The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-05
a LAY STATES RIVER PROBLEM Says Alabama Cities Must
 Get Busy. BIC FUTURE FOR THIS SECTION Untold Wealth Waiting to Be
 Floated to Markets. Government VIII Give Ten Millions ta Improve Alabama and Coosa streams if shown Those
 Directly Bencated Are
 Trying to Help
 Themselves.
BIG FUTURE FOR THIS SECTION

w..P. Lay of Gadsden, Ala, chair man of the coosa River Improvement Association. spent Friday and Satur- day in Montgomery on business per taining to the improvement and devel- opment of the Coosa and Alabama Riv- CTS. and Saturday afternoon he deliv- cred an address before members of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce and members of the Board of Directors of the local cooperative boat line com .pany in which he confined himself to the present status of navigation on the Coosa and Alabama Rivers and touched upon the enormous advantages to be gained by properly developing the streams.
 Tn discussion of the problems of navigation that confront Alabamaians when the Alabama and Coosa Rivers are under consideration, 1t Is most im- portant to know that the Alabama water system Is tha second in point of available stretches that flows directly into the Gulf or Atlantic ocean.
 From a point about seyenty-hve miles above Montgomery to the head waters of the Coosa, that stream has been successfully H0NlS1tcd Hieh PhS for more than seventy-five years. and is now of great value to the people of Northern Alabama and Georgia . The navigability of the Coosa stops above Montgomery, where stretch of the rapids about 100 miles in length is a bar to the use of the river from headwaters to the gulf. It IS lnis stretch of rapids we must have the Federal Government remove for us before the Alabama and Coosa fill their proper sphere of usefulness 10 the State.
 "Contrary to the usual course of riv- CT navigation 1t Is, as has been said the upper waters of the river thai have been most used. Tho ordinary course Is to develop the lower waters first and then extend the navigaoie portion on towards the neadwaters' Before the entire length of the Alapams system can be opened to commerce. cities along the lower stretch must show A disposition to avail themselves of the natural carrying highway al their doors. Congress can never pc persuaded to appropriate the neces- sary money to improve the Alapama and Coosa until the people snow Una they want the river opened lor .nen. The present conditions with regard te boats plying tho river will not leae Congress to believe the river Is needed badly by AIabamai. uteaga a
 Millions of Wealth.
 .Aboye Montgomery lie untold Inii- lions of wealth in stone, marble, Iron. coal. bauxite, fire clays. cement. lime stones, coal, and the finished products of them all. The natural outlet TOT all these is down the Alabama river. If the question be asked what IS Na in all thi9. let me call attention to the fact that to open the Alabama will make the com struction of locks imperative. At these locks will be generated 3o0,0OO horsepower in the form of electric current. Montgomery is the nearest city of importance to the place or generation of this electric power the boats will bring you the raw mate rial cheaper than Is now dreamed or, the electric current will make 1t feas- ible for the establishment Of facto- ries in Montgomery to turn out the finished products from all this vast store of raw material and make this city to rank among the greatest man ufacturing centers in the world.
 "The time rapidly draws near when the Panama Canal shall have become the gateway to the Orient yet little touched by trade seekers of America. The state OI tAbhAh6 AAioN among manufacturing States of the South, is in the logical position to be the first to gain from the opening of the oriental trade by means of the Panama Canal. Now l say 1t is for the people of Alabama and Montgom- cry to say If the Alabama and Coosa rivers shall be opened that they may reap the great advantages of the Pan- anna Canal.
 statistics from government off cials give startling figures showing declination in port outgoings of all Atlantic ports, the contrary Is true of Gulf ports and in many periodicals de- voted to trade conditions in the East are appearing articles dealing with the problem: How we may induce commerce to return to Atlantic ports as against the advantages of the Gulf ports This condition that confronts the Atlantic ports is made all the more serious by the nearing of the completion of the Panama Canal
 "I hold in my pockets contracts and pledges of tonnage and boats to carry that tonnage along the waters Of the Coosa river to assure the appropria- tion of $1O,O0O. 900 for development of the Alabama river system, but it re- mains to show that the lower part of the river will be used and that is the heart of the problem we are now con- frnntad