The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-21

Mir. John c. Caldwell Jr.. is writing
 series of articles upon the natural
 advantages of the Port of Mobile. which
 are comprehensive and entertaining.
 This is the third of the series and
 the fourth will appear in an early
 issue.
 By JOHN C. COLWELL, JR.
 The tremendous Importance and the Alabama roSSi ilit:2% oj Mexico to the Birmingham distr t to the Mobile the port of Alabama.
 Birmingham is closer to Mexico than is any other center in which iron and steel products form. the basis for highly specialized secondary industries. with this for a beginning the federal in land waterways service on the Black Warrior. Tom Bigbee rivers offer a barge haul and all water rates 10 Mexico by way of Mobile to Vera Cruz, Tompico, and Progreso, the three prin- cipal Mexican eastern seaboard ports. which gives Mobile the advantage of drawing all water movements from a point 4435 miles inland with a rate considerably less than that of Pitts burgh, Chicago or St. Louis and can even offer these same steel centers rates ranging from 14.5 cents per 100 pounds to 43.5 per 100 pounds lower than those by way of the Atlantic seaboard and rates very much under the overland all rail rates by way of St. Louis.
 Aiabamas s waterway access to Mex icO is most certainly along the lines of least resistance. By water from the heart of the Alabama Coal and ore district and from the other industrial centers of the state, the transportation costs become so small as to make the economic factors take precedence ever the time factor, if time factor there be- By water and rail, the rate is so per cent of the all rail allowing straight 20 per cent savings to slippers which rate in effect allows the same saving in cents per 100 pounds to shippers not able to use water transportation shippers whose traffic originates at a point where there is a waterway freight service. While on all rail freight routed by way of Mobile for export, the rate differentiale drop to such figures as to allow enormous savings in dollars per ton.
 Alabama Coal In Demand
 That Mexico needs Alabama's steel there is no argument. Mexico has but one steel plant with blast and steel fur naces, Monterey, and that has but a 3OO-ton blast furnace and four 4O-ton open hearths. In Mexico City there are four re-rolling mills. These two cities have the only facilities for sup plying the iron and steel needs of q nation with a population of 14,000.O00
 But as steel centers are not devel. oped except where it is possible to have to handle raw material and convent ently distances to points of consump- tion with ready and economical access thereto, Birmingham is particularly for tunate in its ability to fulfill all the requirements of an up-to-date steel cen ter. And for the water haul in export. Birmingham uses the port at Mobile for the terminal and transfer point.
 However, it is not by steel alone that Mobile is commercially important to Mexico. Mexican foreign trade and commerce today offer a very interest ing review. True. the buying power of Mexico is lower than prior to the revo- lution, but even so there are some high ly interesting facts to be learned. In 1910, Mexico imported 34 per cent of our total foreign exports. but the figure dropped to 2.9sper cent in 1922. But the imports to the United States tell very different story. Mexico. in 191O exported to us but 3.9 per cent of her production but in 1922 the per centage had increased to 4.25 per cent. representing a gain to Mexico in Ameri-