The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-11-05

teens with trade from all quarters ,
 Where the copper oolored native once brought his wampum and corn to trade for the pale skins weapons and firewater, the south now swaps its cotton. iron and steel for the lux uries and necessities of the outer world.
 Iron and steel rails, wire fence, nails. coal and cotton are carried by federal barges down the Mulberry and Locust forks of the Warrior river to Lock IT pool where they are car ried down by other boats to Mobile and thence out into the world. 70
 Barters With World
 The same boats which carried the barges down from. Cordova and Bir- mingport, having disposed of their burden, hook Onto barges that have beens brought upstream from San Francisco, Bridgeport, Valparaiso, Hongkong and wherenot These barges are laden with canned goods, merchandise, sulphur, manganese ore and other commodities needed by the south. Thus the south literally bar ters with the rest of the world, just as did it's aboriginal predecessor In less modern days.
 Much progress has been brought by the federal government in making of the Warrior a navigable and a com mercially usable stream. Barges op- erated by the government ply regu- larly up and down stream and are, in fact, the only ones that do so.
 It was in 1918 that the war depart ment perceived the advantages to be gained in expediting war shipments by operating line of barges on the Warrior and the Mississippi rivers. Boats were put into operation on these streams. and following the war have been continued as a service to the public.
 Not many people realize fully the advantages at the door of Birming- ham in Warrior river transportation.
 Paid Good Returns
 The Mississippi end of the system has paid good returns, but up until the last few months shipments on the Warrior were confined to an occa- sional load of coal or of cotton. Within recent months. however, Bir- mingham and other Alabama towns have awakened to the financial ad- vantages of using Warrior transpor- tation. While that system has not yet gotten on the right side of the ledger, the months of August, Sep- tember and October showed such gi- gantic strides in the volume of busi- ness until it may now be said that practically every kind of commodity imported and exported by the south is carried over that route.
 All the craft at the command of the Warrior system is in constant use, and a program is under consider ation for enlarging it. One great step has inst bAaY, falxaf1 tn rfiliztop 1ora efficiently the present equipment; it is the making of switching yard' at Taylor's ferry, at the junc- tion of the Mulberry and the Locust forks of the river.
 Two Terminals
 Cordova, the terminal on the Null berry fork, Is 39 miles from Taylor's ferry ard Birmingpart, on the Lo- cust branch, Is 19 miles. Formerly it had been necessary for tow boats carrying barges to these two termi- nals to lose two or three days in go- ing up to one, return to the junction and swinging about and going up to the other terminal.
 This lost time is obviated now by the use of a switching engine"--a tow boat which operates to and fro in the forks of the river, delivering barges brought upstream and. de- posted at the junction of the forks by the upstream towboats. The tow boat to be used for this purpose steamed up Saturday from New Or leans, and was put into active serv- ice at once. It is called the Scott" and It's coterie of barges and auxil- iary boats that will lay in at Taylor's ferry will be Known as "Scott's Fleet" This will be a veritable break and makeup" yard for freight coming up and going down stream.
 Upstream Traffic
 From three to four days will be saved by the new system on each boat trip up from New Orleans and Mobile, officials said Saturday. This will enable more efficient use of present craft.
 One of the problems confronting the Warrior system is balancing up- stream traffic with downstream. Con- stant increase in the upstream trade is reported by officials, however and hope is expressed that it will soon equal the ton mileage going down from Cordova, Birmingham and other towns upstream. When that point is reached. the proposition will be near paying basis. 1t is believed.
 The cost of bringing an empty barge up from Mobile is practically the same as that to bring a full cargo.
 Another problem--and not one of business-that the Warrior officials have experienced is one of manip- ulating the boats. With no wireless stations on the river it has been necessary to route instructions by way of Memphis, where they are sent over one of the Mississippi radio sta- tions,
 Radio Stations A telephone line is being ss<ab- lished between Birmingham and Bir- mingport. however, and radio stations will soon be erected at that terminal and at Mobile. This will make pos