The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-05
Shippers of City Prepare to Fight Road and Its Re- turn to Narrow Methods of a Past and Dead Regime

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 part of railroads to throttle
 traffic on that stream.
 Henry T. DeBardeleben charges that the Frisco railroad officials have re- | pudiated an agreement made with him
 and Theodore Brent. general manager | of the Mississippi Warrior system, on ! July S1 in the city of St. Louis This repudiation of agreement he charges, consists in a telegram from the railroad officials to Mfr. Brent in which the railroad company declares its intention not to interchange freight with the river management at the Cor dova river terminal but at the rail- 1 road station at Cordoya.
 This says MT DeBardeleben, is di- rect repudiation of the agreement of l July 3, when the railroads officials | said they would prepare contracts for an interchange of freight at the river | terminals. This agreement, says MT. :, DeBardeleben, was personally renewed l in his office as late as July 15 by G. W. Green, industrial commissioner of l the Frisco system, who was party to the St Louis conference, when the original agreement to interchange freight at the river side was solemnly entered into.
 Mir. DeBardeleben points out that this. apparent change of heart comes
 with all the more i'll grace in that 1t is directly on the heels of the govern ment's generous award of advanced rates to the railroads.
 EAT UP DIFFERENTIALS The effect of the repudiation of the agreement, if submitted to by the river interests and tolerated by the state public service commission and the in terstate commerce commission, will be the levying of switching charges at Cordova by the Frisco. These charges would amount to s5 to s10 per car of freight and would eat up the 20 per cent differential under the all-rai rates for transportation via the War
 rior. In fact it would tend to put
 the port of Cordova out of business by
 withdrawing the advantage for ship
 ping via Cordova-
 Not only this" said Mir. DeBardele-
 ben, discussing the matter but if this
 thing is allowed to stand at Cordova,
 the next move would be on the Port
 of Birmingham and the differentials
 allowed there for water movement will
 be likewise swallowed up in switching charges One railroad company is not
 going to cit by and lose an advantage
 that another railroad has secured.
 III the preceOent sought to uc established by the Frisco system at Cordova is suffered to stand, then it is good-by to the whole Warrior river transportation pro- ject. If the Warrior is allowed to be snuffh out. it will be another long and sad farewell to transpor- tation by inland waterways" Charles F. Wood, engineer in charge of the building of the Port of Birming- ham terminals, said:
 I-ALL DEPENDS ON WARRIOR The Warrior river inland water way transportation is easily the most practical and feasible in the United States. The eyes of the nations trans portation experts are fastened on the Warrior. If that succeeds, other in land waterways. will be developed If 1t is throttIed, it is death to inland waterways development, because none can succeed if the Warrior does not.
 .I have not the slightest idea that the interstate commerce. com mission will stand for this action of the Frisco, but we do not wish the delay that would be incident to Iong-drawn out legal fight. At the same time, if the Frisco
 thinks 1t is going to put over this
 piece of brigandage it is barking up the wrong tree.
 "The transportation act of 1920 espe-
 cjally provides for equally Just treat
 ment of waterways and railroads and
 pledges the government against the encroachment of either on the others interests It looks to me very much like onesof the old railroad tricks put
 over with Frisco as the convenient goat, but with other railroad systems
 just around the corner and egglng on
 the Frisco"
 MT. DeBardeleben points out that
 the transportation act gives the inter state commerce commission the au- thority to fix points of interchange or freight, and he has no doubt that 1t will decide in favor of the river inter ests in the Cordova case if it is neces- sary to bring it there. He said:
 REPUTATION OF AGREEMENT "It all came to a head when we asked the Frisco system to put in system of 500 feet of sidetracks in or der to reach our derrick at Cordova- They kept delaying us, but on July 5. in st. Louis, Vice Presidents Alex Hil- ton and Thomas A. Hamilton and ln- dustrial Commissioner Green of the Frisco agreed to put in the sidetracks and to exchange freight With us on the river bank. This new proposition 1 is an absolute change of front ana re- pudiation of an agreement with MT. Brent and myself.
 Tn my opinion it is the first shot at the Warrior system by the railroad Interests and Port of Birmingham. and all other river points will likewise pc put out of business if the attempt at Cordova succeeds.
 '.The' repudiation of this solemn agreement came to me as thunder- clap. I am still amazed. or course we will not stand for it. but all BIT mingham and all Alabma should rise to a man and woman and let the Fris- co system know what they think about it."
 The Port of Birmingham is not in- volved at present. There the station on the Ensfey Southern was erected by the Port of Birmingham Company, and is joint agency of river and rail interests. So far the Southern Rail- road has co-operated with the Port