Cp3luo 3»r; BEFORE THE STATE SHIP AND WATER TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION OF NORTH CAROLINA * - V •' V O i " I^PSlS Brief on behalf of a State owned and operated Port Terminal at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, or SOUTHPORT University of Nortli Carolina This hook was presented by So tccR. y °cf Chzkjy\\o&Y~ o p- Corn. 109, 67th Cong., 1st Session.) “Every United States port should own its water front, and this should be controlled by a port authority composed of business men who have an intelligent grasp of the export and import business, and who are willing to devote sufficient time to the subject. These should be appointed without regard to political affiliations, and should take the broad view that the port is the property of the people at large, and that the provision of the best facilities will promote quicker ship dispatch, attract more ships, and thus enlarge the commerce of the port; that while the port terminal 27 should be self-supporting, the charges should be adjusted to produce this result without injury to business, and that the growth of the port will mean the growth of the city, and increased material prosperity to the individuals of the city and State. THOSE STATES WHICH HAVE ONLY ONE MAIN PORT SHOULD IN PARTICULAR EXERT THEMSELVES TO DEVELOP IT ALONG THE BEST MODERN LINES, AND THE FIRST STEP IN THIS DIRECTION IS THE APPOINT¬ MENT OF A COMPETENT PORT AUTHORITY.” (H. D. 109, 67th Cong., 1st Session.) SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA Prior to 1911 the port of San Diego was under control of the State Board. At that time it was ceded to San Diego and has since been under municipal control. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA This harbor is constructed from an open roadstead, and is located at San Pedro Bay, 30 miles from the center of the city. The Federal Government constructed a break-water 1,155 feet long, creating an artificial harbor. In 1909 the city agreed to expend $10,000,000 on the harbor within 10 years. The administration of this harbor is under municipal control. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA The port terminals of San Francisco are owned, controlled and operated by the State of California through the State Board and Harbor Commission. The port is self-supporting and was constructed at an original cost of $13,000,000, for which the State authorized a bond issue. The bill creating the port provided that all profits accruing above its operating expenses, interest on bonds, and the creation of a sinking fund for certain bonds issued, should be used for the further 28 improvement of the port. For the year ending 1920-1921 an appraisement of the property and other facilities was at a value of $50,000,000. It has 40 modern piers providing 15 miles of berthage space. It is already self-supporting. Its charges are the loAvest of any port in the United States. Its average annual revenue is $2,500,000. For the year ending 1921 it made a profit of $665,782.07. This port was built and con¬ structed after overcoming many obstructive tactics, when the development was first proposed. PORTLAND, OREGON This is an inland port on the Williamette River, 125 miles from the ocean and 12 miles above its confluence with the Columbia River. This port is subject to both municipal and State control. TACOMA, WASHINGTON This port is under the direct control of the municipality, and funds for harbor improvements and wharf construction are provided by bond issue by the city. SEATTLE, WASHINGTON The total number of the publicly owned terminals at the port of Seattle is much less than at the ports of New Orleans and San Francisco; however, such rapid progress has been made in public ownership and operation of port facilities, it is now rated among the principal ports of the country in this respect. It is now foremost in the extent and variety of warehouse facilities. The port is administered by a separate and inde¬ pendent municipal corporation, created by an act of the State Legislature. BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS The port, since 1911, has been under control of a board consisting of three members appointed by the Governor and known as the Directors of the Port of Boston. This act of 29 the State Legislature freed the commissioners from control of the municipality and of the State Harbor and Land Com¬ missioners. The State of Massachusetts owns 1,227.51 acres of water frontage, much of which was acquired from the city of Boston. It owns all the water area of the harbor below the line of riparian ownership. PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND The State of Rhode Island, in 1912, built a State dock at Providence costing about $1,000,000, and as a result of this, the Fabre Line of steam ships connecting Hew York and the Mediterranian ports made it a port of call. Also, as a result of this an immigration port has been established there and the Portuguese immigrants as a class are coming through that port. This has been a good investment for the State financially. The city of Providence has developed a large water frontage adjacent to this State property for general terminal purposes upon which it has spent $1,108,281.86 and $375,000 has been appropriated to complete the terminal facilities owned by the city. Last year its income from one dock was $36,000 for dockage and $16,000 for wharfage. Why should not Horth Carolina have its tide water harbor made a regular port of call and an immigration port ? The harbor is thoroughly well adapted for such port. If there is anything more needed than another in Horth Carolina, it is immigration of the right class of settlers. That is, farmers who will buy and pay for their own small farms; who know how and who will raise agricultural and horticultural products, who will raise families of American boys and girls to remain on their farms, who by force of example will make John Smith, tenant, disappear through absorption. PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA The administration of the port of Philadelphia is under municipal control. The legislature permitted the city of Philadelphia free scope of action within its own limits, but 30 required the city to work jointly with the other municipalities along the river in all matters affecting the river beyond the city limits. BALTIMORE, MARYLAND Since 1908 the administration of the port of Baltimore has been under municipal control. An act of the Legislature of 1921 conferred upon the municipality full power and authority to develop the port on Patapsco River and establish harbor lines, provide wharves and railroad terminals. The Maryland Legislature of 1920 passed an act authorizing the city of Baltimore to issue stock to the extent of $50,000,000 for the improvement of the port by a commission known as The Port Development Commission and gave this commission a right to acquire by deed, gift, or otherwise any lands or property rights, easements, or franchise for the proper development of the port of Baltimore. That commission is at the present time engaged in this line of work, and has employed experts to assist. In its report issued March, 1922, it is estimated that it will expend on the port of Baltimore $10,000,000 per year for ten years. CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA The port administration of Charleston is vested in the municipality. Although in 1916 the city owned no water front used for terminals, our information is that the city has pur¬ chased terminal property at the port from the railroads and the United States. This it has turned over to the Port Ter¬ minal Commission to operate, develop and improve. This, we understand, is to be accomplished through municipal fin¬ ancial aid and the work is being rapidly developed under expert supervision. JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA It is located 27.5 miles from the mouth of St. Johns River. In 1913 the city authorized a bond issue of $1,500,000 for the construction of municipal docks. The site for this was selected 31 largely because it could be obtained much cheaper than others, could be improved at much less expense and could be connected by a short terminal railway with the three principal railroads entering the city. At the present time one of the best known experts of the country is employed by the city in carrying out very large improvements at this terminal. SAVANNAH, GEORGIA Is also endeavoring to secure legislative authority for the construction and ownership of terminal facilities. This was prevented at the last session of the legislature through the competition of the port of Brunswick. HOUSTON, TEXAS The port at Houston is on Buffalo Bayou, and is connected with the sea by an artificial channel 25 feet deep and 50 miles long. The only terminal facilities of importance are