The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-27

z As A-t EmalI store is eiying place to the huge department store to the chain store, To tho tobacco store owned by huge companies, to the shoe store controlled by big shoe manufacturers, to hat stores owned by leading manufacturers.
 Where there used to be many thou lands of small builders, our modern bkyscrapers are erected by big concerns operating on . very extensive scale.
 In almost every walk of life, there have sprung up great aggregations of Eapital, organizations doing business bn statewide or nationwide scale.
 Bread is now furnished to the tune
 If millions of loaves by number Of knormous companies. Mems ready made clothes are furnished by reia-
 lively small. number of companies, em- bloying thousands of workers. Drugs
 f all kinds are supplied local druggists ky manufacturers operating on a large Icale. Handmade shoes have given 'lace very largely to products of nam 6Nth factories. Furniture is no longer
 iade by local carpenters but by Grand
 sapids and other factories One car bet factory turns out miles of product livery day. And so it goes alfssalong he line.
 Now, all our huge enterprises neces- iarily employ a certain number of we'll bald men to fill positions of authority. There are foremen, department head, 'Iuperintendents, salesmen, buyers, vice
 residents, etc., etc.
 This class, which is rapidly becoming hore numerous, must now be regarded Is Americas middle class.
 Take the latest income tax returns kasao hwr& &tsA fvan davNa rt Anf hnd that no fewer than 100000 individ- Ials confessed having taxable incomes # between $4,000 and $5,000 a year; bat more than 390,000 reported incomes l Ii $5, 900 to $10,000 and more than 90,000 Acomes ranging from $10,000 to $15,O00 year. Incidentally, 785,000 paid taxes h incomes of between $3,000 and $4,000. We may regret the wiping out of' kany thousands of small business men S k1 over the country. We may dislike to E De our old grocer friend and neighbor hueezed out of business by chain stores. AYe may not relish the passing of the N Eug store where we used to buy any, ping from castor oil to cigars.
 But the fact remains that a great tonomic evolution, or revolution, is un- E kr way. Many of these who were re- hrded as belonging 10 the middle clas Sk yesterday have either retired or brown in their lot with larger enter Fises in their lines ttz-~s
 tiEverything points to the continua- lon of this movement. I talked this
 leek with A. P. Giannini, head of the
 Iank of Italy, California. This tnstitu-
 Ion has S6 branches covering more than cities. Said MT. Giannini:
 "You must put branche5 close to the Hkople. You must make 1t easy for
 hem to do business with you. Branch hhnking, which was at first criticized. fhs now been accepted. It has proved aPsolutely successful.
 l"Before long you will see department
 Iores doing exactly the same thing. EI"Take conditions here in your own klty of New York. It isn't enough to Have one store if you want to get Hbwntown business as well as uptown Business and business in the heart of He city, I notice, for example, that zkeber & Meilbroner, and Rogers, Peet
 O., are doing exactly what leading
 lew York banks have been doing Ihmely, opening places at choice loca- Hons in different parts of the city. M"Merchant or other business man who *iifds up a wonderfully fine reputation
 sin by and by, seek to turn that rep
 ation to the greatest possible profit k opening what are sometimes called
 onvenient stores;' that it, stores at
 fferent points where there are large
 imbers of people"
 All of which means additions to our
 ew middle class. The majority of mid
 Ae class citizens heretofore have been H HISvners. The majority of the new mid |ale class are and will be managers, men I |zklping to run large enterprises, owned, bt by one individual, but by hun feds or thousands of stockholders. .Does this mean that there is less op- brtunity nowadays than formerly for II Itelligent, industrious young men to l ach the middle class status? Not at n. It simply means that most of us lust follow a different pathway. This ! fAthway Is even broader than the old skthway and 1t can take us quite as Hlr, if not farther.
 ,.., COFFEE FUTURES
 tNEw YORK, Sept. 26.-The market
 #r coffee futures opened unchanged to