The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-11
TUSCALOOSA MAY
 BE TERMINUS OF
 |NTERURBAN LINE
Town Greatly Interested in Proposed Electric Road From Birmingham to
 Warrior River
By JOHN TIPPEN

Tuscaloosa, November n.--(Special) The announcement of the organization of a corporation which will construct an interurban line from Birmingham to the Warrior river, with the almost si- multaneous announcement of the ex- pected beginning of shipbuilding at Mo- bile on an extensive scale, together r5sh the visit of H. M. Gassman, chief engineer of the proposed rapid transit line to Tuscaloosa last week, has natu- rally caused much speculation here as to whether or not Tuscaloosa will be the point on the Warrior to which the new line will be built
 Is Tuscaloosa to bc ono of the terrni xals Of the rapid transit line which will extend from Birmingham to the War rior river? That Is the question that is agitating the minds of many here just now, and the logical answer seems 60 be yes
 Win tho Magic City be directly con- nected with Alabamas only gulf port by an interurban line from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa, and by the Warrior from Tuscaloosa to Mobile? This question is being freely discussed in Tuscaloosa at the present time, although no definite announcement has as yet been made by
 
 Development company. promoter of the enterprise.
 Chief Engineer Gass1nan was accom- panied on his trip to Tuscaloosa by !. M- Cunningham, 8 hydro-electric en- gineer. These gentlemen conferred at length with industrial leaders of this community, and. although they gave out no statement st this time, seems most significant.
 While freight Is shipped to and from Mobile by way of the Warrior at the rate of thousands of tons monthly. the building of an interurban line for haul- ing freight from Birmingham to Tusca- loost would increase the amount han elled over the Warrior between this city and Mobile probably 1o0-fold.
 Whether or not the proposed line will terminate at Tuscaloosa. there Is good be constructed in the future will be built to this city. for, according to statements made by officers Of the new interurban corporation, 1t Is their ulti- mate plan to connect Birmingham with other sections of the state by the con struction of number of rapid transit lines. How soon the work of construc- tion will begin cannot be forecast, but should this plan be carried out it is almost certain that one of these pro- posed lines, if not the first one, will be built to Tuscaloosa.
 No action in the matter has been taken yet either by the Tuscaloosa Board of Trade or tho Mobile Cham Der of Commerce, although the advan- tage to both these cities by the con- struction of such line from Birming- ham to Tuscaloosa are obvious.
 As an example of tho amount of freight handled between Mobile and Tuscaloosa, via the Warrior, the fol- lowing summary issued by the local government engineer for the month of October is cited:
 Freight coming up, exclusive of that of the government, 1867 tons govern nent freight coming up, 252 tons.
 Freight going down, exclusive of that of the government. 14,251 tons; govern ment freight going down, HOT tons.
 Total freight, to and from Mobile dur ing October. 176iS tons; total govern ment freight during October. 1859 tons
 Coal led in tonnage in Warrior river shipments last month, total of more than 12,S00 tons being handled, with logs second with q tonnage of 4104 tons.
 Almost every kind of merchandise was shipped via the river route during last month between Mobile and Tusca- loosa. Tho principal articles on the were cement, corn. cotton, crossties, hay. hardware, manufactured steel and iron mixed feed, oats, oil packing house products, stone, store bolts, gen eral miscellaneous, naval stores, brick, coal, logs and lumber.
 The number Of passenger boats mak- ing the trip between the two cities last month was four; number of tow boats, B; number of barges 124; small craft, 8; rafts, {; United States boats, B.
 With the above amount of traffic un- der present conditions, 1t does not take a. very strong imagination to conceive tho phenomenal increase which would Immediately follow the construction of the proposed rapid transit line so as to