owned by the city of Houston and the administration of the harbor is vested in the municipality. MOBILE, ALABAMA The city of Mobile is connected with the Gulf of Mexico by a channel 33.5 miles in length, which passes through the Mobile Biver for a distance of 5 miles, and through the Mobile Bay for the remainder of the distance. The city of Mobile owns only one wharf 1,500 feet long. The administration of the port is vested in the City Commission. It is reported that the State of Alabama is now expending $10,000,000 for port terminal facilities at this port. NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA The port of Hew Orleans is under the control of the State Board of Harbor Commission, an agency of the State of Louisiana. The greater part of the terminal facilities at Hew Orleans are owned and controlled by the State. It has 14.4 32 miles of water frontage on both banks of the Mississippi River under the control or direction of the Board of Commissioners. It has grown steadily under this control until it has become the second port in the United States, and presents a very successful example of public ownership and operation of port facilities. It is stated to be the best equipped and codrdinated port in the country. It has invested $600,000 in cotton ware¬ house facilities and more than $1,000,000 in grain elevators. Its reports show that it has paid interest on State bonds issued for its development and in 1920 had a balance left of $500,000. Louisiana has put up nothing but her credit. From a study of these ports we conclude: First. That the trend in this country is toward State owned and operated terminals. Second. That the cost of suitable terminals, as a rule, is large, but the expenditures do not become a burden on the State since they are self-supporting and generally profitable. Third. That those terminals which are State owned and operated develop business for the port and the State more rapidly and certainly than those owned by individuals and corporations and with less friction, and they can be most satisfactorily and successfully constructed at points where the cost is small, due to the absence of similar developments pre¬ viously made by railroads, or other corporate or private interests. SHOULD NORTH CAROLINA CONSTRUCT ITS OWN PORT TERMINAL? In order that we may understand what this implies, we quote from the conclusions of The Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors on Water Terminals and transfer facilities as follows : “Our review of the port situation of the United States shows: “(1) Ihat there is not in most of them a well coordinated management, and that well constituted port authority is the first need. 33 “(2) That under these port authorities comprehensive plans based on principles hereinbefore laid down should be evolved. ‘‘(3) That a port can only be successful when this plan is based upon the business available in its tributary area, and brings ample railway facilities into the closest practicable juxtaposition with the water front, with sufficiently wide areas available for cargo classification. “(4) That with the increased cost of labor, mechanical means should be adopted, wherever practicable, for handling goods, and that such means should be at hand for every kind and shape of package. “(5) That ample railroad tracks should be available close to the terminal for car storage and car classification. “(6) That ample warehouse capacity should he provided, in order that both ships and cars may be dispatched in the shortest practicable time. Too many of our ports are lacking in warehouse facilities, or have such facilities at inordinate distance from the terminal, thus involving cartage or extra handling for local railroad haul. “(7) Where cartage is necessarily a feature in the port business roadways and loading platforms should be provided for the full accommodation of trucks. “(8) That bunkering facilities of such character as to supply the necessary fuel to the ship while handling cargo should be available. “(9) That ample repair and dry docking facilities should be provided. No matter how ample the provision of terminal piers, sheds, railways, and mechanical equipment, a port will only succeed under an efficient and well coordinated manage¬ ment.H. D. 109, 67th Congress, 1st Session. In order to appreciate what the Board of Engineers had in mind in their review of the port situation as just read and at the same time form some idea of what an ocean port with modern terminal facilities will include and also the cost ot same we direct your attention to the fact that they were —3 34 ▼a studying water transportation and the means that may be adopted for enhancing its economy. They recognized that practically the limit of efficiency in vehicles for long distance transportation, whether by land or water, has been very closely approximated and that for further economies to the shipper in getting his goods to their market, it must be largely through the introduction of properly designed terminals incorporating the latest and most efficient appliances for handling traffic of the character and volume involved. As they state “we may well afford to emulate such examples as those of New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, in this country, and London, Liverpool, Manchester, Hamburg and Antwerp in Europe, all of which have a progressive and continuous port policy under which terminals are owned, operated and developed by the public through organizations representing the whole body of interested citizens, and private profit or mere selfish advantage has no place in the general scheme.” “A well equipped port will provide pilotage where necessary, tugs for towing ocean-going vessels to their berths, anchorage for vessels not requiring to be berthed, with access to shore, piers or wharves, open or covered, affording direct connection between ocean and land carriage, storage facilities ranging from open ground areas for bulk materials which will not materially deteriorate from weather exposure, to loft building for the protection of perishable cargo, coal and oil storage, with supporting piers or lighters affording bunkering facilities, repair shops and dry docks with necessary capacity and equip¬ ment for overhauling and repairing ships, lighters, and car floats for the transfer of cargo from various points in or near the harbor to and from ships, accommodations for the direct access of trucks, and in some instances for canal and river craft, and, most important of all, railroad tracks and yards properly located and adequately provided with trackage for storage and transfer of the many full and empty railway cars necessary to handle to and from ocean-going ships the freight which makes up their cargo.” 35 In this State we will not be required to construct locks and basins as in certain parts of Europe where the tidal variation is large, as in London for example. But we must consider with great care the determination of the open or uncovered quay, wharf or pier as to whether it is built paralleling the water front or projecting into it. Shall it depend for loading and unloading entirely upon ship’s gear or will it be provided with mechanical devices for handling various materials? Of course these open terminals are used for materials that will not deteriorate when exposed to the weather but there are many kinds of very highly specialized machinery for handling each particular material. Commodities in bulk which need protection from the elements usually require special construction for each class of cargo. For example, a special class of terminal is required for petro¬ leum and the various mineral oil products into which it may be divided. For these special provision must also be made for fire protection. In the shipment of grain a small portion of it is handled in sacks but the great bulk of it is handled mechanically. It must be handled through properly constructed grain elevators which contain special machinery for cleaning the grain as well as for transferring it from the elevator to the ship. Where it is imported the operation is reversed and special means must be provided for transferring it from the ship to the elevator or cars. One of the most intricate problems is connected with the handling and protection of miscellaneous cargo or package freight. This includes such items as automobiles, air planes, machinery, furniture, pianos, with hogsheads of tobacco, china ware, etc.; bales of cotton, jute, oakum, wool, hides, hay; barrels of oil, apples, bottled water; boxes or crates of canned goods, dry goods, soap, fresh fruit, arms or hardware; bags of sugar, salt, coffee, cement, flour, meal, grain, potatoes; such items as locomotives, structural steel frames, shapes, bars, rails, pipe, pig metals; beef in quarters, sheep dressed; live 36 animals, etc. When it is considered that