The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-17
ALABAMA RIVERS
 ID BE DISCUSSED 6reat Importance of Tennessee to Birmingham District A CANAL IS PROJECTED Feeling Is Strong That the Tennessee River Belongs Justly To Alabama
 and Should Be
 Turned.
A CANAL IS PROJECTED
BY c. eRosvENoR DAVE.

the southwest, cutting deeply into the state of Alabama as if it would cleave it in twain to reach the gulf. Then, thwarted by ramparts of coal measures and iron ore, rising several hundred feet above it as they slope backward from it's banks. 1t seems to turn angrily away from its purpose only to hesitate and finger across the width of Alabama, setting it's course slightly north. At last as if with a final determination to be brave. and take it's long. slow, roundabout journey to the gulf. it leaves the northwest cor ner of the state at as sharp an angle as that by which it entered at the north east corner.
 As early as the time of John Quincy Adams talk was rife of a canal to con- meet the two systems; and since that time each passing decade has stirred new groups of men to agitate for surveys estimates, appropriations, only to see each decade end with nothing done. Thus we come to the Birmingham waterways con- Vention unable to report one decisive move taken towards accomplishing that which seemed feasible and reasonable so years ago.
 The fascination doubtless arises from two sources-the Tennessee by reason of it's plunge into the state of Alabama. tus-
 
 bama as truly as it does to Tennessee Then the floating commerce of its broad bosom, possible under developments and destined for the gulf, seems as If it ought to take short cut shat would save a journey 150O miles long and reduce it to 300 miles, ending at a port near the gulf instead of ending at port over 100 miles away from the gulf.
 Whatever the motive. selfish or un- tbo o.i itat ic a,,- and possibly more determined than ever; for this is the day of waterway agitation everywhere. stimulated by President Roosevelt's remarks on spend- ing $5o0,OO0,O00 if necessary to provide q IA foot channel down the Mississippi Whilst on others thou art smiling do not pass me by is the present chorus, with trenendous emphasis on me-
 Two routes for a canal from Gunters- vile to Gadsden were surveyed in the 70s The first of these scared upward 400 feet above the Tennessee and 464 feet above the Coosa and WAS between 50 and 60 miles long. The second of these scared 514 feet above the Tennessee and eos feet above the Coosa and was between S6 and S7 miles long.
 The~estimated cost of the first route is not readily accessible; the second was ex pected to cost S95180O0, including the
 
 summary of the survey is appropriately inserted here; for there has been recently much clamor and protest north of us against draining the Tennessee into the Alabama and thus nullifying the enor- mously expensive works at Muscle Shoals The alarm may be genuine or it may not but the central and southern parts of the state and the universal experience is that water will not leap out of it's bed to run up hill,
 Away back in the 7O's also a survey was made of Bear creek in the north west corner of the state, with a view to connecting the Tennessee and Alabama system by a canal that should open into the upper portion of the Tombigbee river. It has been said in the writer's hearing that bias in the Chattanooga office of the engineering force led to the condemna- tion of the plan. But candor would com pei any student of that and later surveys of integral portions of the scheme to confess that the difficuities were too great for the end sought at taht time. Bear creek itself was later surveyed for ind- vdual improvements and reported as swift and narrow and subject to extra ordinary oscillations of water level. Then also independent surveys, managed from Mobile, of the upper portions of the Tombigbee showed it to have a very narrow bed and no recommendations were ever made for it's permanent improve ment.
 There is chmerical talk of canal starting somewhere about Guntersville and striking boldly southwest of the Warrior by way of the Birmingham district, not by lock system, but by deep cuts all most rivaling the Culebra in daring
 It is unwise for any man to say that d seemingly impossible thing is impossible, for the impossible is constantly happen ing. But in relation to the connection be- tween the two system 1t is almost safe to predict that nothing whatever will be done for years in such a direction; or should it ever be the connection by Bear creek is more than likely to precede the others, not to relieve Tennessee traffic, but to provide way from the Ohio, up the Tennessee and down the Tombig- bee, to the gulf. But that Is wholly problematical for reasons that apply to it as well as to the other schemes The first of these is that granting canal is cut to Gadsden from Guntersville, 1t provides no outlet for Tennessee products as the link between Lock f and Wetump- ka is toally missing and unprovided for. In the second place Gadsden could not ship advantageously north, as it would simply be sending to Chattanooga the same class of minerals that Chattanooga already possesses.
 The same reasoning would hold in re- lation to canal from the Tennessee to Birmingham. That city needs no raw products from the state of Tennessee It has all that 1t can use, even with ex- trayagance, in many decades. The third reason is that Alabama requires no out lets northward. The trend of things is southward, and the world-mastery by coal and iron and 10000 products of their combined powers Is to be achieved around the gulf and across the gulf through the Panama canal to the yet uncon- uuered and inexhaustIble Pacific ocean of commerce.
 Alabama is placed at tremendous ad- vantage in relation to rnis wOrld-conquest and It's every energy and thought should be turned bringing about internal canal ization that with every mile gained brings nearer the day when it's coal and iron and cement can reach the wait ing world. To Alabama has been given vast ad antage. but as with a pampered child, loo...,q for something different, 1t Is looking mort. yard for some unrealized good while aroun1 it is the full measure of good that it needs.
 Every man who loses Alabama and knows how great she can be. is needed at the Birmingham convention to stand in the way of little clamorous talk along narrow lines. The broadest judgment Is needed there to create opinion and con- viction along one simple, straight line the improvement of the Alabama river system. That is called for to secure full relea se from rcatrafnin1 banda Canaliza-