The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-25

possible.
 Such finding by the engineers has reen trapsmitted by Secretary Weeks of the war department, to the inter- state commerce commission with the recommendation that a tariff be pre- pared requiring railroads to recom- pense private competitors in sum rep resenting a fair value of the work done, plus a reasonable return on in- Nestments. It is also recommended that railroads be denied the right
 which at present they enjoy, of absorb ing the cost of terminal and wharfage charges in the transportation of car goes reaching port from overseas.
 The situation in the opinion of Sec- retary Weeks, constitutes serious menace to the American merchant ma rine, and in the opinion of the chief of engineers, would justify the govern ment in declining further to expend money in the development of ports and harbors which, on account of railroad monopoly, cannot function in a nor mal and natural manner.
 MOBILE FAVORED
 This is the situation as It exists at all ports on the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. It is regarded as of the utmost importance to Mobile, and since Mobile, by the Warrior river, is con
 nected with the coal fields of the Bir- mingham district, to the entire state of Alabama, that the interstate com n1erce commission quickly rectify an evil which handicaps development and preyentsS prosperous business, and might result in the withdrawal of fur ther financial support by the govern rent of the United States.
 The government, in this connection, it might be stated, has shown great favor to Mobile by deepening and pre-
 pairing further to deepen the channel, and quite recently by responding to the request of Senator Underwood in con- structing adequate coal terminals, and
 in the equipment of the port with fuel oil stations this as result of the ef- forts of Frederick l. Thompson of the United States shipping board. Judging from the statements of the chief Of engineers and the Secretary of War;
 Mobile cannot make general progress from it's present condition until the 7 tentacles of the railroads are pried loose. n
 I. c. C. TO HELP
 a There is little doubt but that the in-
 terstate commerce commission will, in
 response to the insistence of Secretary
 Weeks, make it possible by tariff regu-
 lation for private interests to earn a
 living return. It is anticipated by au-
 thorities that as result, new private
 capital will go into terminal and
 wharfage development, and it is the
 hope that the states, wherever possible,
 will take charge at all the ports so
 that everybody and every interest will receive fair consideration. This is Q direct and. specific recommendation by the corps of engineers. It is signifi-
 cant that the engineers and the secre-
 tary agree that the only obstacle in he way of splendid port development and the success of the merchant marine
 is that fairplay to private capital in- vested in port facilities, is denied.
 Secretary Weeks, in transmitting to
 the interstate commerce commission
 the result of the engineers investiga-
 tIon in port conditions, after stressing
 the fact that the commercial fleet
 must be operated as economically as |, possible, writes: 4s.
 "The chief of engineers points out
 that there are three forms of terminal control. These are: (a) Public, state or municipal; (b) railroad, and Co prl- vate At none of our ports is control under either one of these three heads. San Francisco and New Orleans have the nearest approach to complete pub lie control, but at all of our important ports there is some railroad control, and at many private terminals. Under
 present conditions of railroad opera
 tion, the railroads have no direct incen .
 tive to build or operate terminals such
 as would turn the SnlpS dTOuuu m the
 least practicable time. and even should
 such incentive exist, they are not now {, financially able to provide the costly \ wide piers and the expensive mechani-
 cal equipment necessary to the great
 est economy.
 MANY DIFFICULTIES "As will be seen from the attached manuscript, the tariff charges for ham, ding cargo over the railroad termi- nals at practically all South Atlantic | and Gulf ports are from one-fourth to ! one-haif the actual cost of performing g the work, and this is the amount that railroads allow private terminals for | such service performed by them. Un- | der such circumstances, privatei termi- l nals now in existence do mostly a ! warehousing business, or handle local l freight only. They cannot exist on the | railroad division for through overseas | business. Private capital cannot there |! fore be attracted to invest in such ter | mnals, nor can the large cities be ex- | pected to construct such terminals ie, I as sometimes happens. the situation | created by the railroads is such that it ! is certain in advance that an adequate return cannot be had with which to E amortize the bonded debt and that the K indirect gains are so seriously re- k strcted as not to counterbalance this t direct loss"
 K After urging that all terminals be N put upon a proper basis, the Secretary k continues: The difficulties of the K problem are no doubt considerable, but it is believed that this can be done in F some cases by revising the terminal ht tariffs so as. to be reasonably compen- satory for the service actually per N formed, thereby permitting privately |E owned terminals to be created and op- |t erated. In general however, the cfea- |l tion and operation of all terminals by N the local public authorities or by the N state constitute the best solution. and |s this course should Re adopted wherever IN --I ossble.''
 F PERTINENT FACTS
 Fl Secretary Weeks based his recon l, mendation to the interstate commerce K commission on the report by the engi. \ neers of their investigation of condi. | tions. Tn this report, the following N pertinent paragraph is included; ITO permit the free flow of com K merce through our ports. the obstacles II in the way of creating model terminals | must be removed and since the car ' riers themselves cannot be expected N 10 initiate the necessary reform prompt \ steps should be taken by the United U States. Two remedies have been sug \ sested: First, scale of termina X charges sufficient to cover the actua \ cost of the service, plus a reasopablt N return on the investment This would \ enable private terminals to operate i Y the railroads were obliged to pay then