these are handled in varying quantities and on the same ship destined to different ports the seriousness and difficulty of economical handling can be readily appreciated. With the increasing cost of labor the necessity for mechanical handling of as many varieties of package freight as possible is recognized. It is sufficient for our purpose here to state that while mechanical devices exist for the economical handling of nearly all kinds of package freight, yet their cost is far from negligible. Ample warehouse facilities located in as close proximity to the pier and terminal shed as practicable must be provided. Among the most economic systems of warehouse facilities is to be found in the loft for storage space over the transit sheds. In construction of these mechanical facilities must be provided for lifting the various packages to the upper stories and for transferring and packing them in compartments provided for each class of package. There is sufficient justification for providing ample transit shed area and the best mechanical equipment since any excess affords storage space for cargo always in demand and the quick dispatch of a first class cargo ship is imperative due to the great expense of holding it in port. This is illustrated by the board who assumes the value of tonnage at $160 per dead Aveight ton. This makes the 10,000 ton ship cost $1,- 600,000. Annual interest on this cost at 6 per cent is_$ 96,000 Repairs and maintenance at 5 per cent_ 80,000 Depreciation at 3 and % per cent_ 53,000 Insurance at 4.2 per cent_ 67,000 Total expense-$296,000 Fuel expense_$ 33,000 Port compensation for officers and crew_ 27,000 Meals in port_ 5,000 Stores in port_ 2,000 A total expense of $1,000 per day or___$363,000 37 Daily charge for dockage_$ 350 Stevedoring - 650 A total per diem of_$ 1,000 i To attract investment in such hazardous enterprise 20 per cent should be allowed on the investment or a per diem of $1,000. Which makes the total cost per diem of holding a 10,000 ton vessel in port $3,000. For convenience we have noted the following figures as to the draft of vessels in 1918-19. From Lloyd’s Register of 14,513 steamships listed 81.45 per cent have a draft of less than 25 feet, and 99.32 per cent draw less than 30 feet, leaving a percentage of 0.68 vessels over 30 feet draft. The following table gives the draft of various vessels, also lengths: Tonnage Gross Tons 2,000 to 3,000 4,000 to 5,000 _ 7,000 to 8,000 _ 9,000 to 10,000 . 12,000 to 13,000 Average Draft Length Feet Feet 22 270 24.3 270 27.6 377 29.2 400 29.7 560 We have not mentioned with any detail the construction of dry docks and equipment for the repair of ships entering the port nor have we gone into any details cohering the miscellan¬ eous equipment for expediting the handling of freight. We think we have indicated enough to demonstrate that an ocean terminal with modern facilities is an expensive or costly proposition in the aggregate. We have a copy of the official document which covers this entire subject quite sufficiently which we are glad to turn over to the Commission for such use as they may see fit to make of it. We assume that your Commission before committing itself to recommendations will consult not only such authorities cited by us but real experts in port terminal construction. May we 38 add that our information is that the number of these who are competent to outline a complete set of terminals is very limited but we are assured that the United States Corps of Engineers stands ready at all times to furnish every assistance possible to you in practically every phase of your work and this Corps has made very extensive and thorough investigations of this entire subject. We assert and hope to show that if the State will establish port terminals at its only deep water harbor for a coaling station alone, the cost of the construction of the terminal facilities for such coaling station will be paid for within two years, through the reduced rates on transportation of coal alone, and naturally that it will also result in an immense increase in the volume of traffic. But leaving, out of considera¬ tion any financial benefits to accrue from such terminal facili¬ ties, we feel that the best interests of the State demand the construction of a terminal, with suitable terminal facilities, at this harbor, and in addition we must do everything else necessary to make it a basic rate-making port of entry, so recognized and officially declared. We deem it of importance here to establish a clear concep¬ tion of the terms we are using. The terminal, as its name implies, is understood to be the end of a movement in trans¬ portation. The most important of these is where the railroad line meets the steamship line. It involves the transportation of both passengers and goods transferred from the land carrier to the ocean carrier, or vice versa. It is essentially a funnel through which everything must pass and therefore becomes the most important link in the chain of transportation of pas¬ sengers and goods by sea and land. Terminal facilities are all those arrangements, mechanical and otherwise, which facilitate the transfer of passengers and goods at either end of any stage or journey. A port may be considered a mechanism for accomplishing the interchange of freight and passengers between land and water cariieis, and the volume of freight which this mechanism 39 carries will depend on a number of controlling factors, such as through rates, time, deep water berthage, storage space, terminal yards, railroad connections, freight handling facilities, efficiency of traffic forces and operation. The ever increasing demands for reduced cost in transporta¬ tion have forced ocean vessels to constantly increase their size and draft. The same influences have caused the railroads to lower their cost of transportation by lessening their grades, increasing their motive power and the capacity of their equip¬ ment, and the same factors have operated and caused enormous expenditures, both public and private, in the deepening of the waters of the ocean ports and the channels leading to them. The ever increasing volume of traffic by land and sea is con¬ stantly congesting our existing ports in this country, in spite of the enormous expenditures in increased terminal facilities. In our larger ports, such as Hew York, Boston, Philadelphia, Norfolk, San Francisco, Seattle and Hew Orleans this con¬ gestion is very serious, and in lesser degree the same is true as to all of our ports. In spite of these large expenditures they are unable to meet the demands of commerce, so that at any point on our coast line where the physical and economic con¬ ditions will warrant, if a new port with suitable facilities is established, there will be ample business for such port just as soon as its existence and facilities are brought to the attention of the shipping world. This involves, of course, constant and suitable advertisement of such port with its facilities, in con¬ formity with the practice of all other ports now in existence. In illustration we invite attention to Manchester, England. This inland city spent eighty million dollars to complete a 35 mile ship canal around Liverpool and to construct a port with modern terminal facilities. Their next proposition was how to get established business to leave the old via Liverpool route and pass through Manchester. The traffic department of the canal company first induced certain steamship lines to come to Manchester; then arranged with railroads for lower 40 rates on the basis of a much shorter haul from the centers of industries to Manchester; then secured allowances to the belt line of the port from the railroads, which made it self- sustaining ; then so fixed harbor dues and charges as to create a financial inducement to shippers to route via Manchester; then employed and sent traffic solicitors from Manchester to the manufacturing centers who demonstrated that the ocean rate out of Manchester would be the same, but that they had a lower rail rate to Manchester which placed his goods alongside, while the shipper via Liverpool must undergo heavy expense of carting and handling. The prosperity of Manchester resulted as much from good salesmanship as from the excellence of the port itself. Manchester demonstrated that traffic flowing through a large port can be changed by good salesmanship on the part of the smaller port. In illustration of the congestion at port terminals and the expense of passing through them, of the enormous general traffic of this country, we invite your attention to what is known as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Ship Channel, which has been investigated by a joint International Canadian and United States Commission and its construction recommended by this Joint Commission at a cost, when completed, of $252,000,000. The