumption" leav-
ing snace on the shelves and in warehouses.
The recovery in agricultural prices has come
sooner than was hoped for summer ago.
and has kindled fresh courage in many re-
gion but lately downcast. Foreign affairs
also, still complicated though they are, give
omen of betterment, as in the much greater
stability which the exchanges of some Of
the leading European nations have acquired.
On the strength o. these and related develop
ments Governor Harding rightly declared,
in his address to the Southern Wholesale
Drygoods Association at Birmingham, "The
time has come when the enterprising bust
ness man may we'll let others indulge in
lamentations and recriminations over the
past, and devote his energies to working out
the problems of today and preparing for the
business of tomorrow"
good counsel confirmed by a notable sur
vey of the National Association of Manufac-
turers. Reports from some thirty thousand
members of that great body attest a stable,
sane, definite, and continuing advance"
Among basic industries the majority describe
their present trade as flair to good" while
some say excellent but only a handful
poor There is no murmur Of pessimism,
but a prevailing, outspoken faith in better
times. Summing the consensus of telegraph
ic replies to his QUESTIONABLE, Mr.. John e.
Edgerton, president of the Association, says:
"In the steel industries today the survey
shows conditions classed as excellent among
six per cent of our membership, twenty-five
per cent as good, fifty-two per cent as fair,
and seventeen per cent as poor. In the
textile industry seventy per cent Of them re-
port conditions running from fair to excl
lent, and thirty per cent report poor condi-
tions. In the machine and tool industry we
find eighty per cent of the replies reporting
conditions fair to excellent, and the re-
mainder not so encouraging. In three indus
tries where retrenchment is ordinarily acute
ly felt-automobiles jeWelry and leather
the showing is not by any means gloomy, al
though not so good as in other lines. From
the automobile trades good reports are seven
ty per cent; in jewelry, fifty per cent, and in
leather, sixty per cent. All of these business
eS, from steel TO JeWelry, report prospects IOr
high percentages of increase between now
and fall"
This is not the heresay optimism Of a side
walk junta, but the fact-rooted judgment of
national authorities. It is the substance, not
of things toped for, but of things seen. I'm
less all present prospects fail and all cur
rents turn awry, rich reapings await the bust
ness man who sows betimes and stands pre-
pared. But opportunity is never harvested
by him who lacks readiness and courage. The
fortunate of tomorrow are the far-sighted
and energetic of today.