The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-12-03
1,O54 EMPL LOVE DISH|PS AFFORDE ]. IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS| BEST IN FACILITIES
 DIRECTORY SH0WsAT ALABAMA PORT|
Oil and Coal Storage, Dry Docks, Accessibility and Calm Anchorage Are
 Among Attributes

Now that the port aid amendment has been adopted and development of the port of Mobile Is assured, atten- ton Is being called to the substan- tlal foundation on which the work to be done Is based.
 What Is to come will fit in with what has been done and what has been done is fully capable of being l tied on to what will be done.
 Of outstanding interest to shippers at large Is the fact of the fuel oil | station and the coal terminals at Mobile. The shipping board has erected two 55.000-barrel fuel oil tanks and the Mississippi Warrior barge service 100000 ton coal stor- age terminal in Mobile harbor. The largest vessels may put alongside tkese fuel stations and take on bunker coal or oil. This Is a great inducement for ships to put In at Mobile. The coal terminals also handle ores and other heavy material imported for use in Birmingham steel mills.
 Mobiles situation with reference to the Mississippi valley Is a factor counting more and more in tho at traction of export and import bust ness for the valley Mobile is the nearest port to all the central south and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Distances from Mobile to important trade. mining and manufacturing centers are: Birmingham, 275 miles; Cincinnati. 7S4 miles; St. Louis. s95 miles; Kansas City. 939 miles; Nash vile, 1855 miles; Chicago. ss2 miles; Chattanooga. 409 miles.
 Mobile IS the shortest distance by rail of any port from Louisville Cincinnati, St Louis, Chicago and the Ohio and upper gateway to the Pa cific ocean and the Orient.
 Largest Repair Point
 It Is not generally known. but 1t Is fact that Mobile Is the largest repair and dry docking port on the South Atlantic of gulf coasts. More than $5,000.000 are spent there an rually for ship repairs and dry dock ing. There are two 10.000-ton dry docks, one having been floated from New York this year and success fully installed.
 Steel Exports
 Mobile is already the export outlet of the Birmingham district. In 1921 i, eight ships carried from Mobile to China and Japan more than 10000 gross tons of steel rails and access S lSs The low-cost route via Mobile and the Warrior river is what determined the steel corporation In diverting it's l Oriental orders to the Ensley and Fairfield mills instead of having them executed in the mills at Gary and Pittsburg, It Is this export business which enabled the Tennessee com pany to operate on a basis of 50 per cent when other steel mills were on turn of 20 to 25 per cent. Pacific Coast Trade
 Twenty ships carried from Mobile to the Pacific ports in 1921 between 75,000 and 100 900 tons of cast iron pipe. fittings and other foundry and iron and steel mill products. The saving in freight over the ail-raii rate in this one movement was be- tween s1.250,O00 and s1,500.00O Much of this business would not have been done at all but for the low rate via Mobile. because Pacific coast consumers could not have afforded the high rail rate on top of the price of the metal products.
 Thirty-Foot Channel ! The federal government has pro- | vided 30-foot channel at Mobile. The harbor Is land-locked and free l from hurricane. It is the peaceful character of it's waters that caused the shipping board to order so many i idle steamers tied up in Mobile har- I bor.
 Position As To Canal 1 Mobile possesses the most ad- vantageous position with regard to the Panama canal. the gateway to the Pacific coast. Mexico and South Amer 1 lea and to the orient. Mobile Is nearer to the canal than any other port in the United States.
 | Gulf Business
 l There is another great market for 1 Alabama products for which Mobile is
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