purpose is to reduce the transportation charges upon farm and other products of the Middle West to Liverpool. This investigation and the present agitation for its construction comes from the producers and exporters of the Middle West. It is claimed that it will save the farmers many million dollars per year. The route now employed for this general traffic is either all rail to Hew York and through Atlantic and Gulf ports, or part water and part rail via the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal to Hew York, or by water via Montreal, employing the St. Lawrence route, which at present involves transfers at Buffalo and also at Montreal, which is very expensive. If ocean-going ships could be admitted to the Great Lakes, a very great saving would result. At present, however, there is a barrier in the St. Lawrence River between Lake Ontario and 41 Montreal preventing ocean-going vessels from entering the Lakes. This barrier consists of rapids at various points in the river, aggregating in length about 46 miles. Of course the great aim of all developments such as the construction of railways, canals, ports, terminals, etc., has been to reduce the cost of distribution. With all of our efforts in developing a system of Continental Kailways, with a con¬ stant improvement of our highways and port terminal facilities, and with a more limited development of our inland waterways, the cost of transportation has increased. The burden of this increased transportation cost necessarily falls upon the pro¬ ducer and consumer. This condition is largely due to New York City, the commercial and financial center of America, and the gatekeeper of our traffic. About one-half of our commerce of today passes through the port of JNTew York City. Her rail terminals handle 5,769,000 cars of freight per year and the pre-war cost per car was $25.00 over that of Chicago, the next most expensive port, or an excess charge of $150,000,000 per year which, with increased tonnage and increased costs, today will amount to at least $250,000,000. This has been called a tribute to the graft, piracy and inefficiency that must be paid to that port by the merchants, manufacturers and farmers. At this port there is an excess charge within the city Lmits of over $4.00 per ton on all traffic. As the total tonnage is 115,000,000 tons, this excess charge is at least $460,000,000 per year and is due largely to the inadequacy and inefficiency of the terminal facilities and transportation shortcomings of our leading port. This is costing the farmers of the middle west at least five cents a bushel, the difference between profit and loss to many of them, and amounts to $200,000,000 a year, a tribute to the congestion in freight traffic due to lack of modern port terminal facilities. Hew Tork is not the only expensive and badly congested port. It is merely the worst. It is this situation as to congested terminals and the exces¬ sive costs connected with our greatest port that has brought about this agitation for the international waterway through 42 Canada. Of course we do not think that this international waterway along the St. Lawrence will be constructed with American capital for many years if ever. This because New York City will be forced to adhere to her policy, since she became a port, of holding on to this commerce for our own country. Then, too, its construction will he opposed by our labor unions who will not relish having American millions spent on foreign construction by foreign labor. Then, too, it is believed that personal interest will cause all other Atlantic coast ports of the United States, who have connections with our great middle west territory, to join with New York in her opposition. In this connection we note from the press that the City Commissioners of Bayonne, New Jersey, will have brought to their consideration today a proposition from the New York Terminal Company to construct a new water front of 6,000 feet in length with bulkheads, piers, terminal warehouses, railroad freight houses and factory buildings, ferry terminals for a ferry to connect Bayonne with New York City. This proposed development is to cost $150,000,000, and provides for railroad connections with every railroad running into New York City. The piers are to accommodate the largest vessels now afloat. Incidentally it is suggested that with an invest¬ ment of $25,000,000, the income from the terminals will enable the construction of all of the rest of the terminal facilities as needed. In order that you may comprehend the influences that are agitating for improved terminal facilities for the United States, we remind you that the area tributary to the Great Lakes has a population of 40,000,000 people. In this area is raised 70 per cent of all the wheat, 60 per cent of all the corn, SO per cent of all the oats, and 70 per cent of all the barley grown in the United States. In manufactured products we find 89 per cent of all the automobiles, 69 per cent of all the meat products and 58 per cent of all the flour produced in the United States. Our average export of wheat and flour is more than 43 200,000,000 bushels per year, practically all of it from this area. What is true of our wheat is true in lesser degree of all other grain. A very important point we desire to emphasize in this connec¬ tion is that under existing conditions we cannot hope to com¬ pete for any of this enormous amount of freight that is strenuously seeking for some outlet to the ocean because we have no ocean port with adequate modern terminals that will enable us to compete successfully even with these congested ports. If, however, we of the State of North Carolina, will provide such port with suitable facilities and under public administration there is no reason why our port should not receive its full share of this tremendous middle west freight. Of course we must have railroads connecting this ocean terminal with this freight producing territory and we must have at least practically the same length of haul in order to successfully compete but fortunately for the State we can have a freight distance that is even shorter than other Atlantic ports as we will show you later on. EXISTING RAILROADS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS There are five railroads entering the Cape Fear tidal basin at Wilmington. Four of these belong to the Atlantic Coast Line system and one to the Seaboard Air Line. The Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line enter Wilmington from the west and south via Navassa. From this point they enter Wilmington over the tracks and two bridges across the Cape Fear and Northeast rivers belonging to the Wilmington Rail¬ way Bridge Company, a separate corporation. The old C. F. and Y. V. Ry. formerly ran to Point Peter at the junction of these two rivers but now it enters Wilmington over the tracks of the Wilmington Railway Bridge Company and the bridge over the Northeast River. The Wilmington, Brunswick and Southern Ry. extends from the tidal basin at Southport to Navassa and from that point 44 is carried into Wilmington by the Atlantic Coast Line and its trains returned to ITavassa by the same road. The owners of this road have given written assurance that should terminal facilities be established at Southport by the State ample facilities will be provided for meeting and caring for increased traffic due to such terminals. This is construed to mean that they will double track their thirty miles of road and provide every essential for prompt dispatch of traffic. It will be noted that this W. B. and S. Ry. makes actual physical connection at JNTavassa with the Atlantic Coast Line Ry. Since the Seaboard Air Line also passes over the tracks of the Wilmington Railway Bridge Company it also makes practical connection with this line. The same is true as to the C. F. and Y. V. Ry. at Point Peter. It seems to us that to all intents and purposes this should be considered as an actual and practical physical connection by the W. B. and S. Ry. with all three of these lines. If, however, there be any question about this physical connection the matter can be very readily ac¬ complished by the State taking over the W. B. and S. Ry., which we believe should be done if terminals are constructed, and also take over the holdings of the Wilmington Railway and Bridge Company. This can be done by lease or otherwise and we feel assured that in the absence of satisfactory working arrangements between the port or State and existing roads this taking over and operating these two properties will practically solve the railroad connections for the port at Southport. It is claimed that this road (W. B. & S.) can now accept traffic at Havassa, FT. C., and deliver it to docks at the mouth of the Cape Fear River as quickly and probably quicker than the same traffic can be delivered at the docks which it is pro¬ posed to have the State take over at Wilmington, and at less cost. It is claimed also that ocean freight discharged at the mouth of the river at Southport for the interior of the State can be shipped by rail and be enroute beyond Havassa as soon as the discharging vessel can tie up at the wharf at Wilmington. 