The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-07
LARGE FACTORS FOR
 MORE PROSPERITY
(Atlanta Journal)

It is of great significance to the country at large, and partlcuiarly to the South, that the farmers income from the harvests Of this autumn will be larger, accordlhs to estimates by the federal depart ment of agriculture, than from any since the year 1920. What thls betides to the buying power oi the rural population, whlcn mas been seriously retarded, and hence to the quickening of trade IS easily seen, and in many quarters ;s already felt. It is one of sun dry factors from which trained oo- servers of the business trend draw assurance for the seasons ahead. Others are the Likelihood of continuing vigor in construc- tion activities, absence Of large reserve stocks of merchandise foreign trade which, though It might be much better, certainty roiqht be worse, and satisfactory credit situation. The first ana tbe last of these are particularly to be noted.
 The volume of construction dur ing the first ten months of the current wear has risen to new records. "In some places and Tn some lines" says a careful watch ar of the tide, "the edge may be off the demand; but 1t is certain that the country has not mace good the deficit in houses or Tn construction work of any kino, resulting from wartime restric- lions. The fact that great amount of work has been laid aside during the past season be- cause of excessive costs IS assur- ance that there is much yet 10 be done." Significant, too, IS the announcement that nothwithstano- ing the acquisition of more than one hundred and sixteen thousand new freight cars and upwards or twenty-five hundred locomotives during nine months of this year, the railroads, or rather six of the leading systems, "are now nego- tiating for eighty-five thousand freight cars, while locomotive or ders on a liberal scale are yet to be given"
 IOuCnlnR IHe CItQlt oANhotAoiif we could ask no more competent counsel than that of the National City Bank of New York. Why Is 1t that economists of the business cycle attribute so much impor- tance to credit conditions? Says this authority: The rising trend of activity and prices with an easy state of credit and eliminates when the available supply is ex- hausted; then as prices begin to fall, the efforts of creditors to collect what is owing, and the frantic rush of debtors to save something from their shrinking margins, drives prices still lower. We have never had in this coun- try a serious depression which be- is not conceivable that the con- ditions which create 9 real crisis can devalop without the pressure which results from an over-ex tended credit" Now note the ap- plication to the present posture of affairs: That there is still a great hang over of indebtedness from the boom period is true; and it is an oppressive influence, par ticularly upon the agricultural districts; but it does not make a critical situation in any general sense. There is plenty of liquid capital to handle the business of the country. and no probability of the kind of pressure that forces goods or securities on the mar kets and causes widespread de- moralization."
 With improved agricultural val ues and increased crop income; with construction bidding fair .c continue active; and with ample safeguards against the extremes which led to post-war depression, there is substantial reason for business confidence in the months on-coming. The most conservative of forecasters. though they in- dulge in no professional optimis- tic piping, certainly wind no need of whistling to keep their cour- age in