New-York tribune., 1921-11-05
Industrial Canal, Bringing
Gulf 90 Miles Nearer, to
Open April l, With Firms
Ready to Use Facilities
Cotton Revival Helps ALI
Crescent City Has Only 10
Idle, and Building of
Modest Homes Is Active
BY Mcrryle Stanley Rukcyser

L
quaint metropolis of the South is
building it's hopes on the solid founda-
tion of revolution in its shipping ia
cilities.
The new Industrial canal, which may
prove to be the Manchester Shin Canal
of America, will begin to function next
April, and eventually will bring this
city sixty miles nearer TO the Gulf Of
Mexico. Moreover, it will open up
eleven and half miles of new water
frontage to private enterprise The
International Harvester Company is
the first of the Northern corporations
to avail itself of the new facilities. 1t
will spend several millions in the con-
struction of warehouses and the build
ing Of sisal plant. 1t expects to ship
products from its Chicago factories to
THIS port down the Mississippi on GOV
ernment barges. Two other equally
well known corporations have begun
negotiations for sites.
The key to the point Of view of men
OF business here was given by Rudolph
Hecht, president of the Hibcrnia Bank
and Trust Company, who is one OF the
keenest analysts Of conditions, not only
in the South, but in the nation.
Speaks From knowledge Of City
II have lived in New Orleans" he
remarked. "for fifteen years, and have
always been optimistic about the city.
but't have never been more SO than at
present"
Most business men arc optimistic be-
cause it is good policy. Mr.. Hccht
bases his rosy predictions on concrete
facts, the development that he expects
from the industrial canal, the stimulus
from resumption OF barge transports
tion down the Mississippi, which costs
only 80 per cent as much as railroad
freight, and the possibilities of max
ing New Orleans free port, where
aliens may bring goods for manufac-
sure and raw materials for refining for
re-export without having to pay i'm
pert duties. An act that would ac-
complish this has been introduced into
Congress. Mr.. Hecht is head of tho
Port Commission which will admin
lister the canal and receive applica-
tions for long-term leases along the
new water front. He and his asscci-
ates were appointed by Governor
Parker.
New Orleans believes that it was
blessed by being denied war boom.
This IS obviously hind sight, but the
district was spared the terrific rcac-
tion which came to the war babies"
which withered and perished under the
conditions
New Orleans. which feels acutely
downward fluctuations in Southern
agriculture, has not been without its
troubles, but the depression here,
though real, was invisible. There was
no precipitate closing of factories, as
in Detroit; no Wholesale casting of
workingmen into armies of the unem-
ployed, as in Akron. Outwardly, dur
ing the reaction Of the last year, the
city remained placid The effects Of the
states were revealed in the congested
conditions os the banks, which kept
renewing loans to customers unable to
liquidate them and often unable to pay
interest. BY the collapse OF cotton
prices from ~ cents to 10 cents
pound the South was deprived to a
great extent OF it's purchasing power
Cotton Begins Upward Turn
Southern states which are not wholly
dependent on cotton. There has been
an effective diversiic&tion Of the crops
but at the beginning of this year
Louisiana had diversity Of crops, each
Of which was unstable and Of fast
shrinking market value. There seemed
to be no bottom to the pit into which
prices had fallen. Late in August an
event was recorded on the cotton eX-
changes which turned night into day
misery into happiness. depression into
enthusiasm. Prices at the market pla ce
Of the staple OF the South, under the
stimulus Of an unprecedentcdly small
crop. began to climb. Soon cotton was
quoted at 81 cents pound, and forth
with Dixie was transformed. The great
carry-over of cotton from last year
more than doubled in value, and bank
loans against it became amply pro-
tected. The movement of the com
modify started, and farmers began to
pay off their loans at the country banks
and to the merchants. The country
banks started to discharge their debts
to the iinanciers, and the lifeblood
began to flow once more through the
hitherto congested veins of the sec
ton.
In New Orleans liquidation has been
greatly accelerated in the last sixty
days, and the ordinary banks are bor-
rowing only third Of their indebted
ness year ago at the Federal Reserve
Bank at Atlanta. Moreover, the vast
shrinkage In deposits has been checked
and a rebound upward started.
This district also has been helped by
a similar Improvement in rice, which
40 d1iVAAt, CAC 1IcSC important o. tne
secondary crops Of the commonwealth.
Rice is now quoted up to the pre-war
normal and is in active demand
Europe's Plight Hurts South
The only important retarding factor
is common to the entire Union, shrink
ing foreign trade and the uncertainty
regarding the ability of Europe to
maintain even its present curtailed pur-
chasing power. The South is especially
concerned with the somersaults of the
mark. the pound sterling and the franc.
for ordinarily 40 per cent Of its cotton
crop is shipped abroad. Because raw
materials Of an essential character pass
through this port mainly, however.
New Orleans has lost less foreign traf-
fic relatively than other large ports, &C
cording to figures vouched for by the
Association OF Commerce.
In the year ended June 80 1921, when
the country as whole showed a loss
of "a par cent in export and import
values compared with the previous
year, New Orleans lost only per cent
Galveston lost z per cent. Philadelphia
Fl per cent, New York 90 per cent, San
Francisco So per cent Boston 81 per
cent and Seattle SIS per cent. These
percentages represent dollars. and the
loss is ascr;bed partly to the decline in
prices.
in spite Of the cur.ailment since July
in foreign trade and the consequent
quietude along the river front, the city
has only z per cent unemployed, a nor