The age-herald., 1898-01-02
ALABAMA TRON
 ;. w ALL LANDS

Rs Mr. James BOWron Views the Situation
BY W. P. T. FINCH.

CTS in Alabama. There is only one avail able way to overcome this difficulty. Let tramp steamers know they can surely ob- tain cargoes of some kind in a gulf port whenever they put in there. This means that an article of universal consumption must be kept in stock at Mobile or Pensa- cola.
 That article is coal. The coal of Alabama must be so utilized as to give the iron of Alabama shipping facilities. If coal can be carried by barge. from the Pratt coal basin to Mobile at 50 cents a ton, instead of the present railroad rate of $1 ton, or bunker rate of $1.10, very large expansion of the coal trade of this district would soon be realized. During the first ten months of the present year the coal ship ments from Philadelphia, Baltimore and Norfolk to the West Indies and to Gen. tral and South America averaged 5O, 900 tons a month. The coal trade of Cuba alone is under normal conditions, O0,O00 tons year. This district cannot at present com pete with shipments from Philadelphia and Baltimore, because their vessels are able to secure return cargoes of sugar. Vessels from Mobile cannot secure such cargoes: but if coal could be handled in sea going
 
 be delivered in Havana at a price that would meet eastern competition even if eastern coal were carried as ballast. And so in the case of coal or coke destined to other West India ports, and to Mexico: and the coal trade of the last named coun- try is assuming large proportions on &C., count of the rapid development of it's smelting interests.
 In other words, added MT. Bowron. the iron trade and the coal trade of Alabama are inseparably linked together. If tramp steamers know that at Mobile they can. in default of cotton or naval stores. ob- tain at all times cargoes of coal for Gib- raltar, Malta, Odessa, Calcutta or Valpa- raiso, the number that would put in there would be greatly increased; and when they came for coal, shipments of pig iron. bar iron, steel billets, plates, sheets, and other forms of manufactured goods, would not longer lack available tonnage.
 
 Take single case, to illustrate how things stand today. What chance is there of shipping one hundred tons of boiler plates to Lima? Birmingham is at least four thousand miles nearer Lima than any
 
 compelled to buy its boiler plates in Eng land. They go out in English steamers that fill out cargo with English coal, and load back with Peruvian guano.
 
 The coal trade of Alabama is at present necessarily circumscrbed. It is almost confined to the iron industry and the rail- roads which traverse this and the adioin- ing states. The mdness of the climate precludes a large consumption of don,es tic coal; the cheapness of water transpor- tation on the M ss ssippi river deprives Ala bama operators of share in the supply- ing of ocean steamers at New Orleans. But once lower the cost of transporting Ala bama coal to tidewater 50 cents ton. and a marvellous increase would soon spring up. It would soon become a business of com manding importance. Today Alabama coal, handicapped with railroad rates, can be carried to Mobile or Pensacola and placed alongside steamers, matching ton For ton, quality for quality. dollar for dol lar, English steam coal put on board ship at any English shipping port Give, then, Alabama coal an advantage at tidewater of 50 cents a ton, or 20 per cent. of the pres