This is the last week of 1921, and next Sunday morning ushers in a new year—one that promises to be an improvement in material things over its predecessor. In fact, we firmly believe that both the world and times are getting better.
1921 has been a hard year in many ways to many people, but the prophets of evil who foretold calamities galore have been proven false, and the truth is that for most of us it has been a better year than we expected.
Business has been disarranged, of course, and many people have had to go without things on which they had set their hearts. It takes time to recover from the stunning blow the world received a year ago last fall, which spelled loss and ruin to many. The main trouble with business this year has been that when it was freely talked in the fall of 1920 that banks and supply houses would not be able to finance their customers as before, the natural result followed and instead of paying their debts as far as possible and making arrangements for new accommodation, people held on to what they got. Money has not been put in circulation through the banks as it should have been, and the man who held on to his money instead of paying his debts has finally suffered from the situation which he helped to bring about.
Polk county has made about as much cotton as she did last year, and at a far lower cost, and our farmers were most of them wise enough to raise an abundance of food and feed crops. None of us have as much money as wo would like, but when world conditions are considered we are all doing very well indeed. Men who are honestly trying to meet their obligations will have no trouble in getting a reasonable extension of credit, and there is nothing in the situation that time, forbearance and hard work will not cure. The farmer, of course, will have to insure himself against the boll weevil by raising his own food supplies, and in so doing will bring prosperity to himself and the South.
We are glad 1921 is so near over, for we believe that 1922 will bring a great improvement in conditions. This is especially true in Cedartown, where we will have public improvements in progress during the early “waiting period” of the year. The probable success of the international conference in Washington and the prospective reduction in freight rates will greatly help the general situation. Then, too, people are adjusting themselves to the changed conditions and are making the best of them, and there is a great deal in that. Altogether, the situation is brightening. The worst is over. Better times are waiting just around the bend, and we are headed in the right direction. The new year is before us, full of promise, and the realization of those promises is largely in our own hands.
With hearts full of gratitude to the Great Giver of All Good for the blessings of the past, let us look with confident hope to the future, and heartily wish one another A Happy New Year!
[December 29, 1921 issue of The Cedartown Standard.]