The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-20

eloquent plea in Chicago. already have
been considered by the Woman's World
committee and will be one of the mat
tiers taken up by the American Vigilance
association which has succeeded to the
war of determination begun by the COM
mittee. The noted evangelist who led
the dramatic christian parade" through
the 'levees' of Chicago declares that
such homes are necessary IL the wom-
en- are to be permanently rescued. With
cut centrally located buildings where
SOCIAL Christianity" would be praoticed
he said 1t would be almost impossible to
make the work of rescue of permanent
value, since without such helps they
would drift back to the old conditions.
In it's war on the white slave traffic the
American Vigilance association has seen
the necessity for carrying It's work a step
forward and has turned Its attention to
the problem of building homes that shall
be places of comfort and help as well
as refuge, and whore the rescued wom-
en- may fit themselves ii earn honest hvell-
hoods The last act of the committee
chosen by the Woman's World is to pub
lish a book edited by Ernest A. Bell,
secretary of the vigilance association
''War on the White Slave Traffic." which
will come from the Currier oompany's
presses shortly to give more facts and
complete knowledge of this monstrous
evil to serve as guide ana warning TO
the public
Chlcauo's Grain Center.
Real prospect is seen that Chicago's
slump in pre-eminence as a grain center
will be checked though the decline Is
shown by the fact that only two elevators
have been rebuilt of the 26 which have
burned since 1897. The shallow river OBJ
struoted by many center pier bridges and
with a strong current has caused the first
class boats to give Chicago a wide BERTH
The widening of the Chicago river chan
mel to 200 feet proceeds slowly, but the
drainage trustees have just acquired TOO
feet additional river frontage and profess
to be pushing the widening process as
rapidly as possible, but as grain port
the city has slumped; the grain of the
great northwest, including western Canad-
ian provinces, does not move toward Chi
oago as in days of yore. No decisive
steps yet have been taken to remedy the
neglect of years during which time the
dockage and water terminal frontage has
been acquired by railways, creating the
kind of situation which, 1t is now said,
will be likely to hold UP until remedied
by federal appropriation for waterways.
including that to the gulf. Commenting
on Chicago's predicament in this regard a
report of the harbor commission has this
to say: 1.-THE deliberate intent of the rail-
roads to dominate the lake traffic through
the control of the Buffalo water front can
hardly be mistaken. Let Chicago, through
its failure to provide adequate harbor ia
cilitles, deprive itself of the benefit of
water transportation, and it will soon see
the railroads doing less to advance its
interests, because the incentive to do so
will be removed. AS long as the water
route is available the railroads must be
on the alert to serve Chicago well and
oheaply Chicago is still the worlds
greatest lumber market. although the ar
rivals by water have greatly decreased"
For the year 1907 Chicago received, in
round numbers, 400 100000 feet of lumber,
of which 10000 900 feet. or one-sixth, came
| by water. Not many years ago the re-
! ceipts of lumber by water greatly exceed
| ed those by rail.
Value of Country Bank.
| The country bank as a school for met