The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-19
BUSINESS,
 NOT ORATORY. True Work For Mobile
 Channel. COL. BANKHEAD's ADVICE Facts and Figures and Not Spread Eagle Speeches. The committee wans. sasoooo from Congress and Expects to Get 1t
 sy showing the Necessity for
 ths Expenditur&
By win T. sheehan.

q certainty. The appropriation of s250. 900. which Is needed for the work is almost certainty. Itts almost assur- ed because Mobile, backed by the in- dustrial organizations of other sections of the State. will go before the Rivers and Harbors Committee of Congress and present their claims in such a way that they can not be denied.
 Southward the star of empire has took It's course in the Spanish Amerf- can war. With the Acquisition of the Canal zone by the United States, with the high price of cotton and with the ever-tncreasing development of the mineral riches of the Southern States, the star Is a Southern fixture.
 The United States in a way exercises a fatherly interest in Cuba's destiny. There may be trouble at any time with Panama and Colombia. Now and hnceforth the Government will have to keep fleet of warships in Southern waters
 Warships Cannot Enter The warships of the United States can not come into the waters of Mo- bile Bay just now. They can not come over the outer bar at Fort Morgan. A little over a year ago the battleship Alabama came South to receive from the citizens of the State a handsome silver service. but she could not come into Mobile Bay and was forced to anchor outside the bar. A squadron of war vessels must be maintained by the United States in where they can coal easily and where | they will be safe in time of storm and stress of weather.
 There Is no more enthusiastic advo- cate of the deepening of the outer bar than Captain IT. C. Davis of the Unit ed States battleship Alabama, the man who was unable to bring his vessel in- to the bay owing to lack of water. | Recurring to Pensacola where the United States ships had rendezvoused | Captain Davis wrote a letter to MT. l Dorgan. one of the Port Wardens of Mobile, containing the following: | A Letter from Davis.
 We sailed on Thusday morning, en- countering a southeast gale of great force which blew all that day and night, so that we could not enter Pen sacola. and finally anchored outside the bar here at noon yesterday with the weather still too thick to make 1t safe to enter, and did not finally get in until this morning. The admiral and the rest of the squadron came in soon after. I know nothing yet about our immediate prospects or duration of our stay
 "Certainly the gulf coast of the Uni ted States needs ports and needs them badly. When the Panama canal is op- ened, and even before that-even now 1t win be. and is, essential to the security of our national interests to maintain a large squadron in the gulf and the Carribean sea. That squad ron must have ports 1t can freely enter at any stage or tide or weather. Mo bile is so obviously the one port of the whole gulf coast which would fulfil all demands. fin its natural advantages for defense, room. situation and its artificial advantages for supply, etc. that 1t seems incredible that a de- termined movement Is not already on foot to deepen the water on the bar and dredge the lower bay. It must come. I wish 1t might come in my day.
 Bar the Only Obstacle.
 T have been looking carefully over the chart of Mobile bay. find that with the exception of the shoal water on the bar there is no obstacle what ever to the entrance of a fleet of eight battleships into the lower bay, and to its finding a commodious anchorage within the protection of the guns of Fort Morgan. This Is the present con dition, but were the work of deepening the entrance undertaken seriously il might be well to contemplate. in the future and perhaps in successive lyears, the widening of the main ship channel and the dredging of the deep water basin between Mobile point and the middle ground to a uniform depth of between five and six fathoms. These points, though not absolutely essential. would be highly advantag- \ eous. and greatly increase the capacity 1 of the port.
 q would like to reiterate some of the advantages which would follow the deepening of the bar. Mobile would I then be available to the fleet in any weather, an enormous advantage. Would he ImPregnable.
 ''The anchorage in the lower bay could be made absolute impregnable to the attack of an enemy outside. The fleet would be in touch with a great commercial emporium and with the | railway system of the continent for convenience in purchasing and receiv- ing stores and supplies of all kinds. and 1t would be within armslength, so to speak. of the Alabama coal fields and could coal with perfect security. | In fact, the advantages multiply as I consider the questions. while dsad- vantages do not exists or at least do not appear"
 The plan of action of the Outer Bar Convention is deflnite and simple. The convention knows exactly what 1t wants, It wants Congress to spend s250,000 to cut a channel through the outer bar. The committee named to- day by President B. NJ. Allen of the convention will go before the Rivers and Harbors Committee and tell the Committee exactly what Is needed and exactly what the results will be when the bar Is cut through
 Bankhead'a Advice.
 The committee members agree heart fly with the advice given by Congress- man John H. Bankhead, who Is a mem Der of the Rivers and Harbors Com mittee of Congress. Don't come be- fore the Committee with any spread eagle oratory or wind jamming. Find out what you want and ask the Com mittee for it. Let your committee be thoroughly informed upon the subject and let them give the Committee facts and figures.
 Come and state your case adequate ly and then quit talking. A good case does not need wordy support
 I have been asked again and again IF Congress under recent political de- velopments will continue to make lib- I eral appropriations for tha Southern