The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-04-27

at all even if the remainder of the river would permit it,
 Fully one-half of the tonnage, for example, that is reported for the sec tion of the river between Florence and Chattanooga, consists of the freight that is moved for 9 miles on a car ferry, operated by the Nashville, Chat tanooga & St. Louis railway between Hobbs Island and Guntersyille-this being a part of the railroads line be- tween Huntsville and Attala, Ala. Similarly on the section between Chattanooga and Knoxville the ton mage reported is largely made up of the local sand and gravel business at Chattanooga and Knoxville together with the car ferry operated for seven miles by the Roane Iron company haul ing iron ore between it's mines at Cham berlain, and it's landing at Redwood, Tennessee.
 The facts are that the real useful ness of the Tennessee river as means of transportation lies in it's ability to support an economical long-distance freight service, and lack of a contin- uous all-year channel of a sufficient depth has prevented such a traffic all though the time is nearer at hand than eyer before when the improvement nec- essary for this purpose will be com pleted.
 It is perhaps not wholly unfortunate that there has been this long delay. If lsatisfactork and economical freight serv- ice had been made possible by the build ing of low dams for navigation purposes only, the industrial development of the Tennessee basin might have been more rapid, and might have more nearly kept pace with the growth @of cities ane towns in the Ohio basin. Cities and towns as well as isolated l industries are generally located where Iteasonabls level land is available, and level land in the vicinity of a great stream such as the Ohio or Tennessee frequently is found in the bottom lands
 The settling of these bottom lands along the Ohio has undoubtedly forever prevented the development of the enor. nous hydro-electric power that is run ming to waste in that river.
 While the Ohio river is well pro- vided with dam sites, it is not likely that these dams will ever be built 1 in such way as to develop hydro electric power, for to do so would be to flood numerous towns. cities, rail roads, highways, and other improve ments, which make power development in connection with the navigation an l impracticable undertaking.
 Opportunity StlIl Open
 On the Tennessee river, on the oth. CT hand, there is still an excellent op portunity for the. permanent improve. ment of this stream by means of locks and dams-and the dams can be suf- ficiently high so that the power can be developed with great advantage to the federal government
 l It might be argued that dams higl enough to create power would destroy valuable farm lands and operate to thu disadvantage of the community in whicl they are built. The answer to such ob jectors is found in what is happening il the pool back of Hales Bar dam. Her, is an instance where it is possible to ca ones cake and still have it.
 The Hales Bar dam has been com pleted about 10 years. In that tim, the deposits of silt along the banks hay, reached depth of about 10 feet, an( are being deposited at the rate of .abou one foot per year.
 Recent photographs show that this re claimed land is now going back ink cultivation for the silt deposits are out of water except in times of high flOot stages. Some of the fields are already of considerable size and local steam boat captain reported yields of 10( bushels of corn to the acre on this ricl l reclaimed land.
 The owners did not sell the title tC the property but merely the flowagt 1 rights, for which they received the fail value of the land. The time will sooI be at hand-and in some cases is al ready here--when the owner has botl the money and his land as well.
 A general survey for the improve ment of navigation of the Tennessee river, taking into consideration all thu Dy-products of navigation improve ment such as hydro-electrie power flood prevention, municipal water sup ply, forestry, erosion and sitting. anC similar problems, is under way at ar estimated cost of $515,000. Ahou $20O.O0O has been expended with thu result that there have been disclosed some g dam sites on the Tennesse' river and tributaries where com mercially valuable hydro-electric power can be developed in connection with thu navigation improvement.
 Some of these dam sites have beer surveyed, and even before the results of the survey have been fully disclosed the government has received applica tions from private power companies de string to build these dams at their owr expense. It appears to be entirely feas Iible to improve the entire river iron Riverton to point above Knoxville by means of a series of locks and dams ir which the power developed will pay foI the cost of navigation improvement anC the government can provide this valuable waterway with no ultimate expense whatever, not even for the operation oi the locks. if it desires the private power companies to perform this service.
 Some idea of the traffic which may be reasonably expected when there is ir the Tennessee river continuous all year channel of not less than than six and preferably of 9 feet, may be had from the consideration of the resources of the Tennessee valley, and the valleys of it's tributaries. Referring to the com mercial resources of the great valleys
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