45 In some cases such freight could reach Charlotte before the discharging vessel can begin unloading at Wilmington. We have direct rail connections with the entire south and north through our North Carolina trunk lines: The Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line and Southern Railway. Through these lines we have direct connection with lines leading from the West and Ohio River through the coal fields of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky through the Norfolk and Western via Winston-Salem, Sanford, Navassa, and through the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Ry., through Bostic and the Seaboard Air Line Ry. to Navassa, is presented an opportunity to reach the immense traffic of the middle west and west and the coal fields that seek tide water. In a word, we have direct rail connections with all of the grain producing states via our three trunk lines, the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio and the Norfolk and Western. Brief History of East and West Trunk Line Railways in North Carolina On December 24, 1852, the General Assembly of North Carolina incorporated the Western Railroad to be built from the seaport of Wilmington west along the stage course route across the State into the coal fields of Virginia and connecting with the great trunk lines leading to St. Louis and Cincinnati. This road was financed by individual subscriptions, by coun¬ ties, towns and the State. Some of our counties and cities are today paying interest on these bonds, not having been able to retire them and charge off their loss. Our State had an interest of 1,100,000 in this development. From 1852 to 1893 this road (then the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley) had been extended from Wilmington on the coast to Mt. Airy, at the foot of the mountains, a distance of 2^4.2S miles—with side tracks and branches its total length of tiackage was 365.85 miles. The equipment inventoried about five million. This, then, was the longest single line railroad in the State of North Carolina and as such was handling from 60 to 65 per cent 46 of the business at Greensboro and Fayetteville. Its connections were as follows: At Wilmington, the A. C. L., the S. A. L., and Clyde Water Line; at Fayetteville, the A. C. L., and the Cape Fear River; at Sanford, the S. A. L.; at Greens¬ boro, the Richmond & Danville; at Rural Hall, the Richmond & Danville; at Walnut Cove, the Norfolk & Western; at Madi¬ son, the Norfolk & Western. In 1887 Mr. J. B. Bilheimer, of New York City, with Mr. E. B. Stevens, of Chicago, entered into an agreement with the South Atlantic and North Western Railroad Corporation, duly created and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the States of Tennessee and North Carolina under articles of con¬ solidation duly entered into by and between the North Carolina and Tennessee Railroad Company and the South Atlantic and North Western Railroad Company, on the 12th day of Febru¬ ary, 1887, under which agreement the party of the first part was to build and equip the South Atlantic and North Western Railroad from a point on the South Atlantic sea coast at or near the town of Smithville, in the State of North Carolina, in and through said State in a northwestwardly direction, and through the State of Tennessee in the general direction of Bristol, or to such other point or place in said State as may hereafter be determined upon as the terminal of said railroad in said State. This road was surveyed and definitely located. The several counties through which this road was to pass were to issue bonds; the principal object of this bond issue was to convince the English syndicate who was to take over the con¬ struction of the road that the people of the various counties through which it passed were in sympathy with and would support a railroad. The project failed because of the failure of Barring Bros., of London. The South Atlantic and North Western Railroad Company which began at Southport and ran through Brunswick, Robeson, Stanly, Rowan, Davie, Yadkin, Ashe and Watauga counties in North Carolina and through Johnson, Carter and Sullivan counties, Tennessee, to Bristol, Tennessee, a distance of 362 47 miles, connecting at that place with the South Atlantic and Ohio Railroad, thus forming a trunk line from the coast to Cincinnati. Please note that this projected line connects the so-called LOST PROVINCES of our northwestern border with the equally lost province of the southeast—Brunswick County. The construction of this road was actually opposed, according to information we have received, in every way by the railroads, and particularly by the Atlantic Coast Line. These interests had their agents at work in the various counties to prevent the passage of the bond issue. In 1887 Mr. E. B. Stevens, at one time president of the Chicago Board of Trade, who had just moved to Southport became so impressed with the harbor as an ocean outlet that in 1894 he succeeded in forming a company known as “THE SOUTHPORT-CHICAGO SYNDICATE.” The purposes of this syndicate were: “To organize a terminal company under a charter from the State of North Carolina and to build, equip and operate a railroad from Southport westward by way of Conway, South Carolina, to Camden in the same State, about 150 miles, for the purpose of connecting at the latter point with the Ohio River and Charleston Railroad, now completed and in operation 172 miles to Marion, North Carolina, and located, extensively graded and under construction from Marion through portions of the states of Tennessee and West Virginia to the coal regions of Eastern Kentucky, there connecting with another completed portion of the Ohio and Charleston at Whitehouse, Kentucky, and thence, by arrangement with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, to Cincinnati.” Although the promoters of this railroad executed a contract with some English capitalists to take over the construction of the road, with the ocean terminals, and these English capitalists received a favorable report from their own expert agent sent over to check up the facts and conditions, violated the contract at the last minute without explanation, leaving the promoting company so crippled financially that the project was again dropped. W"e are advised that railroad interests in the State 48 again vigorously opposed the construction of this road from its inception. Later on the C. C. & O. Ry., now connecting with the Sea¬ board Air Line Ry. at Bostic, N. C., was projected to reach tide water at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, and the company actually secured river frontage for the contruction of terminals at Southport, N. C., which, it is reported, are still owned by the company. This project was never completed because the controlling spirit of the company sold his interest for a sufficient sum to compensate him for giving up the project. It may well be asked whether the inside history of this railway indicates opposition to the construction of terminals through an east and west railway trunk line to the only ISTorth Carolina deep water harbor. For information we turn now to the C. F. & Y. Y. Ry., and note why the north and south trunk lines have not stood for this east and west road cutting into their long north and south hauls. We find that three of them, the Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard, proceeded to buy up the bonds of the C. F. & Y. Y. and forced the road into the hands of a receiver. How well they succeeded is known to every shipper in North Carolina. They not only partitioned the carcass among themselves, but they have taken effective measures to see that it remains a lifeless thing as an east and west trunk line. A ride over this road from Mt. Airy to Wilmington today will convince anyone of the completeness of their destruction. Roadbed grown up in weeds, mostly dirt ballast, buildings without paint for nine years, grades, etc., as they were made by pick and shovel years ago, terminals abandoned or put to other uses. Note also that all efforts to establish an east and west line through North Carolina have been broken up by these same selfish North and South carriers and for the same reasons. What this State would have accomplished, had it not been for the eliminating of the C. F. & Y. Y. cannot be visualized— being friendly with the Clyde Line would have kept open one port on the east. On the west the N. & W. was more than 49 I friendly. They were actually building a road over the moun¬ tains