The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-19
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

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 future if she could control the Rhine to the sea.
 We who have been down the beautiful Blue Danube from Vienna to the Black sea know what it would mean to Aus .tria if she could use it as her very own. If Germany could utilize the Rhine and in position to dominate central Europe,
 It seems unbelievable that here in Ala bama we have let the Warrior find it's way to the gulf carrying but a negligible load of coal and the bottoms in which it was sent coming back empty instead of filled with all kinds of merchandise.
 After weary years of waiting and after millions have been spent it now looks as if the Warrior would be taken out of the list of rivers upon which appropriations have been spent without doing any one any special good and made a part in a great transportation system which will quicken not only the river trade in Tus- caloosa and other towns, but will be an outlet and an inlet for the vast tonnage which flows out and into the Birming- ham district.
 Never before has the outlook been so bright, for at least it appears water transportation is to be linked up with rail transportation by interests which have no desire to throttle the former in order to protect the latter. It is not my wish to open any old sores or to pass Judgment on the acts of the rail- road carriers, but I do think it means much to this district and to Alabama that at last the Warrior is to be treated on its merits.
 I think few realize just how fraught with meaning was the recent visit of the official party representing the govern ment. Major George Little is an old friend of the Warrior and knows its value. I was glad to learn from those who made the trip to lock F that the other representatives, Messrs. A J. Ma cSii e%iio SiieliiCo LoOHlcCcuy were greatly impressed and returned to Washington with facts upon which to act./
 
 I am not surprised that the Washing ton representatives were amazed at the possibilities of the Warriors development. trip with Secretaries Baker, Houston and Lane. I had not thought of the Warrior as anything but an opportunity for get ting government appropriations. It had not entered into my thinking that 1t was really meant to be used for freighting purposes only in mild and desultory way.
 The trip with the secretaries, however, did not take me as far as Lock 17. I got my first glimpse of the really stupendous work, which the government had com pleted when the Tuscaloosa Rotarians gave us the famous river trip, in which my preacher friend, Dr. Lang of Annis- ton, and I were put through the third de- gree.
 If anyone has any doubt that the Warrior is capable of becoming great waterway, upon which the tonnage of the mineral district of Alabama can find an outlet to the ocean, or that the gov errment did temporary work in it's ex- penditures just take trip to, Lock r and be staggered. for I was literally overwhelmed at the size of the great dam and the magnitude of the locks.
 Millions having been poured into the river, do not believe that now the gov ernment is tremendously interested in the moving of freight that the money spent will be allowed to be of little use for lack of barges and boats and docks Warrior will be alive with water crafts of all kinds doing it's part in relieving the congestion of the rails.
 The DeBardelebens deserve credit for having the daring to try the river out under difficulties and stake their money in pioneering in delivering coal in bot lCnlS to SulI pOTtS. tdhe OH ny Ndv to all who made an effort in spite of big handicaps to solve a problem which means much for the future of Birming- ham coal and iron and her finished products.
 If the government party felt that the trip was worth while and that they were on hot trail to relieve the over ourdened railroads and release freight ears, and lift embargoes, and speed up the moving of coal and munitions, I am sure from the talks that I have had with the local gentleman who went with them that they came back home as War rior river boosters.
 It's up to us to be willing not merely to give to the Red Cross. the Army Young Mems Christian association, the Salvation Army huts, and other humani- tarian war activities; to buy liberty bonds and lick thrift stamps-but it's up to us to put our power behind the move- ment to make the Warrior the great highway of traffic in and out of this great district.
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