The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-05-20
The Waterways of Alabama.

me waterways OF ALABAMA.
The Commercial Record. Mobiles new
monthly, contains an excellent paper on
the waterways of Alabama from the pen
of General ]. w. Burke, now collector of
that port. The article is in fact copy of
the address recently delivered by General
Burke before the Alabama Industrial and
Commercial association.
General Burke first shows that the river
system of this state is almost unrivalled,
resembling as 1t does a gigantic tree, the
massive trunk rising from tidewater and
the branches spreading to the north. and
the east and the west. until they touch the
Appalachian range. All told, there are 1904
miles of navigable water in the state. The
value of Alabama's waterways is shown
in the amounts that the general govern
ment has expended upon them as this
table makes plain:
Improvement of Mobile harber.. 3,214 $4,000
Muscle Shoals canal ...... 500. Abs, 301. 90
lota -. '.s' 80. .''s .'''..'..Sh AS o55.5S
In expenditures Of this sort between 1879
and 1898 Alabama ranks fourth, New York,
Michigan and Texas only preceding this
state in the list
The Warrior says General Burke, has
become a national stream. 1t was made
so in 1928. but the work of rendering the
stream navigable to coal barges and tow
ing steamers was left to modern times.
Messrs. Underwood and Bankhead and
their colleagues have pressed the subject
Warrior has come to be regarded as a
work of national Importance, second only
to the problems of the Mississippi among
river problems. The war recalled attention
building of the Nicaragua canal will rem
der the opening of the Warrior imperative.
General Burke then calls attention to
the fact that mobile is naturally allied to
Birmingham by commercial ties of the
strongest character, and that this must be
rendered perpetual by helping Birmingham
to build the Warrior canal This great
work has as much interest for Mobile as
waterways
When the Warrior Improvement is COM
pleted steam coal can be laid down at
tidewater at SIPS. and pig iron can be car
ried to the sea at a transportation cost of
40 cents a ton. These figures mean that
British coal. as well as British iron, are
to be driven out of American waters.
We can not do better than to add Gen.
eral Burke's five concluding propositions,
as they are summing up of his wide and
accurate observation of the situation:
l. That the great Warrior coal field is
the only practicable source on the Ameri-
can continent from which coal may be
1oated to the tide in all seasons of the
year at a price lower than the cost at
British tide water, on the Atlantic sea-
board, or anywhere else.
2. That the quality of the coal mined in
the Warrior and Coosa fields is equal to
that of any bituminous coal mined in any
country.
3. That the enormous quantity of coal in
these fields and adjacent to the river will
be sufficient to supply the wants of the
commerce of the gulf for an indefinite
period.
4. That for the supply of our ships of
war, the merchant marine, the NicaTa-
raugua canal and coming American coal
ing stations in the gulf of Mexico, the
Warrior river can alone furnish coal at
prices low enough to throw this large
trade into American hands exclusively, and
retain it forever.
g. That the immense natural advantages
enjoyed by the port of Mobile must neces-
viii, a la all others the
coal port of America.