The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-01
PLAN TO COMBINE ] MOBILE AND OHIO
 AND FRISCO ROAD
Claim Move Is Further
 ance Of Mobile Port Development

Further development of the port of E Mobile is indicated by a proposal to combine the Mobile and, Ohio with the St. Louis and San Francisco railway. known as the Frisco road, to open a direct route to Mobile from the grain and manufacturing sections of the Mid E dle West and Northwest. it became known Monday, following filing of a brief by the state of Alabama with the authorities at Washington.
 Although the Mobile and Ohio are E owned and controlled by the Southern tfailway system, the brief insists that i the Southern will not object to the com bination because it's property rights will in no way be affected.
 Announcement of the proposal to com fbine the two roads under the jurisdic- fion of the Frisco, bears out statements made in Birmingham few days ago by President J. NJ. Kurn and Vice-Presi- dent J. K. Koontz, of the Frisco, that the system was considering plans of industrial and other development in which the, Birmingham district and the entire state would be interested. Un- official announcement was made at that time that the Frisco had under advise ment the purchase of the bankrupt At lanta, Birmingham and Atlantic line for, direct line to, the East coast.
 The brief, containing statement by the state of Alabama and signed by Gov. W. W. Brandon, and Thomas c. Mcclellan, counsel for the state, sets out in part, that 'it appears from the record of this proceeding, as well as in the tentative groupings formally pro-. posed to the commission by it own ex-. pert, that the Mobile and Ohio railroad physically, solely related as it is to the port of Mobile-should be aligned in group with line serving trans Mississippi territory"
 The announcement of the possibility of grouping the two roads was made through a brief filed before the Inter- state Commerce Commission in the pro- posed groupings of the Mobile and Ohio aud the Mobile, Gulf and Northern rail roads,
 The brief filed with the authorities in Washington is as follows:
 saTD the honorable chairman and mem-
 bers of the interstate commerce com
 mission of the United States:
 The statement of the state of Ala bataa in the matter of the grouping of the Mobile and Ohio railroad and of the Gulf, Mobile and Northern railroad through the exercise by the commis- sion of the authority conferred by the transportation act,
 ssThe state of Alabama, in its sov- ereigh capacity and acting through its governor and it's counsel, respectfully represents that the state of Alabama shas entered upon the further develop ment and expansion of the port of Mo bile, Ala, and will expend in accom- plishing this design the sum of $10,O00,- 600 of public funds. The port of Mo- bile has been for a century and more one of the most important ports on the gulf coast of the United States; and, hence, the stated progressive action of Alabama. is not diNected to creating a new port on the gulf coast, but, rather, to the expansion, undermining and per fecting of an already existing port, in the improvement of which the United States, itself, has heretofore expended upwards of SIG, 100000 of public funds.
 These expenditures manifest in em- phatic form not only the existence of the impressive public character of the port of Mobile, but also demonstrate the appreciation by both governments of the vital relation between the port of Mobile and the commercial concern and welfare of a vast agricultural and industrial area tributary to the port of Mobile, in the southern, middle and lnidwestern sections of the United States. FT
 'sThe authority conferred and the duty enjoined upon the interstate com merce commission by the transporta-
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