Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-23
GEORGIA Ports and the West
generally appreciated fact that Georgia
4 T is commercially Important though not


generally appreciated fact that Georgia
ports are nearer the shipping centers of
the West than is New York. Savannah is one
hundred and three miles nearer Denver one
hundred and twenty-five miles nearer Kansas
City, and one hundred and forty-six miles
nearer st. Louis than is the over-crowded
gateway of the North Atlantic.
For years the ocean-bOund commerce of the
West was forced along arbitrary lines to
Northeastern outlets, notwithstanding that in
many cases the natural and shorter routing
lay through Southern ports. This practice,
not yet broken though somewhat reformed,
bore all manner of ill results, which in the
stress of war-years grew to be so wasteful and
so perilous that the Government was con-
strained to intervene. Repeatedly on railway
lines leading to Northeastern ports thousands
of carloads of freight were tied up, not only
goods for foreign shipment but also for
domestic needs, so that the peoples immediate
and most pressing interests were involved.
Congestion at the ports caused congestion at
interior terminals There were weeks OF de-
lay, losses well-nigh beyond measure, and at
length grave danger to the transport service
on which our overseas army and our Allies
vitality depended. All this was a penalty or
forcing the greater part Of continents Tor
eign commerce along indirect lines and
through glutted channels.
That the country's common veal required
an overhauIing of the inequrail and marine
rates by virtue of which these ills persisted
soon became apparent to the Federal Railroad
Administration. 1t was seen, for instance,
that shippers in the great manufacturing ter
ritory of which points like Toledo and In
dianapolis are pivots might wish to route their
goods, particularly cargoes to Latin America,
through South Atlantic or Gulf ports, this
being the shorter way; but that they found it
virtually impossible to do so because railroad
systems which were interested in holding the
flow of traffic to their own lines TO the North
east were maintaining rates which excluded
Southern lines, and hence Southern ports,
from business to which they were entitled.
Moreover marine rates were designed to null
lily far possible the natural advantage
Of Southern ports. consignment Of mer
chandise for, say the West Indies, might
start from a Georgia factory, go the long
rail haul to New York, and thence be ship
ped by water down the seaboard past Savan-
nah and Brunswick when it should have
moved through one o. those last mentioned
ports, at great saving Of distance, time and
expense. Protests against that order of
things was met by the assertion that South
ern ports lacked sufficient ships; yet when
the ports would ask for ships they would be
told they lacked sufficient business.
Both the Federal Railroad Administration
and the Shipping Board charged as they were
with the protection and advanceent of the
countrys common interests, saw the wrong
and the danger in this state of affairs. Their
view was we'll expressed by Mr.. Edward
Government CONTROL when he said to dele
cation of Southern and Western business
men: eve have determined to treat the
ports Of the country as whole instead OF
as sectional affairs We want to equalize
port rates and charges, as far as we can. SO
that the great producing sections of the
country can get to seaport at the lowest pos
sible cost. While there are many difficulties
in the way, we believe you are substantially
right in your contention that inequalities as
between sections of the coast should be elm
mated" This, 1t should be said, was and is
the judgment of traffic managers and railroad
executives in general when they are unpreju-
diced. Not simply in justice to Southern in
terests but mainly in justice to the country as
a whole should rate inequites be remedied
and the rights of this regions sea gateways
be vouchsafed.
That done, the commodious, ice-free ports
of Georgia and her neighbor States will be
fully utilized to the advantage of the West
and of all America. The South seeks no
privilege in this matter, but simply fair play;
and only thus can the nations good be served