Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1912 — MAYOR MEYERS RETURNS [ARTICLE]

MAYOR MEYERS RETURNS

Thinks There Are Good Chances and Big Bisks la Investments in Several Sonthern States. Mayor and Mrs. George F. Meyers returned Monday from their southern trip. They were absent five weeks and visited many of the important cities in. Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi They made tlieir headquarters at Mobile, where the mayor received The Republican and kept in touch with the metropolis of which he is the official head. They aimed to travel entirely by daylight and were able to do this almost altogether, thus being able to view the country through which they passed and study the agricultural possibilities while speeding along the railroads. Upon leaving Rensselaer their first stop was Indianapolis, where they remained over night. The next morning they went to Louisville and after a wait of four hours took a train forNashville, -Tepn-. which they reached that evening. They went to Birmingham the following day and to Mobile on the next day. They remained there two weeks and Mr. Meyers drove over’ the country quite a little and made a study of it. Real estate men are exploiting the -country there and three or four big firms are especially active. They employ the most able men to talk on prospective investors and Mayor Meyers says they put up a “spiel” that would make the average northern real estate agent’s argument sound like the prattle of a child. The mayor did not say so in fact, but he indicated that some of the land agents there do not pay very much respect to truth and veracity, and he says that he found that investors pay from S3O to S6O for farm land purchased from agents, when they could often buy just as good land of private owners at about one-tenth the cost. He said that it is a fact that some of the exploiters bought the land eight years ago for $1.50. He was surprised to see bo much land gone to waste there.

Where big plantations had stood prior to the war, ruin is often found today. Pine trees 8 inches in diameter have grown where cultivated farms wehe before the war. Mayor Meyers does not think that all conditions in the south are poor for investment by any means but that there are good chances for industrious persona, who buy right, to make a big success. But .he does think there is a big chance for a man to go wrong who don’t go in with his eyes open and prepared to act somewhat upon bis own judgment and not accept all he hears as “all wool.” After two weeks at Mobile Mayor and Mrs. Meyers went to Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., and then to New Orleans, La., where they remained, for five days. They then returned to Mobile for another week, making a trolley trip Id Fairhope. Ala- Returning they came by Birmingham, Chattanooga, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. They did not spend much time in the black belt of Mississippi, but he considers that the best,place for the northerners to invest. Land there sells for s3o'to S6O per acre and is worth the money. Both Mr. and Mrs. Meyers returned feeling in fine health and having greatly enjoyed their trip. 1