The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-14

On the barge Birmingham, which leaves New Orleans today for Cor dOva, there will be larger vol ume of freight for the Georgia me- tropoIis than for Birmingham. This Is not the first instance of
 this kind, according to figures shown at the office of the federal manager, it being indicated that Atlanta shippers are coming to know the advantages of river traI- fic.
 The figures made public yesterday were very disquieting in view of a let ter received by Federal Manager De- Bardeleben from an official of the government waterways department. In thls connection. the government offi> lcial called attention to the small amount of freight being handled by these barges up stream. They have a capacity of l,500 tons with the river at a stage of six feet, which IS the lowest, but will be able to carry 2,S0o tons in high water, or when the miai- mum is raised to eight feet MAY LOSE FLEET In the letter, the fact that these barges carry only a few hundred tons upstream, utilizing only a fraction of the space, and that they are not called on to tow many barges, which they are 'cepable of doing, is clearly set forth. The letter contains the further intima- tion that it may be found advisable for the government to remove the large, fast and modern freight carriers to some other stream which offers a larger volume of traffic.
 Only the patronage of the mcr-
 chants and shippers of Birming-
 ham Is needed to make these trips
 of the big barges upstream meet
 the expectations of the govern
 ment and insure their permanent
 operation on the Warrior, said
 MT. DcBnrdelebcn.
 He promised the waterways officials that if they would construct these high grade boats that the patronage from Birmingham would be forthcoming up. stream. It is pointed out by MT. De- Bardeleben that the objections made in the past that the boats on the riveN could not handle hgh-grade freight without damage no longer holds good, as the Birmingham and other boats of her class on the river are better equip ped to handle the high-class merchan- disc than most of the railroads are. There are special closed compact- ments, which are reserved for .his high-class freight.
 ONLY 3O3 TONS
 Figures made public yesterday
 showed that the big seIf-propelI-
 ing barge wns to make the trip up
 stream from New Orleans with
 only about 3O3 tons of freight. Of
 this amount, Birmingham shippers
 were to receive only about 67 tons
 against more than 113 tons for Att
 Ianta. Chattanooga, which is on
 the Tennessee river, was receiving
 about 23 tons of coffee ny way of
 the Warrior river on this ship
 mcnt.
 Due to the congestion at the Port of Birmingham with large stores of man. ganese ore. the Birmingham will dock lat Cordova this trip.
 G. A. Mcdonald of Atlanta is recsiv, ing 30,000 pounds of rice on the Bir> mingham. and McCord- Stewart of .\t> lanta will get 1965o0 pounds of coffee.
 The Birmingham Grain company will receive 4,000 pounds of feedstuffs; Martin Biscuit company, 44.246 pounds of sugar; Heber Candy company, two shipments of sugar amounting to S4.> 97S pounds of sugar. D. Trucks of Ensley is receiving 800 pounds of rice. No other Birmingham firms are repre- sented among the consignees.
 The Gadsden Grocery company will receive 1,500 pounds of rice, and an>