The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-14
RIVER IMPROVEMENT
DELDGATION TO WASHINGTON IS VERY HOPEFUL.
Extracts From Memorial Presented ny Alabama Business Men to Con- gress-EarIy Navigation of
 the Alabama.

AboUoma Business Men 70 SOn- gress-Early Navigation of the Alabama. -. The recent Alabama River conVen- ton held in Montgomery is beginning to bear fruit.
 It will be remembered that com mittee was appointed to prepare memorial for presentation to the Rivers and Harbors Committee of Congress and for use in the two houses or con- eress. That memorial committee con sisted of Major W. W. Screws and u. ". Barnett of Montgomery. R. H. Asee of selma, A. Hohenberg of Wetunnpka and J. H. McAndrew of Mobile. The
 various commercial bodies appointed committees to go to Washington 10 present the memorial and to urge the claims of the Alabama River Tor sur
 fcfent appropriation to secure SIX foot channel. w F. Vandiver w. M. Teague and c. F. Morit5 were appoint ed by the Commercial and Industrial Association of Montgomery and were
 joined here by r. B. McGaskey and Lloyd Tate of Wetumpka, the party going to Washington last week. All have returned except MT Vandiver.
 The memorial has been printed in pamphlet form by the Commercial and Industrial Association. It contains forty-two pages of valuable matter
 made up largely of speeches and arsu- -ments presented by Messrs Vandiver, Quill, Moritz and others to the conven-
 tien held in Montgomery. It gives a great deal of valuable information and the delegates who went on to Washington are much encouraged and
 believe that the chances of securing the appropriation are excellent.
 The amount of business of all kinds
 that can be transacted along the Ala bama River If it is made navigable stream all the year Is something i'm mense.
 The conclusion of the memorial is in these words We have attempted no flights of rhetoric or oratory herein. Our earnest brush has been dipped only in the pigment of facts in tracing this graphic picture. Upon a river S13 miles in length, navigable but half the year through there already has been developed a traffic of. $f3,000,00e annually. ITO make it navigabie every day in the year,-to depth of six feet calls for an investment of five or six hundred thousand dollars. Such in- vestmenf means a gradual development of the annual river traffic to twenty millions within a reasonable time; means direct saving in rates of freight inbound and outbound of half a million dollars every year to the peo- pie of this section of the United States; means the early cultivation of five million acres of agricultural lands, the utilization of & million acres of tim- Der lands and direct economy to the government itself in the development of portland cement manufacture which can hardly be estimated. Where in all the limits Of this country can the gov- ernment get larger returns upon an investment Of equal size?".
 The longest drought known in many years is the one that has prevailed since last August. It has been some- thing over four months since a boat reached Montgomery, and although one was expected by next Tuesday 1t Is very doubtful now if 1t will mate rialize.
 Captain Moore. of the Peoples Line of Steamers, said yesterday that while there is over two feet gauge in the fiver-makiflg about five foot chan nel--the river. is falling, and unless there is good rain north of Mont- gomery before Tuesday it is doubtful if even two foot gauge can be had next week. !
 It will not be without interest to note just here that The Montgomert Republican. the first newspaper pulp lished in Montgomery. records the fact that boat arrived at this city March 1st. 1891, the territory which 1t travelled" it says. will no doubt seem almost incredible to strangers She is real boat, fifty-six feet long, six feet beam, six feet deep and capable of carrying near one hundred barrels She was built at West Point. East Tennessee, where she was loaded for this place and proceeded 100 miles down the Tennesse River to the mouth of the Hiwassee. thence sixty miles to the entrance of the Noccoa. up the latter to a eertain distance. when she miles by land to- the Connesauga thence to and down the Eastanaula through the Coosa into the Alabama distance of near 1000 miles from the Interior"
 Until the fall of 1921 no steamboat had come up the Alabama River as high as Montgomery. but in October of that year the steamboat Hornet arrived at Montgomery from Mobile which trir she made in sixty days including a three days detention at Claibourne Cahaba and Selma. Another steam boat arrived in March and still another in August. 1Ss2, with a large barge in tow.
 From that period for about forty years boats of large. size piled the Alabama River. transporting the cot ton crop each year to Mobile, besides other products of all kinds that people sent to market.
 As early as February F. 1923. the steamboat Columbus arrived in seven days from Mobile. and in April she arrived in three days and a half. The Columbus was 154 feet long 53 feet broad and drew seven feet of water when heavy laden.