Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-07-10
HOw South Atlantic Ports
Can SOlpe a Big Problem

The traffic needs which confront the country
now and which certain to become more form1d-
able as our war activities develop emphasize anew
the Importance of a larger utilization of South
Atlantic ports.
At Eastern ports the congestion of ocean
bound freight is frequently so serious as 10 Cd
struct transportation for hundreds OF miles INTO
the interior. Time and again during the past TWO
years thousands upon thousands of carloads OF
freight have been tied on railway lines leading
to eastern ports-not only freight Dor foreign
shipment but for domestic well, so that the
publics immediate and vital interests were in
yolved The delay and confusion thus caused are
distressing enough within themselves but the
harm does not end there. The congestion in the
East keeps out of active use thousands OF freight
cars which properly belong to other parts of the
country and which are sorely needed. Authorities
say that on the trunk lines north of the Potomac
and Ohio rivers there upwards of one hun
dred thousand box more than owned by
those lines; meanwhile the Southeastern roads
lack some twenty-five thousand of what they
own and urgently need. Thus the South and the
West as we'll as the North and East suffer N cor
sequence of the attempt to cram into the Eastern
ports commerce than can be handled there.
Unless this inefficient policy is abandoned and
Southern ports are utilized more largely as outlets
for transatlantic shipments, conditions will grow
insuferable, for new and greater needs are crowd
ing rapidly upon The movement of foodstuHs,
muritons and other necessaries from the in
terror to the ports will be greater because hence
forward the American army in France we'll as
the Allies will demand steady stream of supplies.
The assembling and distribution of the troops
among the army camps and posts will be an ex-
acting task. Exacting, too, will be the construc
ton of the sixteen environments in which the
army of six hundred and fifty thousand Seectmen
are to be trained. This work requires twenty-one
thousand carloads of lumber, much of which must
be moved long distances On top of these extraor-
binary demands will come the task of moving the
crops which promise 20 be particularly heavy this
year. Obviously, there must be prompt and Wig
preparations to care for these imperative
and ever-growing needs the country's interests,
military and commercial alike, will suffer acutey.
In so far as the problem is of congested
mort terminals in the East. it be solved, or
greatly smplifed, by routing more foreign-bOuEd
freight through South Atlantic ports 1t is mat
ter of common observation that the facilities at
Savannah ard Brunswick, for example, have not
been taxed in the entire of the war and
that the railroads of this region have not been
congested like those Of the North and East. Fur
Their ir the South harbors are more accessible:
winter does not interfere with shipping operations;
and labor conditions satisfactory. Stu
dents of transportati0n port out the interesting
fact that "the distances from the principal ship
ping points north of the Ohio to Savannah and
Brunswick are but little greater than to eastern
ports" and that it is Altogether practicable Ito
handle freight from the Pittsburg district, for ex-
port to Europe, through Savannah and Bruins