The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-01

, various charges, and as there will prob ably be as many as sixty ships engage ed in this commerce., these expenditures will represent an outlay in cash in New Or leans of $S.600.00o a year. It is one of several unexpected developments which have followed the opening of the Panama Canal that New Orleans, although some 5000 miles further from China than San Francisco, nevertheless should be de- vcloping a very large Oriental trade SEARCHING FOR OIL
 It is not impossible that within few months the prospectors may be found fr many parts of the United States searching for oil and in places where the existence of oil has hitherto not been suspected. Even in Connecticut drilling Is, or was recently, in progress in the belief that oil would at last be found although at considerable depth below the Surface.
 There comes from the First National Bank of Clio, s. C., a report telling of evidences recently obtained of the ex. istence of oil in that part of the state Of South Carolina The experts whose attention was called to an outflow of a greasy substance W th an odor similar to that Of crude oil which took place on farm near Clio reported against the kroosoiiity of any commercially available deposits of oil there. Nevertheless com ponies have recently been orqani7ed charters secured, machinery purchased and early in-May drilling will take place The incident illustrates the persistent search for oil in new fields which is now in progress all over the country. Ii calls to mind the energy and patience of pros tec1ors who Tor years after the discov- cry of gold in California searched here and there in the hope of finding gold as they did in some instances as. for in stance, in the far northwest and Colo ra6o.
 So t is certain that if there he ra- sources of oil hitherto unsuspected hut existing in any part of the United States tnese Will De discovered and exploited For 1t Is now vital to the oil industry of the United States that new produc- tion be secured if possible, for in any event we must import crude oil from Mexico.
 COL. COLTS PREDICTION
 Early in 1919 Col Samuel F. Colt, who is president of the United States Rubber company, said in private conversation that in a few years more than half tba transportation of commodities from one pace to the other in the United States Will be formed by motor trucks. Colonel Colt must have had within the last year sufficient evidence to justify him in now making public this prediction For he has said to his stockholders that the auto truck ana the auto bus are now al- ready carrying on a business which in the aggr egate is far in excess of anvthine 2. tne public suspects were the case. Hun dreds of trucks make long distance hauls. They come into New York from as far west as Akron, Ohio, and as far east as Portland Me. heavily laden, and they take cut equally heavy cargoes Colonel Colt says that forty trucks took tire fab- rics from the cotton mills in Rhode Isl- and to manufacturers in Ohio, of which tires are the output. There are dernon- stralions every Gay made to those who live whhin the vicinity of New York and upon the main highways of the mag nitude of the transportation by the mo- tor trucks. When the highways of the country are mace adequate so that traffic over them will be as easy as over the rails, then. i'll the opinion of Colonel Colt, freight will move more and more by rub Der she q vehicles and less and less by cars which run over fixed steel track.