Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-01-07
Savannah's Commercial Importance
What Congress Should Do for
Our River and HarbOr.

eighth of the cotton of the South, and
there is every prospect that, before the
season ends, there will have been ex-
ported from this port one.ifth of the en-
tire crop. Our total exports, it is esti-
mated, will amount for the present year
to $50, 900, 900, while we have paid to the
government since the close of the war in
duties on imports nearly $1,000 900.
In this connection the following sta
tistics of tie business of our port this
season will not be uninteresting. The
amount Of tonnage which has arrived at
our wharves from September 1st last up
to the 1st instant aggregated 800. III
tons, the largest ever before known in
the history of our city. The value of
our exports during the same period
amounted to $16,2Os.177, divided up
amoug the different months as follows
September, s.. O65, $40; October, 81, 92S,
ZOE; November, $685. 6S; December,
$6,217,972. And here we desire to call
special attention to the heavy export
business of December, which is two
thirds Of that of the three preceding
months inclusive.
Our receipts of cotton from September
1st last to date are go, 1894 bales of up
land and s,275 bags of sea island, against
sci ,28S bales of upland and 7,461 bags
of sea island at the corresponding date
last year. Our exports during the same
period were 527, 100 bales of upland and
4 G2O bags of sea island, against 400, O57
bales of upland and 1881 bags Of sea
island for the same time last year-leav-
ing a stock on hand of about 104, 762
bales of upland and 3,719 bags of sea
island.
Our receipts of naval stores from the
LIST of April, the beginning of the crop
year, to date, are 215,S61 barrels of
rosin and A, 440 barrels of spirits of
turpentine, against 1888, 646 barrels of the
former and 80, 465 of the latter during
last year, and our naval stores exports
during the. season were 1S7, $50 barrels
of rosin and 40, 069 barrels of spirits,
against 141, 719 barrels of the for
mer and %. 7s9 barrels of the latter
for the same time last year 1t will be
seen from these figures that Savannah
is already the first cotton port of the
South Atlantic coast, is rapidly taking
position as one of the leading naval
stores ports of the country, and ranks
besides as the second rice and lumber
port on the Atlantic, with every pros
pect of rising this year to the first rank
as a rice port.
These facts, thus briefly stated, convey
some idea of the enormous business
being done at this port at the present
time. What this business will amount
to when the grain elevators now in
process of construction are finished
which will be by the time the next grain
crop is gathered-it is impossible to say.
Our railway connections with the great
West will certainly be the means
of our receiving for shipment a
considerable proportion Of that crop,
and it is quite probable that the number
of foreign steamers which will arrive at
our wharves will be at once doubled.
In addition to this there is also to be
considered our rapidly growing i'm
portance as a naval stores depot, and our
large shipments of Florida produce,
which are increasing each year. both
due to the vast extent OF country
rendered tributary to this city By the
Savannah, Florida and Western Rail
way.
This exhibit of the present and pros
pective commercial Importance of our
port shows of itself the great necessity
to the commerce of the country for the
improvement of our harbor, to the end
that we may secure such a volume of
water as that commerce demands. Our
bar is the finest on the Atlantic coast,
having twenty-seven feet of water over
it, and affording at all times inside safe
and cOmmodious anchorage for vessels.
The river now has nineteen feet of water
in its channel from the bar to our
wharves, and all that is necessary for the
government to do to secure twenty five
feet is to complete the system of improve
ments planned years ago.
Among the recommendations of the
engineers in charge of the work of our
harbor improvements are two, which are
specially important-one the cutting off
a point of Fig Island (Which will soon be
effected), and the other removing the
point of Hutchinson's Island at Kinseys
mill, opposite this city. These two i'm
provements will accomplish much to
secure the main object in view, but they
cannot be accomplished with the meagre
sum of 500, 900, which has been recon-
mended to be expended this year upon
our river and harbor. True there is
balance of past appropriations on hand
of $157, 527 81; but this is all required to
meet past contracts not yet completed,
and the $6j, 900 mentioned will all be
expended on work already planned. The
cost of cutting away the points afore-
said, including payment to its owners
for the land, dredging, etc., will, it is
require fully $4,000 add
tional, and this should be made a sepa-
rate and distinct appropriation for this
special purpose.
In asking this of Congress it should
be borne in mind that the appropriation
asked for is not to prove beneficial to
Savannah alone, but to the entire
country. As we have shown, this is
the first cotton port of the South
coast, and is destined at very
early date to become a grain depot of
Importance. Besides this, Savannah,
the facilities offered by her
fine steamship lines and magnificent rail
ways. is the great eHtrepot through which
the merchants of New York, Philadel-
phia, Boston, Baltimore, and many other
cities and towns in the North and East,
ship their goods to merchants in Geor-