The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-03-08
CONSIDER PORT DEVELOPME Important Subject for Com
 mercial Congress SHOW BEGINS TODAY Purposes Are To Open Eyes of South ern People To Own Resources.
 Cotton Growers To Hold
 Big Meeting

Atlanta, March -(Special.)-The most
 important thing that the Southern Com
 mercial congress can do, according to the opinion of former Railroad Commis- sioner S. G. McLendon, is to consider the the importance and necessity of the de- velopment of south Atlantic and gulf ports, incident to the early opening of the Panama canal.
 Thinking quietly ocver the situation,' MT. McLendon said. T have been amazed at the inactivity on the part of our peo- pie. Why the Pacific ports are at work as they never were before in their lives getting ready to take care of every con ceivable sort of traffic they will have to
 handle or that they want to handle when the canal is completed.
 "Over on the Pacific coast they are
 pushing their harbor work with all the
 energy they can command; they are
 building new lines of railroads new docks and getting In new manufactories; they are going to be ready for it.
 lover here we have done next to noth-
 ing; we don't seem to be sufficiently enthused over 1t, and if the southern
 states don't watch out, they are going
 to be caught in a condition of unpre-
 paredness when the canal is actually
 opened, and commerce between nearby
 ports that are ready for it, begins with a
 rush.
 "In my opinion the Southern Commer- cial congress ought to take hold of this problem and stir things up, eniven the people, get them interested, get them to
 doing things. It is the best and most
 promising thing the congress could do." The Southern Commercial congress will begin it's sessions at the auditorium in Atlanta on Wednesday, March g. when President John H. Parker of New Or leans will hit a slab of Georgia marble with a gavel representing a new union
 of the southern states. The head is made
 of IS pieces of wood, each piece from a
 different state and attached to handle
 from an elm planted by John Qunicy Adams in the White House grounds. The congress is to meet for two pur- poses: To open the eyes of the southern
 people to their own great resources and excite and stimulate their energies, and to attract the attention of he world to
 the south along affirmative lines and to eradicate false impressions that have arisen here and there as the result both
 of false promise and faulty logic. This congress is already attracting at- tention from the Atlantic to the Pacific Its publicity bureau has had requests for matter pertaining to it from news papers on the far Pacific coast as well as from the western interior and the east
 big meeting of the Sea Island Cotton growers along the Georgia coast and in Florida has been called by President Charles s. Barrett of the Farmers union to be held at Waycross on March g. The object of the conference or, al least, one of the objects, is to urge stren- | uously the curtailment of the Sea Island acreage this season, and an effort will be made at that time to see if some
 Easis of agreement cannot be reached by which this can be brought about, mak- ing it equally operative as to all inter- ested
 President Barrett says there is an ex- isting necessity for taking some steps looking to improving the price for this staple, and it Is his belief that it can be accomplished through such an agree
 ment, provided there is sufficient at tendance and unanimity on the part of the growers at the Waycross meeting. He says he has received assurance that there will be a full attendance of the growers from Georgia, South Carolina and Florida,