The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-30

in their skillful work of operating the new machinery In tho addition completed during the year the out put of the plant Is being increased. Home Building Fad.
 Home building and homo owning | has become & fad in Anniston. Where | year ago vacant lots met the gaze now there greets the eye of visitors any number of handsome bungalows and larger residences, the most pro- i noupoed building activity having been noted In the Country club section of the city, more than 100 new homes having been erected in that imme- diate territory during the present | year.
 | It Is confidently believed that the new year will usher in still more l extensive building program than ever before in the history of Anniston, and that the housing shortage in Annis- ton will have been solved before the coming of another Christmas season. in this connection 1t has been esti- mated unofficially that Anniston is now officially anchored In tho 25.oo0 | inhabitants class, tho last federal census In 1920 having shown the city proper to be peopled by little less than 18,0oe people.
 Paving of many of the main resi- dence streets of Anniston has put this city In class by itself in that re- l spect and with the prospects for a continuation of the program out standingly in the minds of tho city | authorities and the property owners another year Is sure to bring hard surface streets and cement sidewalks 5 Into practically every part of Annis- l ton.
 Railroad tonnage to and from An l niston shows a marked increase dur l ing the year of 1923, and 1t Is esti- mated by railroad men and shippers generally that before the end of 1924 Anniston will furnish 8 still greater volume of incoming and outgoing business for the carriers who handle the Anniston traffic.
 Labor Conditfons Good.
 Labor conditions, undisturbed in Anniston either by dissatisfaction on the part of tho white mechanics and laborers as well as by tho fact that fewer negroes have gone north from Anniston than probably any other l manufacturing center in north east Alabama, have been ideal during the entire year. A continuation of the amicable relations between employer and employe Is believed to be a cer- | tainty for the new year, and In that event 1924 will be a banner year for production in the Anniston manufac- 1 turing zone.
 | AOHey HdS poCH odSlor tO ect III hH niston during the present year than 1t had been since the first year of the war Banks show a steady growth in | deposits, clearings and savings over | last year, and the agricultural in- terests of the territory contiguous are being given now a great deal more attention than during tho last few years.
 The Alabama Power company has kept up its program of improvement and expansion in Annistor during 1923, and 1t is a certaintN that the coming year will mark still other and more extended Improvements in the zone in which Anniston is the center of operations.
 The opinion Is unanimous in An niston that 1924 will forge far ahead of 1923 in the matter of production steady employment for skilled men and the continued growth In popula- ton, and the entire citizenship if ready to say good-by to the old year and to usher in the new with the feeling that an era of prosperity be- yond the dreams of many arc just | ahead.