beyond Mt. Airy for a direct connection with this line. What both roads thought of this connection can best be told by quoting part of reports of President Julius A. Gray to C. F. & Y. Y. stockholders at various meetings as follows: At the annual meeting April 6, 1882: “Submitted to Governor Jarvis a proposition for the purchase of the State’s stock in the Cape Fear and Yadkin Yallev Rail¬ way, with a view to making it a part of the great trunk line from Cincinnati to Wilmington. The magnificence of the scheme, the incalculable benefits to accrue to North Carolina in the development of her varied resources, by opening up a great highway for three hundred miles across her territory, from her northwestern boundary to the port of Wilmington, bringing her in direct communication with the great valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, and giving to our own Atlantic seaports the advantage of export trade of the vast grain and meat markets of the West, opening up to view the possibility of a grander stride in material progress than we had even dared hope for in the life of the present generation.” “It is not to be wondered at, then, that those proposing to do such great things for us were most cordially received and respectfully listened to by the people of our State generally, and especially so by those most interested in the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway. Every encouragement was given them to go forward with the enterprise, and every assurance of the hearty cooperation of our State authorities and of the people of North Carolina.” At annual meeting, April 5th, 1883: “As now projected, it embraces a continuous line of railway for 250 miles in the direct route from Cincinnati to W ilming- ton with the assurance of the ultimate connection of those cities by a road more than one hundred miles shorter than any otliei from Cincinnati to seaboard, and bisecting the great North and South lines passing through the State.” At meeting held October 2, 1890: —4 50 “The connection to which we look, however, for the greatest increase of traffic is with the Norfolk and Western Railroad at the Virginia State line, seven miles northwest of Mr. Airy. As has already been stated, your part of the connecting link has been graded and is now ready for the bridges and super¬ structure. Of the forty-two miles to be built by the Norfolk and Western, sixteen are completed and in operation, leaving twenty-six miles which, we are informed, has been let to con- tract, and will be vigorously pushed to completion. It is im¬ possible, at this time, to estimate the benefits which will accrue to your road from this connection. With the completion of their Ironton extension, it gives you the shortest line from Cincinnati and the great empire of the Northwest to the Atlantic Ocean. In exchange for your rice, naval stores, lum¬ ber, tobacco, cotton fabrics, granite and brownstone, it give you meat, grain, flour, livestock, farming implements, furniture and coal. The distribution of these supplies for consumption along the 350 miles of your own road alone, will be an immense traffic, but may we not expect that, in addition to all this, Wilmington may soon become the ocean outlet for at least a portion of the surplus products of that vast territory which finds a market in foreign countries, and the inlet for the pro¬ ducts of South America and the West Indies, which find a market in the Northwest.” President Kimball of the N. & W. in his annual report to its stockholders, on December 31, 1890, said as follows: “Of the North Carolina extension there yet remains to be constructed thirty miles, of which eight miles is partly com¬ pleted, and surveys for the remaining twenty-two miles have been in progress during the year. It is very desirable that this extension be completed and the connection made with the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway as early as practicable, in order that the line may be in active operation and business developed prior to the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The line that will be formed by your Ohio and North Carolina extensions will be the shortest and 51 most direct route between the South Atlantic States, Chicago and the Northwest.” President W. A. Nash of the C. F. & Y. Y. stated to its stockholders at a meeting held October 1, 1891: “Your board expected at this annual meeting to be able to report an early completion of the North Carolina extension to the Norfolk and Western Railroad, which proposes to connect with your road at the North Carolina and Virginia State line. While the extension has not been built as rapidly as we had hoped, on account of the stringency of the money market, and the consequent depression of railroad building, it is gratifying for us to know that the importance of this connection has not been forgotten by those who control the vast interests of the Norfolk and Western.” “While your board cannot now hope that the road will be in operation in time for the World’s Fair, as suggested by Mr. Kimball, still the very great importance of this connection should not for a moment be lost sight of. As stated, it is im¬ possible to estimate the benefits which would accrue to your road from this connection. The shortest and most direct route i from the South Atlantic States to the great Northwest means a great deal for your enterprise, and it is not necessary here even to attempt to show the vast benefits to be derived from it. Your board proposes continuing to press for this connec¬ tion, and from the assurances given to it by those in control, are led to believe that they too realize the advantages such a connection would prove.” This work was abandoned when the N. & W. bought the Roanoke and Southern from Roanoke to Winston-Salem, giving them a direct connection with the C. F. & Y. Y. at Walnut Cove. Having this connection the next step to get our East and West business was the suggestion that Virginia City rates be put in effect to Greensboro and Winston-Salem. This would not do, so the North and South line arranged to bluff the N. & W. off by allowing the N. & W. to put soliciting agents in the Carolina territory. Here again these North and South 52 iines blocked the progress of our State to their own selfish gain. The question here might be asked—“Could the C. F. & Y. V. be made to pay its way?” On this subject Capt. J. W. Fry, General Manager of this road from 1890 to 1899, during investigation held by Corporation Commission in Raleigh, North Carolina, the 27th day of February, 1914, stated: “Up until the panic of 1893, the road took care of its expenses and a little more than that, and interest and charges.” When asked if this line, if operated as an independent com¬ pany in its entirety under present day conditions, would be salf-sustaining, he replied, “I would say, certainly, yes.” The foregoing has demonstrated that our North and South carriers are willing to go the limit to destroy this East and West trunk line competition. The result is that through the eastern cities all rail lines of the three main North Carolina carriers run to the neck of the bottle at the Potomac Yards, Virginia. This is often blocked. The other routes lead to Cincinnati. Our industries buy and sell in large quantities in that territory covered by the states of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with a popu-* lation of 43,500,000, while the ten states in the Southern region have a population of 20,000,000. Our purpose in reciting at some length the history of the railway systems in North Carolina is to show: 1st. That an east and west trunk line across the State under one management has always been recognized as essential for an adequate system of transportation. 2d. That such contemplated trunk line was to be connected with the Middle West through the coal fields of the Virginias, Tennessee and Kentucky. 3d. That in every instance a deep water terminal for this trunk line was deemed essential. 4th. That the harbor at the mouth of the Cape Fear River tidal basin, or Southport, was in all cases the selected terminal. 5th. That the only apparent exception to this was 'the 53 C. F. & Y. Y. Ry., which was prevented from reaching South- port by financial and other obstacles over which the builders had no control and which forced it into Wilmington, and finally removed this road as a factor in building up the State. 6th. That the interests which have successfully prevented this State from securing an east and west trunk line with tide water terminals at Southport for the past 35 to 70 years have based their opposition upon lessened financial returns, due to loss of the long haul north and south, and that this situation remains practically unchanged. 