Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-04-25
The Ports of the Southeast.

Interests far wider and more important
than those of any one region are involved in
the plea which spokesman of the South At
lantic Maritime Association are to make
Thursday before the United States Shipping
Board. This recently formed Association
representing the five principal sea gates of
the Southeastern tier of States, is seeking to
have allotted to those ports a sufficient num-
Der of ships from the Government-built mer-
chant marine to handle their foreign COM
merce, particularly that with Latin-America
and the West Indies.
The cities and States Immediately con-
cerned-Wilming Charleston Savannah,
Brunswick and Jacksonville-have vast
deal at stake. If they are to secure their
rightful share of the overseas trade which is
to play so decisive a part in future prosperity,
they must have adequate ocean-carrying facil-
tiles. When one considers how vital bear
ing that trade has upon manufacturing ana
all fields of productive enterprise, it is plain
that the interior cities have cause to be just
as deeply interested as the ports. Suppose,
for example, the West Indian and Latin
American markets should be seized by the
well-organized exporters of the North Atlantic
and the Gulf States to the virtual exclusion
of the Southeast; this regions every material
interest would suffer in consequence, and
suffer grievously. Hence the Importance of
the movement, launched at recent confer
ence in Atlanta, to organize a League of
Cities, through which the common welfare
of both the coast and the inland can be con-
served and promoted in the vital matter Of
overseas commerce. Atlanta is as keenly in
terested as Savannah or Brunswick in the sue
cess of this enterprise; her future is as widely
involved; and her measure of cooperation,
we dare say, will be correspondingly full and
enthusiastic.
But the interests of the common country as
well of this region bound up in the
plea which the South Atlantic Maritime Asso-
aio iC 70 hpfn fho Fodo
ping Board. OF all the lessons of our war
experience, none is palmer than that which
has taught the unwisdom, indeed the positive
peril, of attempting to cram the Europe
bound commerce Of the entire continent
through a few North Atlantic outlets. For
years past there has been a serious problem
in the traffic congestion at ports like Boston,
New York and Philadelphia. Time and again
on railway lines leading to those terminals
thousands of cars of freight have been tied
up-not only goods for foreign shipment, but
for domestic consumption as we'll, so that the
public's most pressing needs were involved
Moreover, this congestion in the Northeast
kept out Of service great numbers of cars
which belonged to other sections. It was
conservatively reckoned, for instance, at the
time of Americas entrance into the World
war, that on the trunk lines north of the
Potomac there were upwards OF one hundred
thousand box cars more than were owned by
those lines, whilst Southeastern roads lacked
owned and urgently needed.
Always Instantaneous, these conditions
became highly dangerous when they inter-
fered with the supremely important business
of winning the war. The Federal Railroad
Administration perceived at the very outset Of
it's duties that something should be done to
relieve the glut of traffic at Northeastern
ports; and every broad-vsioned student OF
national problems saw that the whole coun>
trys welfare was involved. Now, the fact
that the ended sooner than was expected
and that accordingly transportation problems
are for the present somewhat less acute does
not reduce the Importance of providing a
remedy against those troublous conditions 1t
is as essential as ever that the nations COM
mon interests be safeguarded against the in
efficient practice of trying to crowd into the
North Atlantic terminals more commerce than
they can handle.
An obvious remedy lies in utilizing more
largely than heretofore the convenient and
ample ports of the Southeast. Certainly all
transatlantic business originating in the
Southeast can be handled more expeditiously
and more economically through these ports,
with the shorter rail haul, than through the
PARKWAY North Atlantic outlets. 1t is a
= matter of common observation that the dis
tances from the principal shipping points
north of the Ohio to Savannah and Brunswick
are but little greater than to the over-crowd-
ed ports of the North. Competent students of
the problem tell us, indeed, that there is no
good reason why grain consignments from the
West and Middle West, intended for European
points, should not be routed through the
ocean terminals of the Southeast. Savannah
and Brunswick are accessibly situated are
served by railways lines having uninterrupted
connection with the West and are provided
with excellent docks and wharves as we'll as
with magnificent harbors. All the other i'm
portant ports of the South Atlantic-Jackson-
Charleston n q oil