The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-11-17

along narrow lines. The broadest Judgment is needed there to create opinion and conviction along one sim pie. straight line--the improvement of the Alabama River system. What is called for to secure full release from restraining bonds. Canalization of the Coosa six feet deep from Gadsden to Wetumpka, creating enormous water power and yet giving freedom to the riches lying along the third largest stream in the South; improvement of the Alabama River from Wetumpka to the junction with the Tombigbee, so as to give six-foot open channel na- vigation at all seasons; equalization of the Cahaba, CanaIisation of the-Tom- bigbee and Warrior Rivers (already under way)i Improvement of the Tom- bigbee from Demopolis to Columbus. Miss: dredging. the Mobile River to 90 feet from Spanish Fork southward until the Lower Bay is reached. broad entng the channel down the bay, SO that vessels can pass ir safety; dredg- ing from the Lower Bay to Alabama Port or to Dauphin Island tshort channels both of them), so as to bring about the establishment of coaling port just inside the bay for steamers of call. or for steamers that have taken their cargo at Mobile.
 What do these things for which we must strive call for in doiIars--prob- ably S15,000,000. The writer will not inject here suggestions as to the safest methods for securing such an enor- nous sum as there will be many wise suggestions to hear in the Bir- mingham convention. He may be permitted, however. to give a mere hint as to the trend of his thoughts beg the United States to lift the whole question of waterways absolutely and forever out of politics, placing 1t in the hands of a non-partisan and powerful commission of permanent form. IF such should become a fact, the water ways of Alabama will receive the first attention of all. as it is demonstrabie in tonnage and in values that no other such system tapping such wealth exists anywhere else in the Union.
 Somehow the temptation to prophecy is ever present when speaking of Ala bama to prophecy. She is so great fn area, so rich in gifts, so slightly start ed on her way to supremacy, so little understood and appreciated by those who would tie her down with Iillipu- tion strings, so misunderstood by those who have never seen her, and so empty of people that imagination leaps when considering the time that she shall come to her own.
 This we do know that there shaIi grow up around Mobile. possibly up the river beyond Spanish Fork a ship building region that will out-tistance the Clyde; that Mobile itself snail be- come a new Liverpool, with docks on both sides of the river. freed from the problems of severe tidal fIuctusatton: that the coliiers of the world will gather in cover of Mobile Bay; and that the shipping of the two hemtspheres awaiting cargoes at the mouth of our system will tempt enterprises to this state by the thousands (when Liiii- putian strings are burst) and these factories will use the raw materials of the bills and the products of the soil. making this region infinitely rich, in people and In capital.
 This we do know that Gadsden and Birmingham will expend until their suburbs approach each other; that the whole iron region will become knit together with electric car lines as rapid and as important in their ar- fects as the present car-iine deceiop- ments in the middle West: this we know-for has not the great iron Mas fer seen 1t already, and said it--that in less than a generation our iron and coal regions shall overshadow the Greater Pittsburg of today. This we do know that in the growth of one part of a state all the parts share and there fore we know that out through every region, remote from Iron and coal tha stimulus of this great development will extend filling the waste, places with agricultural development, that cross roads shall grow to villages. that vtI- fages shall grow to towns. that towns shall expand to cities. and that the capitol city, itself seated serenely on its hills shall become the larger heart Of an infinitely larger development
 Improvements do not happen, they are made by the hands of .men working over the gifts of nature. Cities do not grow. sthey are built. If then so vast consequences depend upon comprehen- sive use of our waterways. summons issues to our best men to forsake their ordinary tasks and attend the Birming- ham Convention. The greatest good there will come from the Knowledge of an Alabama completely united in one great purpose. We have hitherto been divided and being divided have Jagged behind. until the waterway appropria? tions of this state in comparison with the potential cities of the state are nothing beside the gifts that other more active and united states have secured or are seeking, After Birming- ham? The best of our men, on to Washington to the Rivers and Harbors Congress to meet, December {, 5 and 6, and while there to plead for a liberal attitude of the Government towards the whole national question.