ALABAMA. 



13 



in Barkeley vs. Levee Commissioners et al. It 

 decides that a State has the power to abolish a 

 public corporation, even when it owes debts, 

 and that new corporations may be created over 

 the same territory which are not responsible 

 for the debts of the defunct corporation ; and, 

 further, that the creditor has no remedy in 

 the courts whatever, but can only apply to the 

 Legislature for relief. 



According to the sixth quarterly report 

 made by the commissioners to the Chancery 

 Court, and filed therein September 20, 1880, it 

 appears that the total outstanding coupons 

 due down to May 1, 1880, amount to $86,504. 

 This, added to the bonded debt ($2,223,749), 

 makes the total debt $2,310,253. Add to this 

 the coupons that may be due when the adjust- 

 ment goes into effect, and the judgments ob- 

 tained against the late city, and the debt will 

 still be under two and one half millions. 



To pay three per cent, upon this debt will 

 require $75,000 annually for five years, $100,- 

 000 annually thereafter for fifteen years, and 

 $125,000 annually thereafter for five" years. 



The assessed value of property within the 

 old limits of the city in 1878 was $16,254,093. 

 Assuming that the assessments under this ad- 

 justment will amount to $16,000,000, it will 

 require a tax of less than one half of one per 

 cent, to realize $75,000 annually. In five years 

 the assessments may advance with renewed 

 prosperity, and no larger ratio of taxation be 

 required to realize the $100,000 which will 

 then be needed annually. 



The annual statement of the commerce and 

 trade of Mobile, in S3ptember, 1880, does not 

 exhibit a large increase with New Orleans on 

 one, and the Atlantic ports on the other side 

 of her, and with the extensive shipments of 

 cotton from the interior by railway to the 

 north, Mobile suffers serious disadvantages 

 as a commercial seaport. But notwithstand- 

 ing these, new branches of trade and industry 

 have sprung into existence. The popular en- 

 terprise is directed toward manufacturing; 

 the increase of naval stores, and the lumber 

 trade ; and to the production of vegetables 

 for the Western markets. Its dry-dock com- 

 petes successfully with similar establishments 

 elsewhere, and the proprietors have launched, 

 in addition to smaller craft, a new river 

 steamboat of about one thousand bales capaci- 

 ty. Two new manufacturing enterprises have 

 been inaugurated, an ice company and a fur- 

 niture factory ; while evidences of work in 

 iron, tinware, vehicles, etc., are increasing. 

 In the vegetable trade alone, $175,000 worth 

 of produce was shipped in 1880; and the fish 

 and oyster traffic shows creditable results. 



The Alabama railroad system is very com- 

 plete, and is rapidly developing the State. The 

 South and North Alabama (a part of the Louis- 

 ville and Great Southern) the grand trunk, 

 so to speak runs from Montgomery to Deca- 

 tur, 183 miles. At Calera it crosses the Sel- 

 ma, Rome and Dalton; at Birmingham it 



crosses the Alabama Great Southern, and at 

 Decatur it crosses the Memphis and Charles- 

 ton, and taps the Tennessee River, with its line 

 of boats to Chattanooga, and thence by rail on 

 to Nashville, Louisville, St. Louis and Cincin- 

 nati, etc. The Alabama Great Southern runs 

 east and west across the State, 295 miles, con- 

 necting at Meridian, Mississippi, with the Mo- 

 bile and Ohio and the Vicksburg and Meridian. 

 The other lines traverse the State in all direc- 

 tions such as the Mobile and Montgomery 

 (now a part of the Louisville and Great South- 

 ern) ; the Western, from Montgomery to Selma, 

 and to Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia, and 

 the Montgomery and Eufaula, via Eufaula to 

 Macon and Savannah, with cross and short 

 lines to nearly everywhere and in all direc- 

 tions. The only two projected roads needed 

 in Alabama are the Georgia Western, from 

 Atlanta, and the Grand Trunk, from Mobile 

 to Birmingham. With these two additional 

 lines, especially the first mentioned, the sys- 

 tem will be complete, and equal to any emer- 

 gency in the near future, notwithstanding the 

 present and prospective industries and devel- 

 opments. The Alabama River is navigable all 

 the year, five hundred miles, between Mont- 

 gomery, Selma, and Mobile, as are also the 

 Warrior, Bigbee, and Chattahoochee all tap- 

 ping a rich cotton belt and making rail con- 

 nections. 



The purchase by the Louisville and Nash- 

 ville of the Selma and Pensacola Railroad will 

 open a new timber and cotton market for Pen- 

 sacola, Greenville, and Montgomery. There 

 are in operation forty miles of this new pur- 

 chase, known as the Selma and Gulf, from 

 Selma in the direction of Pensacola. The 

 Louisville and Nashville company are working 

 on its southern end, from its junction with the 

 Mobile and Montgomery and the Pensacola, at 

 or near Pollard. 



The Louisville and Nashville combination 

 and consolidation with the Georgia system is 

 nothing more than an alliance, offensive and 

 defensive, or division of territory, as to freights 

 and rates. 



The route from Meridian to Tupelo touches 

 Lauderdale Junction, where the Alabama Cen- 

 tral Railroad diverges on its way to Selma and 

 Montgomery. From Mobile to Macon, a dis- 

 tance of one hundred and seventy-six miles, 

 the road traverses the long-leaved pine region 

 of the South. Crowned with perpetual green, 

 the stately monarchs of the Southern forests 

 tower a hundred feet in the air, and at their 

 feet, in tropical luxuriance, grow dwarf pal- 

 mettoes with their fan-like leaves, magnolias 

 with their gigantic buds and flowers, hollies, 

 myrtles, and evergreen oaks, draped with 

 long gray moss. At Macon the prairie region 

 begins, and thence to Okolona, a distance of 

 about sixty -five miles, the country is open and 

 slightly rolling, with occasional skirts of wood- 

 land dividing plains almost level. The soil is 

 of a fertility nearly equal to that of the Mis- 



