The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-27
FOR ALABAMA CANAL
SENATOR MORGAN BROACHEs FAR
 REACHING PROPOSITION.
Secretary Gilbert Receives Letter sug- gesting the Consideration of
 Destroying Barrier Between
 Tennessee and Alabama's
 Seaport City.

from United States Senator John T. Morgan.
 In this letter Senator Morgan enters l into an extend ed discussion of various phases of industrial subjects now be- | fore the minds of the people of Ala bama. He takes up the possibilities of l the chalk beds of the Black Belt, the | unequalled resources that would result | from the navigation of the Tennessee River and suggests the building or a canal connecting the Tennessee with the Alabama. thus turning the tide of I trade from New Orleans to Mobile. Ills letter is as follows:
 Selma, Ala. Oct. 22. 1905. Mir. L, L. Gilbert. Secretary, Montgom- Dear sir-I feel that the prospect of my being able to accept the ipvitaticn | to the convention at Decatur of the Alabama Commercial and Industrial As sociation on the 7th and sth of Noven- Der is not certain. feel the greatest interest in it's success. These conven- tions mean more to Alabama just now than any connection we have with the success of political contests in the State, or tho United States. When industry and commerce becomes stalking horses for offlce hunters, the real welfare of the people is in doubtful keeping, and
 am glad that the Association of which you are Secretary is not in any sense a
 political body.
 The program of the meeting at De-
 catur is of real interest and concern u the people of Alabama. and the gen.
 tlemen selected for presenting and dis
 cussins the various topics are admir-
 ably qualified for the roles assigned to
 them, We are justly to expect valua-
 b1e contributions to our knowledge of
 these subjects from their discourses.
 If I could be present, I would crave
 A. All Axx~ .s- Nwxyr. other subjects of immense importance. that are little understood by the great
 body of the commercial and industrial people of Alabama and seem to have
 only a feeble recognition in the tn oughts and labors of our politicians
 They are the chalk beds on the en- tire extent of the Northern and South ern margins, or shores, of the Black
 Belt" which was formerly the bed of a great sea; and the Tennessee River, its navigation, it's unequalfed resources of commercial and industrial wealth and its water power. which in it's capacity for the production of horse power to move local machinery. more than equals any great deposit of coal in Alabama.
 The cement chalk of Alabama in their yield of revenue to the people for ages to come will equal and keep pace with, if they do not exceed in cash value and constant production to meet the de-
 
 value of any production of our great
 mines or forests or agricultural crop.
 It will be classed among these re- sou .ces if 1t does not exceed any of
 them. I will be glad to submit to the
 convention some of the leading facts
 ascertained by geologists and chemists
 and demonstrated by manufacturers of
 Portland cement, that establish the
 propositions I hays stated, and I make
 these statements to induce the conven-
 tion to create commission of it's mem hers and others. with Dr. Eugere A. Smith, our excellent State Geologist at I It's head, to ascertain and report upon this subject, which owing to the work | that is proposed on an interoceanic ca- | nal is of great and immediate import auce.
 During thiss summer I have been at | work as cnairman os sels sct commit
 tee of the Senate in the study of the
 navigation of the Tennessee River and
 its affue lces. as to their navigation,
 the ma terial they will furnish to conl-f me-oe and industry, and the available water power they will afford to the
 manufacturing capacity of the country | along their courses.
 l It is quite safe to say that none of | the fifty-three navigable rivers In tho water sheds of the Mississippi River, with their more than 13,O00 miles of navigable waters, under improvement | by the Government oqual the Tennes-
 see River in value to the country, or in
 cheapness of the cost of improvement. l The dam across this river below Chat
 .anoogl thirty-five feet in height, that | is now in process of construction by a power company at it's own cost is the 1 first great step in river Improvement I that will revolutionize the entire plan of the improvement of navigation of the mountain streams.
 mt ell aIr water navigation thus provided by
 granting the use of a water power to the constructor of the dams and locks free of all charge in perpetual right. The constructor anakes his profit by the cheap generation of horse power which costs as a rule not more than
 one-flfth per horse power per annum what the same power generated by steam at the most favored location, will ! cost. When the saving that can be made to the owners of machinery at mussell shoals is considered, the value of the water power there and elsewhere on the Tennessee River, will in the long
 run pay for all needed improvements of the navigation of the river to a
 uniform depth of nine feet at low water. The Tennessee River is entitled to
 the benefit of this ultimate advantage of the cheapness of the cost of i'm provement. as just demand for liberal advances in pushing this work to early completion. If the Federal Govern
 ment and the State Governments that
 own the riv CT beds, will cooperate in arrangements to secure clear titles to
 investors these water n0wers will soon
 relieve the treasury Ebf the United
 States of the heavier part of the im- provements of the navigation of the
 Tennessee and its affluents As an Alabamian I feel the neces- sity of this work of improvement in higher sense even than the benefits it Will confer upon the splendid region of the Valley of the Tennessee. In ad- dition to it's enormous wealth in mines and forests and in other agricultural
 production, it's cotton fields that extend
 from Knoxville to Paducah are the northernmost cotton lands in the United
 States and are nearest to the factories of what Is called the Central West
 With proper navigation, seed cotton
 would soon be shipped to such mills as
 1t Is now delivered to the factories in
 the Tennessee Valley. at a considera-
 ble saving to the planter and a profit
 to the spinner.
 But all these are minor considerations to Alabama as State. when compared with the Incubus that rests upon 1t as commonwealth discovered by a noun tain barrier that forces nearly half it's wealth to a foreign seaport The Sand Mountain is the barrier that forces our commerce to New Orleans instead of to Mobile by the cheapest possible route of transportation. This barrier can be overcome to a limited