The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-20
LOCAL. SHIPPERS PLATED OVER THE
 SELECTION OF PORT Terminals Should Be h. stalled in Birmingham District, States Mana
 ger DeBardeleben

'"The news is almost too good to be true" commented Henry T. DeBardele- ben, manager of transportation on the Warrior river, yesterday morning when asked for an expression on the dispatch from Washington stating the United States shipping board had selected Mo- bile as the port from which South American steamship line would sail yes sels.
 "we had been hoping for just such an announcement, but we knew other gull ports were making stenouous enorts to land the prize, and for the reason that Mobile was selected over all these our elation is much greater"
 MT. DeBardeleben stated that three tow boats and three self-propelled boats are now in the Warrior river service carrying good cargoes of coal
 south but nothing on the upriVer
 trips.
 With the exception of Tuscaloosa, no terminal facilities have been built at any place on the Warrior. not ex- cluding Mobile for the river traffic. Now that Mobile has been selected as the shipping boards gulf port, it be- hooves us to install terminals all along the river, and especially in the Bir- mingham district for the economical handling of general merchandise"
 Birmingham manufacturers and ship pers who are interested in the export trade. especially the South American trade, were very much elated over the decision of the shipping board. They professed to see in the not distant fu- ture an extensive trade built up be- tween Birmingham and south America, with shipments of coal iron steel and their products, and cement, chemicals and other products of this district go- ing southward, and Chilean nitrates, and ores from the west coast of South America making up returning car goes.
 The next step, or steps, to be taken to make this new steamship line a success, is the building of adequate terminals and coal storage plants at Mobile, and terminals on the Warrior near Birmingham. Birmingham mer- chants have guaranteed approximately 100000 tons of general merchandise to the river annually. but before this can be handled terminal facilities must be provided
 The terminals at Tuscaloosa will be ready for traffic tomorrow, but no joint rail and water rates through to Tus- caloosa have been authorized by the railroad administration.
 Several months ago a number of coal operators in Birmingham formulated plans for coal export corporation to handle export coal from the Birming-
 ham district. and they had gone so far
 as to have plans made for coal storage and hoist at Mobile Before they had been able to put their plans into effect Director General Hines of the United States railroad administration am nounced that in view of the fact that the government owned and was operat- ing the craft on the Warrior river it ought to own the terminal facilities. Following this announcement the men back of the proposed export coal corporation dropped the matter tenn /, porarily. pending further developments. Since then nothing has been done either ! by the railroad administration or the Birmingham promoters.
 While no definite date for the first sailings from Mobile to South America has been announced 1t is not likely that there will be any long delay in starting the service. Hence, it is essential that terminal facilities and storage houses l be erected al Mobile at the earliest pos sible moment to take care of the busi- ness that may reasonably be expected.