The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-09-18
The Port Determination

L AOli AhO AhODllc AhCSiolSl.
In addition to the complaint of discrim-
nation by the Mobile and Ohio and
Southern railroads against the port of
Mobile, which has been filed with the in
terstate commerce commission by the
Mobile chamber of commerce, Horace
Turner, one of the large shippers of the
port, has filed individual charges with
the commission against the railroad COM
panies, and a copy of his complaint is
presented In this issue of the Register
The document is brief of the case of
the port of Mobile against the Mobile
and Ohio and Southern, and specific. 1t
deals with evidence, not with generalities,
and 1t contains all of the charges made
during the past three months that the
railroad officials in their various replies
have avoided answering
Although apparently filed in Washing
ton city before President Finley of the
Southern railway addressed his reply to
the letter of the chamber of commerce.
the Turner complaint may be regarded
as an answer to the railroad presidents
letter, so completely does 1T deal with
each phase of that letter that Mr.. Finley
made prominent. Take for example, Mr..
Finiey's contention that facilities given
by the railroads are adequate for the
commerce of the port, and contrast it
with the quoted statement of the for
Ohio, that 1.-THE tonnage that would move
in and out OF Mobile would double in two
years If Mobile had proper dock facili-
ties' It will be patent that the official
statements of the facilities for commerce
do not coincide Either Mr.. Finley or
the foreign freight agent must be in
error.
Mr. Finley asserts that the Mobile and
Ohio and Southern have not alone done
Ill Il. 30 a q
lcommerce, but that these roads are "us-
ing their facilities for the protection of
Mobiles export and import business"
The answer to this declaration is found
| In the charges that shipments from Chat
tanooga to Colon have been diverted to
New Orleans by the Southern when ship
pers desired that they come through Mo-
bile; that the steamship line for which
the shipments were destined was refused
wharf space by the railroads, and that
at the present time the Mobile and Ohio
will not issue through bills of lading to
Europe via Mobile when the steamship
lines for which the freight is offered are
In competition with lines sailing out of
Gulfport, although the Mobile and Ohio
does issue such through bills of lading
via Gulfport to lines competing with the
Mobile lines.
Nothing that President Finley has said
IL
port business will overcome the fact that
while the Mobile and Ohio and Southern
refuse to absorb the switching and ter
minal charges in this port, except to
wharves reached by their own rails,
through their connecting lines which are
part of the Southern railway system,
they absorb higher switching and ter
minal charges in New Orleans, giving
that port what they refuse to give Mo-
bile With this fact standing out like a
locomotive headlight, the statement that
1.-The executive officer of the railroads at
Mobile is devoted to the interests of the
| port" is useless. What is the value OF
| his devotion when the Southern trades
| against Mobile?
| The national government has given Mo-
| bile channel for shipping at great ex-
| penditure, and proposes to increase the
| depth of the channel 80 that heavier
draught vessels will be accommodated
and the port enabled to keep up with the
demands of commerce. The stand by the
Mobile and Ohio and the Southern on
their revised export tariffs invites the
question: Are the railroads to be the sole
benefciaries of the millions expended By
the government in harbor improvements
If the railroads can dictate what steam
err lines shall come here, by means of
through bill of lading favoritism, then
the open port is at an end, and the gov
eminent expenditure is for the benefit of
the railroads.