COMMERCIAL POSSIBILITIES OF SHALLOW STREAMS 37 



ucts came on a 27-cent rate, against 16 

 cents to Mobile; and on the hundred 

 cars of nails shipped from Pittsburg to 

 Montgomery every year the city paid a 

 rate of 45 cents, against 29 cents to 

 Mobile, these four items alone handi- 

 capping Montgomery to the extent of 

 $172,900, so that Mobile was able to 

 ship by retail into Montgomery terri- 

 tory for less prices than the Mont- 

 gomery jobbers could wholesale in the 

 same district. 



In this state of affairs, Mr. G. Gros- 

 venor Dawe, who was then the secre- 

 tary of the Chamber of Commerce at 

 Montgomery ; the late Mr. W. F. Van- 

 diver, a very energetic and public- 

 spirited wholesale grocer of Mont- 

 gomery, and Mr. Kealhofer began a 

 campaign to reduce the Montgomery 

 rates. Efforts to persuade the railroad 

 to lower them were in vain, and when 

 they used strenuous measures the 

 Louisville and Nashville Railroad set 

 up a grocery house of its own and spent 

 thousands of dollars trying to destroy 

 their trade. It was evident that the 

 railroads would not help, but the river 

 was there, and when the idea came to 

 them that perhaps the elimination of the 

 heavy local transfer charge on the river 

 might help them they began a public 

 movement for a terminal dock. That 

 movement, I am glad to say, I helped 

 along in some small degree. Mr. Keal- 

 hofer has carried it on his shoulders, 

 and it has passed successfully through 

 the stages of a public election and action 

 by the city council, and a wharf and 

 freight elevator which will deliver all 

 the steamboat freight at the top of the 

 bank is now in process of construction. 

 This elevator, I do not hesitate to say. 

 will take 12 cents off the cost of deliver- 

 ' ing every barrel of water-board flour in 

 Montgomery, and it will be equally effi- 

 cacious with other freights. It is only a 

 $10,000 investment, and when steel 

 barges come into the Alabama River it 

 will have to be increased to a $50,000 

 investment to take care of the rapidly 

 growing traffic. But it is a sign of the 

 times — a public development, public 

 terminal facilities open to all on equal 

 terms, furnished by the public to pre- 



vent railroad extortion and to make the 

 (jpen river a fair competitor for the rail 

 lines. 



The figures which I have given in 

 this not only concern the actual terminal 

 situation, but at the same time they give 

 you a very good idea of the value of 

 water competition in making rates. 

 That Montgomery, even though it is a' 

 river town, should be charged 22 cents 

 a barrel more for northern flour than 

 Mobile is a startling confession of the 

 ability of the railroad to haul freight 

 at low rates when it has to, at the same 

 time that it is a striking example of the 

 failure of a small river to lower rates 

 when the elements of transportation are 

 not provided. 



Rome, Atlanta, Birmingham, Jack- 

 son, Augusta, Macon, Columbia and 

 all the other cities on the heads of the 

 southern rivers and easily accessible to 

 the heads of these rivers by short rail- 

 way lines, are all paying these south- 

 eastern classification rates which Mont- 

 gomery paid — rates which are all based 

 on L. C. L. classifications, and are so 

 designed as to shut the West off from 

 the southeastern market, to shut the sea- 

 ports out from the interior, and to com- 

 pel these inland cities, in spite of their 

 rivers, to trade in New York. 



The same rates which shut you out 

 from your seaport shut you out from 

 your export trade. If you are going to 

 manufacture goods in the endeavor to 

 place them in South America you must 

 reach your seaport without paying these 

 extortionate railway charges, and when 

 you propose to do so you are confronted 

 with the same situation that confronted 

 Montgomery. Your river is navigable 

 after a fashion, and you have the op- 

 portunity to make it better, but your 

 river is a long way from the factory, 

 the river bank is a mudpile, the road to 

 it is poor, your factory is on a sidetrack 

 a mile from the wharf, and 50 cents to 

 $2 a ton represents the tax you would 

 pay if you tried to use the river. Stir 

 yourselves then ; study the Montgomery 

 movement ; analyze the success of New 

 Orleans in cutting off her local switch- 

 ing and transfer charges, putting her- 

 self on a par with outsiders at her own 

 terminal docks : then when you go home 



