The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-01-21


the chief ports of England and the
United States. During the war both
Antwerp and Hamburg lay dormant,
but by 1920 Antwerp again had ten
and one-half millions tons of ship
ping entering her harbors. She out
ranked London, and came within two
hundred thousand tons of New York
In 1921, her entries had risen to al
most thirteen million tons and she
steadily grows. She has not only the
bulk of the commerce of Belgium,
but is an important transfer station
for western Germany, Switzerland.
and France. as well as a national
trading center. apart from her
volume of shipping.
What God Did fer AHfwerp
Come down to the port and stand
beslde me on the wide concrete pro-
and see what God did for Antwerp.
We are at a level with the smoke
stacks of huge ocean liners loading
and unloading goods, above ware
houses and railways. in sight of hum
dreds of electric and hydraulic
cranes, and near barge elevators
which are sucking grain out of the
ships by the thousands of bushels
per hour. The vessels extend on for
miles. and looking up stream we can
see a very thicket of smokestacks.
The river before US is only about as
~ide as the Potomac at Washington.
tut it is from twenty-five to fifty
feet deep and at-high tide often nine
teen feet deeper. 1t is so wide ara
so deep. in the fifty-four miles of its
winding to the North Sea, that the
biggest of the ocean g~eyhounds can
come right up to our feet and land
their freight on the quays extending
for miles above and below us.
Now stop and think where we are:
We are opposite the mouth of the
Thames, the gateway to London. We
are just above the end of the Eng
Fish Channel on the direct route to
New York and within a short dis
lance of Rotterdam, Bremen, and
Hamburg, where ships may stop on
their way to the Baltic, that great
inland sea, of north Europe. Steamers
can go from here south through the
English Channel tapping its indus
trial wealth on each side; and NOV
ing on to Gibraltar, enter the Mediter-
ranean and have all southern Europe
and northern Africa of easy access.
They can go on to the Suez Canal
and down through the Red Sea to the
Indian Ocean, and take in the great
trade of south and east Asia. Those
Japanese vessels we see moving out
of the harbor are on their way there.
Or the ships can steam down the east
and west coasts of Africa, calling at
the many trade centers. including
Bona at the mouth ON the Congo.
from where the two large vessels at
our left have Just come
There are also regular lines from
Antwerp to Rio de Janeiro and Blu
enos Ares-a steamer with a cargo
of frozen meat os now coming in
ships from the United States now
in the harbor, and the red, white and
blue at their mast heads are de-
light to our eyes. From where we
stand it is just 1926 miles to New
York and that big tramp from New
Orleans has come only fifteen humid
red miles farther The vessel loaded
with lumber near ey is from san
Francisco 1t came south ON the Taci-
fic through the Panama canal. and
thence across the Atlantic, making
a voyage. all told, of more than eight
thousand miles.
Great Canal system
But quite as important as these
many :. sea routes, are the canals,
rivers and railways over which are
continually flowing streams of honey
from air nations in the form Of raw
materials through Antwerp. into
these Industrial beehiyes of west Eu-
rope. and from which are broueht