The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-04
Glad to See People of Jef- fersOn Determined to Reap Advantages of the Open River
WHAT OTHERS SAY
 OF PLANS TO GET
 THE FULL BENEFIT
Think Both Highway and Railroad Should Connect
 Birmingham With Navi-
 gable Water on Warrior
All Birmingham is aroused.

All Birmingham IS aroused. | The whole city and district is unitedly determined on this Warrior river matter, Delay and inaction have been tried for eight months since the completion of the river without material advantage to Br- mngham.
 | Birmingham for two-thirds of a year has pointed to the advantages about to accrue from the river, and has waited with patience and faith for the advan- tages to be realized
 But at last the business interests of the district as well as the citizens gener- ally have become aroused. The campaign of publicity is bearing fruit. The needs of the Birmingham district, as pointed out by Ned Brace in The Age-Herald Sun day morning, are the goal which has been set. For Birmingham to come into her own, for this district to realize the won derful advantages offered by the expen allure by the government of over s15,000, 900, a permanent highway to the Warrior and railroad connecting the river with the city must be built
 AGREE ON MAIN IDEA
 Whatever may be the view of the indi- vidual citizen as to the proper route to DG SGleClGu, WDdltNGI llldJ pC HIS iuCoo as to the part the county or the city should pay, whatever be his opinion as to the material out of which the highway should be constructed or the power which should be used to haul the trains of freight, all with one accord agree on the main ideas as advanced by Ned Brace in The ge-Herald Sunday.
 Of all the men in Alabama who have the right to discuss the Warrior river md has a claim than John H. Bankhead, United States senator. For more than q quar- ter of a century his dream has been the day when the Warrior river should be dotted from Mobile to Cordova with barges and boats carrying the commerce of the mineral district of Alabama to Che gulf ports.
 Piece by piece, his efforts, aided by other representatives from Alabama, saw the great work accomplished Ridiculed at first by the government engineers, turned down by republican congresses, the lock and dam system of the river was finally completed above Tuscaloosa. Then came I the Lock r, one of the greatest pieces of 1 engineering work ever done in the south, whose locks have lifts higher than those at Gatun on the Panama canal, and the river, navigable perennially, was brought to the front porch of Birmignham. Surely the government has done its part. BANKHEAD'S VIEWS In discussing the matter while in Bir- mingham yesterday, Senator Bankhead said "The government officials feel that the expenditures, running into many mill lions, made to make the river naVigable to the very doors of Birmingham, is all that could be asked in the way of federal aid.
 'The river is here and I know the peo- | r A1.l, ,y~I1 enough to realize that their inaction has been due to lack of organization rather than to any indifference of the advan- tages offered by the river. It is unneces- sary again to point out the advantages. They are so evident that no one will deny them. The only question now is how to realize them without further delay.
 ITO get the full benefits, it will be necessary to build a permanent highway from Birmingham to the river. Then there must or should be a railroad con meeting the river with the lines now oper- ating to the city limits. The volume of business which is here and which can ad- vantageously go down the river will jus tify these expenditures Other communi- ties have made much greater eXpendi- lures than those required for this work with only fraction of the possible ben efits. Birmingham is now a great and powerful district and is capable of doing big things. The quicker these big things are done, the sooner will Birmingham come into her own as the greatest dis trict in the nation.
 "The matter of details as to where the road shall run, how It shall be built, and how the railroad shall be constructed are for the people of this district to decide They should get together without further delay and put this matter through to it's completion. Every day of delay costs Bir- mingham much money. Each day of de- lay retards the increased prosperity and development of the district am glad to see that at last the people are thor oughly aroused over the situation They can now get together, map out their plans, and do the work It will be the greatest move in the history of Birming- ham,
 ]. D. BAUGH IN LINE
 J. D. Baugh, of Yeatman & Baugh, is in line with all the rest of the mer-