The age-herald., 1899-03-14
AN OUTLET FOR
 OUR COAL FIELDS
General Catchings Talks of the
 Waterways.
WHAT LAST CONGRESS DID
Alabama Will Supply All Southern Coasts and the West Indies With Fuel Congress Acted Wisely on
 Nicaragua Canal Question.

General Thomas Clendinen Catchings, representative in congress from the Third district of Mississippi, one of the leading members of the house, and a great force on the rivers and harbors committee. was in Birmingham yesterday on his way from Washington to his home in Vicksburg. f1e was accompanied by Mrs. Catchings.
 Alabama should be well satisfied with our provisions for the Warrior river and for Mobile bay" said the general. We succeeded in getting O,000 for the War rior and $600,O0O for Mobile, and these are really continuing appropriations. The coal fields will have permanent water connec- tion with deep water in the gulf, and this fact is of vast importance to the Alabama coal fields. In my opinion, the outlook for these coal fields was never before so promising as now. The great object of these two appropriations is to provide a waterway at all seasons to the gulf, and coal may be sent down to Mobile at merely nominal cost. And there is in the purpose of our legislation clear channel ef twenty-six feet at Mobile. The result of it all will be that Alabama will supply all the southern coasts and the West h. dies with coal, and when the great canal is built it will be supplied with Alabama coal The demand of the canal for coal, wherever the canal may be, will be enorm- ous. The Suez canal, for example, is the largest single purchaser of coal In the world, for the company supplies all ships that come. Ships that are to pass through the canal carry only enough coal to reach the canal, and there the canal company sells them what Is necessary to take them to the end of their voyages. In addition, the United States navy Is certain to ob- tain its southern coal supplies from Ala ! T AGAll sT1 rrinh ha come one of the most important coaling ports of the world. Mobiles commerce has increased wonderfully, and the future of that city is most promising.
 Mouth of the Mississippi
 "Congress provided also for the deepen ing of the Southwest Pass at the mouth of the Mississippi below New Orleans. A channel of thirty-six feet Is contemplated, and 1t will probably require the expenditure of $12, 000 900 or $13000,000. When Eads con- structed his famous jetties, the act of con- gress compelled him to keep to the South Pass at the rivers mouth, which carries but 10 per cent of the waters of the Mis- sisspprs waters Eads great work re- mains, but the necessity has arisen for deeper water At Jacksonville we provided for improvements costing at the outset $200 900, and the mouth of the Brazos river, in Texas, has been provided for. This latter
  that section, as are certain improvements provided for at Galveston.
 Nicaragua and Panama
 ''I am convinced" continued General Catchings, 'that we did the wisest thing in respect to the proposed trans-oceanic ca nal. The senate unwisely, it seems to me, provided for the expenditure of $1150 ,060 on the Nicaragua canal. We really had nothing to go upon. Actually we did not have before us the report of the Walker commission of experts appointed to exam inc the route of the proposed canal as to it's feasibility. We certainly were not warrant ed in voting vast sum of money to pro- mote an enterprise regarding which we were not fully and reliably informed. Un- der the approprp' ation passed by congress we shall obtain the fullest and most relia- ble information regarding the proposed Ni- caragua route, the Panama route, or any other possible way between the seas. Upon such information we can act and vote in- telligently."