The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-24
Birmingham's City Council Adopts Stirring Resolutions
SENT TO WASHINGTON
Representative Underwood Will Pre-. sent Them to Senate Committee on commerce-Blg Appropri.
 ations for Alabam. Waters.

 for the Warrior and Tomhigbee rivers, and an appropriation of s50OOO for the outer bar channel work at Mobile, had passed the House yesterday awakened lively satisfaction in commercial and in- dustrial circles in Birmingham last night. Persons competent to judge stated that these appropriations, if accepted by the Senate and approved by the President, would increase greatly the prosperity of the Birmingham district furnishing en- Iarged water facilities and a ready port that would command for Birmingham @ | large measure of the West Indian, Cen tral American and South American trade. The rivers and harbors bill now goes to | the Senate.
 City Council Endorses 1t. Anticipating this development, the I Mayor and Board of Aldermen of Bir- mingham adopted, at a special meeting held Tuesday afternoon, resolutions in support of the Mobile outer bar channel | improvement.
 | These resolutions were addressed to the  | committee on commerce. The resolutions were sent by mail to Representative Underwood Tuesday night and it is believed that he will present | them to tho Senate committee on com merce today.
 Ringing Resolutions. Here are the resolutions:
 "To the Honorable Chairman and Mem-
 bers of the Senate Committee on Com- merce:
 Your memorialists respectfully show that on the Fist day of February, 1905, at a special meeting of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen of the city of Bir- mingham, Ala, the following resolutions were adopted:
 Water Transportation.
 Whereas. the development of the min eral resources of Alabama has now ! reached proportions of national import | anee. and requires the development of water transportation to the Gulf of Mex ico to give adequate and cheaper car riage to a tonnage which exceeded twen- ty million tons in 1904 in the Birmingham district alone, making it the third in ton mage in the United States; and, Whereas. the future development of iia ilbAHAiitS WOQlu DC inucn IacllilaIeu and proceed upon a far greater scale with the aid of such waterways, which will be of vital importance to It's future prosperity; and,
 Outer Bar Channel. Whereas a memorial upon the inn provement of the entrance to Mobile bay has already been presented to the hon. orable rivers and harbors committee of the House of Representatives by the state outer bar convention, praying that me channel across said outer bar be made 1000 feet wide by B feet in depth at ow-tde-thus providing for the only bay and harbor of Alabama an entrance 0ess than one mile long) deeper and wider than any port south of Chesapeake bay and the equal of any port in the world. at a cost of only $25O GOO: and,
 Whereas, the Commercial club of the city of Mobile has also earnestly embark- ed upon the work of improving tLe en- frances to Mobile bay. and has unani- mously adopted a resolution in further ance of said object, a copy of which is hereto attached, and prayed to be taken as a part hereof
 Endorses Mobiles Action.
 Resolved, That we heartily endorse the aforesaid memorial and resolution and respectfully urge upon your hon. orable committee the great importance Of the early completion of the objects therein set forth, to this state, and to the country as we'll
 Resolved further That in our oninion 1t is also essential to the use of the deep water basin in the lower part of Mobile bay to encourage the construction of harbor and terminals at the nearest available point to said basin to serve as the Fort of Mobile, for shipping of the deepest draught and tonnage adoat, and It therefore respectfully recommends that the sum of $5000, or so much there or as may be necessary, be appropriated Tor survey and estimate No be re- ported to the next session of Congress) of the cost of channel from the 35-foot curve in the aforesaid deep water basin Tn lower Mobile bay of the dimensions of 35 feet depth at low tide Uo correspond with the depth of the proposed channel across the outer bar) by 45O feet width at the top with appropriate slopes of sides and width at bottom to a basin or 'harbor 2ooo feet by 15OO feet and 35 deep the site of proposed harbor and terminals on the west side of said bay on Little Dau- phin island. The importance and value of the proposed deep water port to the future development of the vast coal and metal industries of Alabama will, per- haps. be better understood by com parison of the distances of the chief ports on the gulf to deep water. as shown by the United States coast charts.
 Dauphin Islands Advantages.
 Starting from the east and moving westward:
 Tampa is 42 miles
 Pensacola is 15 miles
 Proposed port on Daughin Island, miles.
 "Gulfport 2l miles
 New Orleans. 110 miles.
 'Chalmette terminals 102 miles.
 Port Arthur 22 miles.
 Galveston. 12 miles.
 Pensacola has 90 feet of water ap- preached by a tortuous channel 300 feet wide. for which $e25.O00 has been appro- priated; Galveston 26 feet and Port Arr thur 22 feet by tortuous channels; Gulf port 20 feet. New Orleans a 27-foot chan nel across It's bars. upon which S5,000,O00 has been expended, and Mobile a 27-foot channel across its outer bar, straight ap- proach and less than one mile long. cost ing only s50.O00 which. t Is estimated by able engineering authority. can be deep ened to B feet at low tide and wldened to 1000 feet. for the comparatively small sum of s250,oO0
 Important Projects. Resolved further. That the secretary of this board send copy Of these resolli- tions to the chairman of the said state committee, to the secretary of the Mo- bile Commercial club. to Hon. T. E. Bur ton, chairman of the House rivers and harbors committee; to Senator Frye. chairman of the Senate committee on commerce. and to the honorable senators