The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-24
JOHNSTON TALKS OF WATERWAY PLANS Alabama's System Will Aid the Whole Country COAL IS UNEQUALED When the Mineral Resources Are Fi- nally Utilized Connection With
 the CanaY Will Be
 Invaluable
COAL IS UNEQUALED

Washington, April 23.-(Special. i've in Alabama thoroughly feel the importance of broad and comprehensive system of waterway improvements. While we have great local projects they are of mag nitude and possibility of benefacton in the perfection of cur institutions that give us unbounded confidence in urging the attention of the government to them, remarked Senator Johnston of Alabama today and he went on to talk about measures he had introduced for the improvement and care of the Warrior and Tombigbee rivers, which, continent with the Alabam riyers converging at Mobile. form the most important system of inland waterways, allied with harbor facilities of all the Mexican gulf region.
 We have in mind in Alabama, with cessation of effort, the completion of a system of waterway improvements which means a very great deal for the whole country" said the senator. That Is the completion of the projects for the im- provement of the navigable streams that empty into Mobile bay. That improve ment, long ago started by the govern ment and which had enlisted local aid. means the utilization principally of the great mineral resources of northern and middle Alabama, where We have vast quantities of bituminous coal, which by rigid tests has been proved to have no superior as a steam fuel.
 Thoroughly Tried Out
 "Only recently this coal has been thor oughly tried out on torpedo destroyer ves- sells and the report represents 1t more satisfactory than any other coal tried in the navy.
 We have agitated among us a project of canalization, utilizing the waters of some bold perennial streams in the great Warrior coal field, 10 connect with the Warrior river, with the idea of uniting by local enterprise the perfection of what has been undertaken by the federal gov ernment in the improvement of the rivers that form the Alabama river and flow in to Mobile bay. Local capital, local intelli- gence and local energy have joined to- gether to make at Mobile and Dauphin Island at great shipping point. where surely will one day be one of the most important coaling stations in America, not cnly for our own navy and merchant ma rine, but for the warships and merchant craft of the world that come our way, and that will come our way with in- creasing volume with the completion of the Panama canal I recall it used to cost, not so very lcng ago. g ton to get Alabama coal to Mobile. It is now down to s1.
 Coal Will Be Cheap
 with the completion of the improve ments now well under way, our apparent ly inexhaustive supply of bituminous steam coal can be laid down at Dauphin Island for 50 cents ton. To my mind this prospect and the syslem of improve ment which may bring these things about are not only important to Alabama but they are of interstate importance and, indeed, of international importance In- evitably the success of the waterway en- terprise connecting the sea nearest to the isthmian canal with the heart of the greatest mineral region in the United States is and must be dependent upon continuous care and attention by the gov ernment in regular annual river and har- bor appropriations, just such system and policy as have been urged in and out of season by the National Rivers and Harbors Congress"
 "SAHARAN EMPEROR"
 SUES TRUST COMPANY
 New York. April 2s.--(Special)- Jacques Lebaudy. the man who would be king" who succeeded in his am- bition to, the extent of crowning him celf "Ermueror of Sahara oua of tho