The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1911-01-29
FIGHTING FOR
HARbORS BILL
STATES AND CITIES MUST OWN
TERMINALS ON RIVERS
AND BAYS.
Commissioned of Corporations Her
bert Knox Smith Declares that
Terminals Are as Valuable as Good
Channels.

Channels.
Washington, Jan. 2S.-For years it
has been apparent to the friends Of
improved waterways that unless ter,
mlnais were secured by either NUM-
| clpality or state that he improve
ments of our rivers and harbors
would proceed in anything tut an eX-
peditious and satisfactory manner,
said Col. j. L. Vance, president OF
the Ohio Valley Improvement associ-
alton, who is in Washington careful
" looking after the river and harbor
bill to the end that nothing snail go
into the bill that might jeepodize It's
passage and its approval by the presi-
dent
so important has this subject he
come that Herbert Knox Smith. COM
missioner Of corporations. hes made
an exhaustive study OF the subject,
and in a succinct statement of the
| question gave it as his opinion that
terminals were as important as 3lan-
nels; that localities should as q rule
be required to furnish and maintain
adequate terminals
Equally as pronounced on this sub
ject are the views of President Taft,
who, in his address before the lost
convention of the national rivers and
harbors congress, maintained that the
Improvement of our great water
| courses depends in the final analysis
on what the people do to ward secur-
! ing free and untrammelled terminals
| He was equally pronounced in an eX-
haustiye address made in Cincinnati
last September. No less emphatic on
this subject have been the utter3nces
OF Col. Alexander, chairman OF the
rivers and harbors committee OF the
house and Senator Burton, for many
! years chairman OF the same commit
tee and now member OF the commerce
committee of the upper branch CT
| congress. .hS
"The agitation which has been 60
ing on for free terminals for decade
or more, I am pleased to say, is
bearing fruit, and l look for greater
bentfits along these lines in the fu-
ture. New Orleans practically OWES
IS er,ire water front. ST. Louis has
seven miles of public wharves, Louis
vile has ample public VIII IL d e Cor
all demand that may arise, while
many other cities and towns along
the Ohio are the owners of extensive
wharves and other municipalities are
acquiring them. Trenton, N. j., has
| just obtained a considerable space in
order to aid its river in the solution
of the great problem of transportation
Now comes Cincinnati, which mas TAX
en- great step forward through the
recent decision of Judge A. NJ. War
| ner of the court of insolvency, in the
case of the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad Co., against the city of Gin
| cinnati, in which the railroad sought
to build an elevated track across the
only public landing in that city, there
| by cutting off free access to and from
| the Ohio The decision, which was
| against the railroad, has attracted
widespread and favorable comment in
congress and throughout the country.
In the exhaustive brief filed by AL
bert Bettings, Of counsel for the city
as well as river interests the whole
range of municipal terminals was dis
cussed in a most scholarly and con.
vincing manner.
Judge Warmers decision went to
the crux of the situation. He held
that to permit the railroad to build
the viaduct desired would result in
practically blocking the terminal to
river traffic. And he further said that
the dams now completed and those
being constructed in the river to make
it continuously navigable the year
round will doubtless largely increase
the traffic thereon and make the pub
| lie landing at its best barely adequate
to meet the demands that may be put
upon it. To cripple its use even in a
small degree under these circumstan-
| ces would be serious and unreason-
able"
The decision is magnificent vic
tory for the business men of Cincin-
natl, who fought the proposed viaduct
across the landing, and recognizes
and confirms their argument that to
put the viaduct across the landing
would defeat the benefits to be gained
from the nine-foot stage of water in
the Ohio river.
Opinions of this character, which
are along the lines Of public policy
will go far toward bringing about
what is so greatly desired: municipal
ownership or control Of terminals
which shall be opened to the rich and
the poor. the powerful corporation Oh
its weaker competitor"