The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-09
Progress In South
fly JOHN CARLYLE

Two gigantic hydro-electric operations re ported in the Manufacturers Record of last week indicate the magnitude of hydro-elec tric developments under way, and this show. how these great organizations are planning | for expenditures which mean a great in crease in industrial and general business ac tivity in the South.
 | The Alabama Power Company has under taken a continuous plan of development fol the construction of additional dams and res ervoirs, and for the building of transmission lines and substations, as shown by its tele gram to this paper last week, amounting tc about $119,000,000.
 Another hydro-electric operation of vast extent is now being worked out by Eastern capitalists, calling for the expenditure oi S6O,OOO,000 on the SusQuehanna at Conc wingo, Md. These plans, backed by Drexe & Co. of Philadelphia and their associates look to the ultimate development of 500,0OC hydro-electric power.
 These two enterprises reported in one week are suggestive of the broadness of the devel. opment which is under way in the South and Southwest. For instance, the South. western Bell Telephone Company of St Louis has asked for permission for the cree. tion of building 320 feet high and to cost about $S,000,000. Lakeland, Fla, has voted over $1,000O00 for public improvements covering a wide variety of municipal work.
 A contract was let last week for S1 OO0,- GOO hotel at Durham, and recently for de- pertinent store in Baltimore to cost $1, ,500,- GOO; for $1 1,000,0 ,000 store and office build ing at Atlanta; for a $1,50O000 hotel at Huntington, w. Va. the Continental Gin Co. of Birmingham has let contracts for a plant which will cost about $750,000. Work has begun on $1 100000 apartment hotel s,,T ,ko L.o. IA ... Vl-NA more for a $500,000 terminal oil building A sixteen-story hotel to cost $1,OO0.OOO is to go up in Dallas, while at Louisville a ST. 100000 company has been organized to build commercial and bus bodies for automobiles
 A l$350,000 chemical and fertilizer plant was reported at Birmingham, and contract in the same city for S1 ,250.000 hotel Mon- roe, La, let contract for $500,0OO court house. Atlanta interests are to build a $1 ,000 900 hotel at Tampa and an $500 OOO theatre and hotel building is to go up at Miami A contract for a $1,OO0,000 office building is to be let at Tampa. A twelve story hotel in connection with the addition to large office building is to be built at Birmingham at cost of $1 100000. Miami, Fla, is to spend $900000 on paving and bridge construction while $1,000,000 hotel was reported for Richmond.
 These are merely a few items of Outstand- ing importance picked here and there from reports in the Manufacturers Record of last week. They indicate something of the mag nitude of the work under way and projected in the South. But these gigantic enterprises are hardly as indicative of what is going on in this. section as are the thousands of smaller enterprises following in their wake, or possibly which are even leading in this procession of progress and development.
 These facts are the tokens of progress, of coming increased activity. These vast enter prises are being established by men of judg- ment and of capital. They know that the South and the country at large are going forward steadily. They are not disturbed by little spirit of pessimism that 'is abroad among some people. These things are being done by men of vision, and if all the people of the South and of the country had the same spirit of vision and of energy a wave of optimism would sweep over the land, drown ing beneath its overwhelming waters every pessimist in the country-Manufacture Record.