Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-12-20
Ships for Peace Commerce
And for Southern Ports.

y OUTHERN interests, in common with
those of the entire country, have
cause for hearty satisfaction in the
announcement from Washington that the
War Department will turn over in the imme-
diate future, for commercial shipping, YES
sells representing approximately million tons
Of cargo space which heretofore have been
/ ingrosseG in military transportation. Further
more, as the needs of our eXpeditiOnary forces
gradually decrease, additional tonnage will
be placed at the disposal of the Shipping
Board so that, in the words of the Washing
ton statement, the American merchant
marine viii soon reach unprecedented carry
ing capacity"
Something of what this means to business
interests, particularly those of this region,
will be appreciated by all persons who expert
enced or observed the hardships caused by
dearth of shipping facilities during the war
period The SOuths distressing problems in
the autumn and winter of 19t4-1915, when
| cotton begged a market at bankrupt prices
and no one dared predict what a season would
bring forth, resulted largely from lac of
ocean tonnage; for if means of transportation
then had been available, the Entente Allies
would have taken most of the surplus of the
cotton crop, thereby assuring at least a fair
measure o. Southern prosperity. AS the war
| went on and British control of the seas guar
anteed security on the transatlantic lanes,
| shipping D. oblems grew simpler and the bust
! ness conditions involved in them improved.
| Still, there has never been Since the late sum-
mer of 1914-a supply of meEehant-tonnage
! adequate to the needs of trade Hence the
material Importance of the War Department.
1 present announcement. The release of a mill
| lion tons of shipping from military service
will widen and stimulate the market of a
nm ,hov Of l,foI
| been sorely restricted and will increase the
| volume of business at all American ports.
Particularly will this be true of the lower
| Atlantic and Gulf ports. The value of these
| outlets as a means of relieving the congestion
| tier, terminals has been demonstrated
most strikingly in the course of the war.
| When the Government took charge of the
railroads last winter it found matters in this
aspect acutely serious. Persistence in The
! short-sighted policy of attempting to crowd
! the bulk of a continents commerce through
one or two Northeastern ports had eliminated
in conditions that threatened the success of
the entire system of war shipping. Along
railway lines leading to those ports, thousands
of cars of freight were tied up not infrequent-
ly for weeks together while the congestion at
wharves and docks seemed well-nigh hope
| lessly bewildering. The chief concern, of
course, was for war shipping, but ordinary
business also was critically involved not the
business of the North and East alone, but of
the entire country, because the congestion of
traffic in the former regions would keep out
of service thousands Of cars which belonged
elsewhere Thus it was conservatively
reckoned at the time of our entrance into the
war that on the trunk lines north of the POto-
mac there were upwards of a hundred thou
sand box cars more than were owned by those
lines, while Southeastern roads lacked some
twenty-tiv thousand cars of their rightful
and urgently needed number 1t was, accord
ingly, foregone that the Federal Railroad Ad-
ministratOn, being empowered to make and
execute traffic rulings which the railways
could not have adopted under private control,
would order a diversion of certain kinds and
amounts of EurOpe-bOund shipping to South
ern ports. AS far as it has been tried this
policy has proved so advantageous to all in
terests concerned that It's continuance and
development are almost inevitable.
Certain it is that the products of the South
can be exported to better advantage, as a
rule, by way of Southern outlets than through
those a thousand miles or more to the north
especially when the latter are glutted with
| cargoes from other sections. There is no
| basic reason, indeed, why grain exports from
! the West and Middle West, intended for Eu-
ropean points, should not be routed through
the ocean terminals of the South. Savannah
and Brunswick are well situated for this pUr-
pose. Served by trunk lines with uninter-
rupted connections with the grain country and
! provided with excellent docks and wharves,
] these ports will be of continually increasing
! importance to the Nation as we'll as to the
! South. With the great accession Of ocean
! tonnage promised by the release of war ship
ping and with the steadily widened use Of its
ports, the South can confidently look forward
to an era of rich production and prosperity.