The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-26
For the Good of
 the Community

M ORTHERN trunk railway lines which center in the ports of New York, Philadelphia and Boston have ap- pealed to the interstate commerce com mission to permit the withdrawal of the export rates through southern ports. They have enjoyed a monopoly of the expor5 and import traffic so long that they look upon 1t as their own personal property.
 Like the pampered boy that ate the apple and cried because a ragged boy ate the discarded core, these big eastern roads having hogged the country's bdsi- ness for half century, now begrudge the slight trade that is coming southward for export through Mobile, New Orleans, Pensacola, Tampa, Savannah, Charleston and other ports on the gulf and the south Atlantic
 Will the interstate commerce conamis- sion let them have their way this time? It will unless the business and shipping in terests in the south unite and protest vigorously.
 The export rates through southern ports are no lower, approximately, than are the rates through the north Atlantic ports. There is no inequity in them. The southern ports are entitled to at least part of the foreign trade shipments
 There is no good economic reason why Birmingham products should go by rail to Baltimore or Philadelphia or New York for transhipment across the seas The dis tance to any of these ports is several times that to Mobile, or Pensacola or New Orleans, or even Savannah or Jackson vile
 The grades from the central to the southern ports are less than to the eastern ports, and the distance is considerably less.
 When the war came on and enormous quantities of war supplies had to be shipped to France the facilities at New ' ork, where most of the supplies were as- sembled, were found to be entirely in- adequate. Congestion resulted and long delays in starting the supplies across the waters followed
 In the emergency the government un- dertook to provide port facilities at south ern coast cities and to divert part of the shipments through these Had the war lasted another year it is probable that a great percentage of government ship ments would have gone through these southern ports. But it ended before port facilities could, be completed. To the end fthe war the New Y ork harbor and term lnals were horribly congested.
 Suspension of government shipment of SUD- plles relieved the congestion at New York and i'm mediatey New York and the big eastern trunk lines began agitation against further develop ment of southern ports. The most effectiverwav to stop these was the cancellation of export and Import rates through these ports
 Export and import rates have been in effect through southern ports ever since such rates be- came effective in any other part of the country But prior to the war there was little use of them. Hence, the eastern roads and New Fork paid no attention to them.
 It different now, with shipping board allocat- ing some of it's best vessels to the southern ports and considerable part of the export and import business passing through them. This is taking business from New York and reducing the rev enues of the big eastern roads
 The manufacturers and the merchants and the shippers in the south and the middle west who ex- pect to build up a good foreign trade are vtay interested in the gulf and south Atlantic ports They cannot afford to see them hamstrung by the eastern lines and New York.
 They can prevent it if they will, but to do so they must show the interstate commerce commits