The age-herald., 1900-11-23
THE NEW ORLEANS CONVENTION.

From the New Orleans P1cayune.
 The Birmingham Age-Herald, speaking of the great importance to the western and gulf states of a ship canal through the American isthmus, and noting that the Nicaragua canal bill Is to come up in Con- gress on the 10th of December next, re- marks that:
 ''The Southern Industrial Convention Is to meet in New Orleans on December 5, and delegates will be in attendance from every state in this section of the country If these delegates, every one of whom is deeply in- terested in the construction of the canal, would at once select delegation from each state to go in turn to Washington, in aid of the Nicaragua bill something, at least could be done by the section that the canal would greatly benefit towards coun- teracting the lobby of the transconttnental railroads. Such delegations should be sent The Southern Industrial Convention will have no more important work before it, and the meeting at New Orleans will ob- viate the calling together of state conven- tions.
 Men shoul6 be selected from each state who have patriotism enough to pay their own expenses-men who are willing to work for their state and for the whole south Let this matter have attention, and let the delegations be selected with care, with a view of getting not only men who will serve, but also men who can serve the south efficiently in Washington, for 1t will not do to assume that the canal bill will go through. It should be passed without op- position. SeIf-defense and commercial de- velopment alike demand it. but it will not be passed unless every possible influence can be brought to bear in its favor.''
 The suggestion is a good one because this canal question will be actively discussed and the enterprise urgently advocated in the New Orleans convention. But it will not be enough to secure southern influence in its favor. Everything possible should be done to enlist western interests. Every western state which is concerned in the commerce of the Mississippi river, is just so much interested in the construction of the canal
 The completion of the Nicaragua canal would be equivalent to the prolongatlon of the mouth of the Mississippi to the Pacific. There would be virtually two mouths; one at the passes into the Gulf of Mexico and the other at San Juan del Sur, the proposed canals terminus into the Pacific ocean. The entire commerce of the Mississippi valley, which seeks the through the mouth of it's great river, is alike interested in the opening of a ship canal through the isth- mus.
 But the opposition will be enormous. Tie great transcontinental railroads will use all their power to fight the canal, while the commercial interests of such cities as New York, Boston, Philadelphia and others will be all against it. The pressure to compel Congress to agree on a canal bill must come chiefly from the west. Nevertheless, the suggestion of the Age-Herald is importa E>. and worthy of consideration. The southern people must be up and doing if they ex- pect to accomplish any great development of their resources in this age of keen com petition, and they must make the most of the opportunities offered by this New Or leans Industrial Convention to bring their resources to the attention of enterprise and capital