The age-herald., 1900-12-23
WARRIOR Ri CANAL
 IS PRACTICABLE Interesting Paper Read by Mr. Van HOOSe at New Orleans ADVANTAGES TO ALABAMA Whaebacks Would Carry cargoes to Gulf Ports and to Cuba. Central
 and South America--Re-
 suits of Other Canals.
ADVANTAGES TO ALABAMA

vention:-
 To me has been assigned a subject so vast and far reaching in it's beneficial re- suits to our entire country that I place its national importance second only to the Nicaragua Canal" I grant you that thls is bold language. Especially to be used in Convention of this character, where so many important matters have been so ably selected and still more ably presented and discussed by representative men from all parts of America. Still, use the language advisedly, and am fortified in it's use by the facts existing today in the industrial world.
 The feasibility and necessity of connect ing the waters of the Tennessee with those of the Gulf of Mexico by utilizing the War rior or Coosa and Alabama rivers had for years been the subject of discussion in Ten nessee, as well as in Alabama, and in 1875 the War Department caused Major McFar- land to make a survey of route from near Guntersville on the Tennessee to a point near Gadsden on the Coosa.
 In 1895, when had the honor of being of- ficially connected with the city of Birmfng- ham, I deemed the time opportune to re- vive the discussion of this important sub- ject, directing especial attention to that phase of 1t which related to connecting the Tennessee and Warrior rivers through the heart of the Birmingham district A pre- liminary reconnaissance was made by two skillful engineers, Mir. Julien Kendrick, city engineer of Birmingham, and Maj. John A. Milner of the southern division of this pro- posed connection. Their report was so fa- vorable that Congress was asked to order a detailed survey. This survey was made in 1898 by MT. Joseph Ripley, an expert on waterways, who was especially detailed, on account of the great importance of the project, from the government work on the Sault St. Marie canal.
 That report came as a revelation even to xr,1,o for had hnnad and hplipVpd in a general way that it was possible.
 The project was pronounced feasible and practicable" by erection of locks and dams, and was recommended as matter of the greatest national importance The Secre- tary of War approved this report, and in his annual report to Congress in 1853 also recommended that the work be done.
 In time to come, when its importance will be more generally appreciated, there will be continuous waterway from a point near Guntersville, on the Tennessee riveri passing through the heart of the Birming- ham district to tide water at Mobile. The geological formation of the country indi- cates that at one time either a large part, or perhaps al of the waters of the Tennes- see flowed southerly from Guntersvlle and emptied into the gulf through the Coosa and the Warrior rivers.
 For the present the work contemplated refers only to the lower or southern div1s- ion of this waterway, extending from Bir- mingham to the Warrior river at a point about twenty-five miles south of Birming- ham, where connection will be made with the Warrior river proper, and from thence down that river to the gulf at Mobile. The estimated cost of the work at present un- der contemplation Is about four and half million dollars. The capacity of this wa terway when improved will be about H. 000 900 tons per annum, or about half mill lion carloads at seventy-five tons per car This at once gives an idea of its vast car rying capacity.
 It is difficult, without transgressing the limits of veracity or propriety usually al- lowed one In speaking even of his own dis trict or city, to convey to those unfamiliar with the facts a correct impression of the immense resources of the country opened up by this waterway Hence, MT. Chair man, I am well aware that the world at large at first views with amusement and more or less polite skepticism many of the statements made by Birmingham and Ala bama men in speaking of the resources and future of their district and State. And yet, truly, nature has been so generous in her bestowal especially of coal and iron to Ala bama and to the Birmingham district, which is practically the heart of this great gift of nature, that ordinary language hardly conveys any idea of these inexhaust- ible resources. But so much has been writ ten and said about them that must now take it for granted that it is generally con- ceded by those who are competent to judge that practically nowhere on the known globe as yet discovered do coking coal, iron ore and lime rock lie in such close juxtapo- sition and in such inexhaustible quantities as they do in the famous Birmingham dis trict This brings up the question of the importance and necessity of further open ing up and making more accessible these resources by free, open all the year. wa ter route down to tidewater on the gulf. And right here permit me to briefly take up the question of the value of waterways in general, since many casual thinkers and light takers have the more or less prevail ing idea that the use of inland waterways Is practically a thing of the past. This, Mir Chairman and gentlemen of the con- vention is a serious-almost fatal-blun- der for any man, city, State or country to commit in measuring resources or in at tempting to better conditions. We often hear that 'it is day of railroads, not of waterways" It is indeed a day of rail- roads," and always will be. Equally true also is the assertion that shortly will come day for electric haulage, propeller blades, steel barges, automatic lifts, shorter and straighter routes inland waters. No man is more willing than I to grant to railroads everything due them for the won- derful development ofsall countries through which they pass. No language can ade- quately estimate what the world owes to them for their beneficial results And yet waterways always have and always will perform a function which will be impossi- ble for a railroad to perform. The reason seems plain. With the present, or with the approximately near future capacity of en- zines, rails, bridges grades, cost of fuel, labor, maintenance, etc., railroads cannot and should not be expected to compete on heavy unremunerative freights with the slow free water routes Engines, men and tracks can be so much more profitably em- ployed in carrying passengers, express, food, clothing and all articles which enter into the consumption and use of man or beast, and must be handled quickly, that there will always be need of transporta- ton by free waterways of slower and heav- fer freights, which are not remunerative, and hence not desirable to a railroad. The recent wonderful revival of the question Of water transportation and the demand for | the improvement of existing waterways over the entire civilized globe Is a striking proof of the truth of these statements. Afo.r rlA