7th. That the agricultural, commercial and industrial inter¬ ests, or more generally the producers and consumers of North Carolina, are the losers and are paying the price. OUR PRESENT WATER TRANSPORTATION The only service is weekly sailings from New York to Wilmington via Clyde Line. With these regular sailings why do we not have through rates via our State port at Wilmington? We will answer this by quoting part of a letter from Clyde Line Traffic Manager written to a North Carolina firm: “We have not published any through rates to points beyond Wilmington and do not contemplate doing so—as a matter of fact we have had no through or joint rates to points beyond Wilmington in connection with the rail lines for eight or nine years. “These rates are canceled for two reasons; one that on account of volume of tonnage and with a weekly service, little business was secured. The second reason was because the rail lines required in division of rates, about the same revenue as accrued to them at Norfolk.” Within the last year we found that the Clyde Line did not get enough business from one of their ships to even load a package car as far west as Sanford. Here again we find that our North and South lines have successfully closed our 54 only port. In the meantime, through cooperation with the New York-Richmond Steamship Company, a new concern, they have built up a business via Richmond to justify three sailings per week. There are published through rates via Norfolk, while via Wilmington they are made on combination of locals plus transfer of 3c. per cwt., the result being: New York to Greensboro Class Rates. Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 Via Wilmington_ 179 147 123% 98 77% 59% Via Norfolk _ 126 107 94% 76% 59% 51% Difference favor Norfolk 53 40 29 21% 18 8 Therefore a carload of 30,000 lbs. of second class matter moving via Wilmington would cost $120.00 more than via Norfolk. Freight Rates The whole rate structure of the United States, certainly that East of the Mississippi River, has been built up through the development of one waterway by the State of New York, to wit: the Erie Canal. This dates back ‘to 1724, when New York determined to hold the traffic resulting from the fur trade of the Middle and North West. The construction and opening of this canal brought about a low basis of freight rates through¬ out of the eastern and northern part of the United States and its influence extended as far west as the Mississippi Valley. It had a direct effect upon North Carolina, since it resulted in the creation of what is known as “The Virginia Cities” and brought about the discrimination in freight rates in favor of those cities as compared with North Carolina cities and towns. After the construction of the Erie Canal the railroad lines leading from Chicago and the West to meet the compe¬ tition thus created established a low level of freight rates to the port of New York. This was done through the influence of the then “Vanderbilt Lines,” now the New York Central Lines. The Pennsylvania Railroad met the low level of freight rates 55 established to the port of New York by establishing the same freight rates to the port of Philadelphia. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, with a line leading from the coal fields and the West to Baltimore, met the competition of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Philadelphia by establishing the same rates to Baltimore from the West as were in effect to Philadelphia. The Norfolk & Western and the Chesapeake & Ohio railroads, with rail lines leading from the West and through the coal fields to tide-water Virginia, met the competition of other rail carriers at New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore by establishing the same level of freight rates as obtained at those points to Norfolk, Virginia. Construing the “Long and short haul” clause the Act to regulate Commerce literally, (this clause means that no greater compensation shall be charged for a long haul by railroad than for a short haul over the same route in the same direction) the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad carried back over its line to certain interior cities the low level of freight rates established from the West to Norfolk, i.e. the Norfolk rates, and this action brought within that level of how freight rates from the West the cities of Roanoke, on the Nor¬ folk & Western, Lynchburg, Richmond and smaller towns and cities in the State of Virginia. This created what is known as “The Virginia Cities,” which enjoy a low level of freight rates, but with no compensating advantage in freight rates to the territory immediately to the south, and from this discrimi¬ natory situation North Carolina has suffered for years. At that time the railroad lines penetrating the State of North Carolina were made up of small units in weak financial condi¬ tion. These small units were gradually consolidated into trunk line systems, traversing the State north and south, and these new trunk lines thus made up sought the nearest ocean port with facilities already established, where terminal costs were low and the cost of entrance minimized. This forced North Carolina traffic to the port of Norfolk. The State felt keenly this freight rate discrimination brought about by the conditions 56 recited, and this burden of discrimination has rapidly increased as the State developed. When we request relief from excessive, unjust freight rates that will enable our industries, jobbers and farmers to com¬ pete with other sections we find that, as we have no east and west lines, except the circuitous ones owned or controlled by the North and South lines, we are treated with relation to Virginia cities on the one hand and Atlanta on the other—and why not ?— our own ports have been bottled up and no through rates apply, so the business of interior North Carolina points, via rail and water to the eastern port cities has to move through their favored port of Norfolk so the north and south lines can get their long haul to this territory via all rail—our only outlet again being ineffective gives them their long hauls north and south. Conditions became so bad that Chambers of Commerce, aided by the Corporation Commission and various other inter¬ ests over the State of North Carolina, filed cases with the Inter¬ state Commerce Commission which are numbered 10,500 and 10,515. We won these cases and the new rates, as prescribed by the Commission, which in no manner remedies the evil, but simply modifies it, became effective January 15, 1922—the commodity rates which should have been put in shortly after the class rates have been corrected only in part to date, and the dillydallying procedure of the Southern Lines or Carolina Committee is now before the Commission with request that they be made to act promptly. The next fight is now before the Commission for decision. It has North Carolina mixed up with the entire Southeast. This case is what is known as the Southern Class Rate Investi¬ gation, docket 13,494. All rates between North Carolina and the West are involved. This case proposes to increase freight rates from western territory; that is, practically all territory in the United States west of the Buffalo-Pittsburg line, north of the Ohio River and west of the Mississippi River, to North Carolina points—using first-class from Cincinnati as illustra- 57 tive—thirty-nine per cent over rates at present in effect, Uur freight rates from this territory have steadily increased since 1914 so that with the proposed increase it will mean, using first- class as illustrative, that our freight rates from the West will have been increased since 1914 128% over the freight rates pre¬ vailing prior to that time. In other words, our first-class freight rate from Cincinnati, Ohio, to zone one points in North Caro¬ lina, such as Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, etc., prior to 1914 was 82 cents per hundred pounds. With the increase now proposed and the increases heretofore made, this first-class rate from Cincinnati to the points enumerated above will jump to $1.87 per hundred pounds. Moreover, we have no assurance that further increases will not be demanded. In this same docket number 13,494 no corresponding increase in freight rates is proposed for “The Virginia Cities.” It was testified in the case referred to, and is of record in that case, that the value per annum of the manufactured products made in the cities of Winston-Salem, Durham, Char¬ lotte and Greensboro exceeded by the sum of one hundred million dollars the total value of manufactured products of the cities of Lynchburg, Richmond, Norfolk and Roanoke in the State of Virginia, using 1920 as a basis. The great indus¬ trial, agricultural and commercial life of North Carolina has suffered for years in the matter of discriminatory freight rates. True it has prospered, in a measure, in spite of such discriminations, but this evil of discrimination is