The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-03
Mobile, Pensacola, New Orleans, Gulfport and Galveston Are Natural Outlets of Immense Territory to a Grea. Extenl UnisveIoped.

Kick a barrel of flour at Minne- apolis. and it will roll to New Or- ieans," once said James J. Hill He meant that 1t was cheaper to ship Western products to foreign ports by way of the Gulf coast than over the Allegheny mountains by way of the Atlantic, says The Washington Herald
 Already the cities of this Gulf coast Pensacola, Mobile, Gulfport, New Or leans, and Galveston--are the natural outlets of great cotton, wheat rice, sugar, oil, lumber, turpentine and iron producing section, the agricultural re- sources of which are yet to a great extent undeveloped. and the industrial life of which is only in its infancy. When the completion of the Panama Canal in few years shall have turnel the course of the worlds trade south ward, these ports will become the com mercial centers of hemisphere.
 Their remarkable commercial and industrial growth within the last de- cade is prophetic of their future. New York is now the only American port which ranks above New Orleans in the value of its exports. and Galveston, which ranked eighth at the time It was destroyed by the hurricane in 1900, is now the third largest port in the United States.
 Pensacola Comes to the Profit.
 Beginning with Pensacola, let US visit briefly. these cities along the blue waters of the Gulf This Florida port is a picturesque place of 25.o00 in habitants. and until a few years ago was sleepy old place, more interest ing historically than suggestive of the Souths Industrial progress. Now the grain pier, elevator, and other ter minal facilities constructed by the Louisville and Nashville Railway at a cost of $25O.00O. make it one of the largest trade marts in the South. ex- porting the rosin, turpentine. lumber, cotton, and other commodities of Florida. Georgia and East Alabama
 Mobile, which leads all domestic ports in the shipment of cross ties, is still one otN the typical Southern cities, in which may be seen many characteristics of the ante-bellum regime. Its trade has been greatly limited by the shallowness of the chan nel from the Gulf to the city, which prevented the entrance of big freight CTS. but the government has increased the depth from thirteen feet to thirty. and it's width Is now 200 feet. From the first dredging of the channel, in 1894 to 1904, when its depth was in- creased six feet there was an increase in business over 500 per cent. A stupendous industrial development Is in store for Mobile. for 1t is the out let of the coal and iron wealth of Ala bama.
 GulfpOrt Grows Rapidly.
 Gulfport, Miss, which ranks first among our domestic ports in It's export of lumber, was never opened to com merce until 1902. The history of the place represents one of the most ambitious enterprises ever undertaken by a captain of finance. Its pier. 2,000 feet long, was built little over ten years ago by J. T. Jones. of Buffalo. N. r, at a cost of $500. 900. MT. Jones also dug at his own expense the chan mel, seven miles long, BIO feet wide. and twenty-three feet deep. At the north end of the channel Is vast anchorage basin, the two representing cost of over $1,9o0,000
 Gulfport is near the pine, and cotton regions of the state, and is also the outlet of the Yazoo Valley, ~compris- ing 5000, 900 acres of the most fertile land in the world.
 Cotton Is the chief export of New Orleans. S3,6SO,000 worth of this staple having been sent through her gates in 1904 Leaf tobacco. corn and wheat are also shipped from that port ip large quantities. The number or articles exported annually from New Orleans is over 25O, valued at nearly S1, GOO. .O00, 900, and as the development of Southern agriculture and industry goes forward. the Mississippi river ana it's tributaries will bear to her wharVes raw materials and manufactured pro- duets which are constantly increasing in quantity and value.
 The city of Galveston, which was virtually demolished by tornado less than ten years ago, Is today. thanks to the dauntless spirit of it's citizens one of the most beautiful and pros porous of American cities As the natural port of Texs, 1t is the center of a network of transcontinental rail roads on one hand. and steamship lines on the other. and Is the outlet port of the cotton. oil and fruit industries Of that regal state.