The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-27
BANKHEAD FAVORS PROJECT FCR CANAL Thinks Gulf States Should Be
 Taken Care Of ALL ALABAMA IN SYMPATHY  Date of Birmingham Convention May Be Changed Because of Conflict
 With Meeting To Be Held
 In Knoxville.
ALL ALABAMA IN SYMPATHY

Senator Bankhead has written his ap- proval of the Tennessee-to-th -thc-Gulf coz vention, which is to be held here some time next month, and announces his in- tention of attending communication has also been received from A 8' Forbes, president of the Montgomery Commercial club. indorsng the action or the Mobile and Birmingham. clubs Tn calling the meeting and also gives as. surance of that clubs doing all in Its power toward securing the canal.
 The date for the holding of the con- vention has been announced as Noyem- Der 12. but since the announcement was made it has been learned that the Zen nessee River Improvement association is to hold a convention in Knoxville on November 13, and the Birmingham con vention will be postponed from Novem- Der 12 in order not to conflict with t Quite a number of prominent men lave been invited to attend both conventions and it is feared the holding of the two meetings on succeeding days would pre- sent a number of men from attending both.
 
 ceived by Secretary Babb from men all over the state declaring their sympathy with the movement and their intention of doing all they can in working up strong sentiment throughout the state.
 The letter from Senator Bankhead is very encouraging and urges that just as strong sentimentsas possible be worked up It Is as follows
 MT. Joseph B. Babb, Secretary Commer-
 cial Club Birmingham. Ala
 Dear Slr-I have your letter of the 23d and most heartily concur in the sug- gestion that convention be held in the city of Birmingham for the purpose of properly presenting the interests of Alabama and other gulf an1 Atlantic states for river and harbCr improve ment to the next Congress. If you have read the speech of the President, delivered at Vicksburg. you will see that ie de- clared that the proper course to pursue in river improvement is to complete the big projects first, evidently meaning tho Mississippi river and it's tributaries. Tine Mississippi river valley states have a powerful organization dtermined to push lle improvement Ol lHt hlbSlSoippl iiNti and it's tributaries to the utmost extent. These states have almost, if not major | ity, in Congress and there is great dan ger, as I see it, of applying lion's S share of appropriations to that project to the neglect of other great interests, T shall attend the convention and hope that you will be able to work up such an interest as to make it possible to impress unon Congress the importance 3 of the improvement of the waterways Of the gulf and South Atlantic states q am just in receipt of an invitation to attend the 11th annual meeting of the Tennessee River Improvement associa- tion at Knoxville on November 13. It is unfortunate that these meetings conflict. I have declined the invitation to Knox vile for this reason and it seems to me it would be better, if you have not gone too far with your arrangements, to make your date around the 20th. This is only suggestion however. called forth by the conflict in dates. Very respectively, II H. BANKHEAD"