The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-12

5s 600 since 1914. We now number
 e.6S6 .O00 souls. Our national wealth
 trks out at $2,S47 for every man,
 eman and child in the land. Ten
 lars ago our wealth amounted to only
 R902 per head. ss.
 fren years ago our bank deposiss
 Ire S1s,000, 900 900. They are now $46,-
 b ooo .(o0. showing an increase of no
 "a than 155 per cent. dn 1900 we had
 Ia one-sixth as much money deposited
 our financial institutions.
 |How our factories have grown! The tIue of their product has practically Iubled, rising from $24,000, 100000 to Early $44,000, ,000, 900 in 1921, the latest |ar for which figures were available. fnce 1900 the value of our manufac- Tres have multiplied four-fold. =,
 [Much has been heard of hard times on 1 e farm. We'll, the value of our farms "a farm property has mounted from i. .O00, ,0oO, 900 in 1900 to $40,000, 900 900 in fio and SIS, ,0O0, 900 900 in 1920. This lows that the value of our farmers Bssessions has increased as rapidly as Ia increase in the value of the products 1 all our factories. r
 |Curiously, there has ben no material Ecrease in the number of farm animals. l fe now have 10000, 900 more cattle than [s had ten years ago, but we have feW- horses and il, ,O0O, ,00og fewer sheep. |th only a 5000, 900 increase in swine. 'ne total value of farm animals has Etuaily, decreased nearly $1,00O,Ooo,ooo: k,r farmers manifestly have increased I cir income from raising more crops Lther than from raising more animals. Some idea of how our total financial, dustrial commercial, manufacturing |od agricultural activities have muiti- lied can be gathered from the racL tnal ke moneys passing through our iinan- . al. institutions-our bank ciearlnss- "a latest figure being $4s9. .000, DOC. 900. ;his is fully five times the 1900 figure. The picture has other, aspects: our
 .tionaI debt has increased twenty-fold Eom S1 .o00, ,000, 900 ten years ago to more han $21, ,o00, ,000, ,O00 today.
 Our government spent only $70oo ,0Oo,- Do in 1914. In the year ended June oo st the government spent more than } ,50o, 100000.
 The government took from the people h one form or another only tnree-quar- brs of one billion dollars in 1sl4' wniie
 
 ks for well over $4,000, ,00O,0O0. E~
 We have actually fewer miles of rail- had now than we had in 1914. Then Ia had 263, 900 miles; now we have only bout 251 ,oO0 miles.
 However. we had only 46S,0OO motor Iehicles ten years ago contrasted with lver 15.500, 900 today. Incidentally we |xported less than $35,0o0, 900 worth or Automobiles and parts a decade ago [gainst fully $195, 100000 worth during he last fiscal year.
 Our foreign trade has done very well. measured by fiscal years. our total ex- borts a decade ago were $2,36o, ,OOo,OOU kompared with fully $4.31O,OO0,OOO tnia lear. Imports have increased during he same period from $1,S94,OoO'OoO to s, 554,000,000.
 Gasoline production in September Eeaehed a daily average of 25,0oo,00 gal |ons for the first time in the history or Inc industry. Our production or pc roleum is now three times what 1t was len years ago.
 These figures, furnished by the Ma tional City bank of New York, should ne read and digested by those timio souls who have a weakness for looklne on the dark side of things.
 Prosperity fluctuates; of course, in his country as in every other country But in no other land on the face oi the earth is the broad trend so viSor- ously forward and upward.