When a manufacturer investigates with a view to locating, he invariably asks: “What are the banking facilities?” Florence can well be proud of her banks, and a glance at their advertisements herein will tell the story. The First National has stood the test of time, and the Alabama Trust and Savings Bank show by their deposits that they have the entire confidence of the people, for they are but a few months old. These banks are safe and reliable, conservative and up-to-date. Florence is noted for her educational institutions, and with the best graded schools and colleges can offer more in the way of educational features than many cities of larger size. Florence has transportation advantages that place her in a commanding position, and with competition from two railroads and the Tennessee River, and with other railroads under consideration, is placed in close touch with the markets of the world. There is probably no city in the United States that enjoys better advantages than Florence as a manufacturing point. Competing railroads and river transportation, cheap fuel, cheap labor, right at the door of one of the biggest furnaces in the South, they are able to get the best grade of iron at a very low cost, and without the usual transportation charges added. Lumber in abundance, and right at the door of the best coal mines in the South. Cheap power is one of the essential features of a successful manufacturing point, and even with the present conditions to say nothing of the Mussel Shoals improvement, it places Florence ahead of most any city in the South as a manufacturing center. As an example of the advantages of locating a manufacturing plant in Florence we will cite the case of the Stove Foundry. They are at the very door of the Philadelphia Furnace, and have in many cases had deliveries of iron on two hours’ notice—sometimes less. Now comes the point: Detroit is one of the greatest stove manufacturing cities in the United States. Records show that pig iron is being shipped from Florence to Detroit, and that finished stoves are being shipped from Detroit to Florence. Labor is cheaper in Florence than in Detroit. Fuel is cheaper, water is cheaper, and in fact everything is cheaper. The Florence foundries can make and ship a finished casting to northern points for the same rate the raw material can be shipped, and yet a great deal of the finished product finds its way back to Florence and points further South. There are a thousand arguments in favor of Florence, and none against her. Everything is better and conditions are better in every way. The climate is elegant, scenery sublime, and one of the most healthy locations in the United States. [Illustration: Jefferson Hotel, Florence, Ala.]