growing and will continue to grow unless and until every pretext for its continuance has been permanently removed. If left to the railroads this will never be corrected unless North Carolina takes action by proper remedial measures, the existing handicap on all business in the State will be augmented. The Coal Situation The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in connection with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which it controls, has recently acquired by lease the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad, 58 leading from the coal fields of Virginia and West Virginia and Ohio River to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where it connects with the Charleston & Western Carolina Railroad. Also note the control by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad leading from Spartanburg to Charleston and Port Royal, South Carolina. An investigation of the map will demonstrate that the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad intends to establish port coal rates from the coal fields through Spartanburg to Charleston and Port Royal (they state in their application to the I. C. C. that they intend to operate it in connection with the Charleston & Western Carolina Railroad), and likewise rates from the west to said ports. In this connection you will recall that the City of Charleston recently acquired port termi¬ nal facilities from the United States Government and from the railroads and we are advised that she is feverishly at work extending and improving these terminal facilities. Coal rates will be established to Charleston, S. C., upon a com¬ petitive basis with coal rates to Norfolk from the coal fields served by the Norfolk & Western, the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Virginian Railroads. The result will be to squeeze the North Carolina consumer upon a mountain of high freight rates from which he can look into the valley of low freight rates enjoyed by his Virginia neighbors on the north and his South Carolina neighbors on the south, and smile. Under existing condition he is impotent and must accept his financial loss due to this dis¬ criminatory situation. It has been said in the early agitation of good roads that the United States is the only country rich enough to afford poor roads. Is the State of North Carolina rich enough to afford this freight rate discrimination? Can North Carolina afford to lose new manufacturing concerns desiring to locate in the State, or those already established, together with the capital en^loyed and the capable business men operating them, through this freight rate discrimination? The freight rate is the biggest factor in the cost of coal. At present the rate on coal from the coal fields to Norfolk is $2.52 per ton, and that rate is voluntarily established under 59 the Long and Short Haul clause—we find the same rate at Roanoke, Virginia, $2.52 per ton, 248 miles from Norfolk and tide water. This low level of coal rates is reflected through¬ out the State of Virginia. With the establishment of a coal port at Charleston this same situation will necessarily result in South Carolina. Will the construction of a coaling station and harbor at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, together with facilities for handling export and bunker coal, in con¬ nection with our existing railroad connections from the coal fields to tide water, cause the carrier to voluntarily put into effect port coal rates to our port? We think it would. If not, can they be forced to do so by the Interstate Commerce Com¬ mission under the act to regulate commerce? If so, such port rates when carried back under the Long and Short Haul clause of the Act to regulate Commerce would give us low coal rates throughout the State of North Carolina; certainly as far back from the port as Winston-Salem on the one hand and Charlotte on the other. When it is considered that the present rates on coal from the coal fields to North Carolina points range from $3.25 to $3.55 per ton, it is not difficult to reason that the construction of a modern coaling station with proper facilities for handling export coal at deep tide water, will inure to the benefit of the entire State and all its people. As to the 99 year lease by the Atlantic Coast Line, of the C. C. & O. Ry., awaiting approval and confirmation by the Interstate Commerce Commission, it is noted from the press that the Seaboard Air Line has filed a protest against it, basing their claim upon prior rights obtained years ago when the C. C. & O. Railway was under construction. We are unable to give you the facts further than that according to our informa¬ tion there was an agreement between them through which from Bostic the Seaboard Air Line was to reach the harbor at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, branching off from their present line at East Arcadia and running from there direct to Southport. We also note from the press that certain inter- 60 ests in the State of Georgia has also filed a protest against the Atlantic Coast Line lease, and we are convinced that the best interests of the State of North Carolina, agricultural, manu¬ facturing and industrial, imperatively demand active and per¬ sistent protest against the approval of this lease. What is North Carolina’s Remedy for This Situation? As to the railway situation there is but one answer: A trunk line railway traversing the State from west to east, from Cincinnati and the mid west through the coal fields to an ocean outlet in the State and independent of our north and south trunk lines. This can he accomplished in the following ways: «/ 1. The construction of an entirely new line. 2. Establishing suitable connections with some trunk line already in existence in the State. 3. The purchase of some line already built with suitable connections. 4. The establishment of a tide water terminal with suitable connections. Of these the 4th is at this time believed to be the most feasible and practicable. 1. As to the construction of a new line, whether by the State or a private corporation, if it becomes, as it certainly will, an interstate carrier, then authority must be obtained from the Interstate Commerce Commission, which will be difficult under existing conditions and possibly denied in case it parallels another road. 2. The only east and west trunk line through the coal fields now in the State is the Norfolk & Western, with termi¬ nals at Winston-Salem and at Durham. Some of our cities, viz: Wilmington, Fayetteville, Greensboro and Mt. Airy sup¬ ported by our Corporation Commission, have a case before the Interstate Commerce Commission to have the illegal sale and dismemberment of the C. E. & Y. Y. set aside and this road allocated to the N. & W., or some other trunk line. The State is also bringing suit and the case is set for this Septem¬ ber term on a demurrer by the carriers. It is believed practi- 61 cable and probably cheaper for the Norfolk & Western to build an entirely new line to the coast rather than to take over the C. F. & Y. Y. in its present physical condition. This may be modified, however, by the value of terminals. Those at Greensboro are very valuable. It is well known and the blue print we present confirms what has been said by the Presidents of the N. & W. and of the C. F. & Y. Y. as to the contemplated physical connections more than 30 years ago of these two roads. 3. The purchase of existing roads: This can be accom¬ plished probably quite readily by the purchase of the C. C. & O. and the W. B. & S., together with that portion of the Seaboard between Navassa and Bostic. This latter purchase may be avoided by a suitable and satisfactory arrangement with the Seaboard. A Tide Water Terminal An east and west trunk line will not alone suffice to obtain cheaper transportation. It must be linked up with shipping at tide water through a terminal, with modern terminal facil¬ ities to produce the desired result. We have already pointed out that the State of Louisiana has developed harbor facilities in which she will have an investment of one hundred million dollars of municipally owned terminals, wharves, warehouses, docks and industrial canals, and Baltimore has proposed to match this development by adding to the fifty million dollars voted a few years ago for port facilities, including docks and warehouses, upon which construction is now under way, and which will eventually represent an outlay of one hundred million dollars before completion. We have referred to the expenditures of California at San Francisco, and also that of Alabama at Mobile, all of which clearly indicate that if we are to develop an ocean outlet on our deep water in the State we must be prepared to accept the modern policy of action by the State and be prepared to meet this competition. Our contention is, in fact we are convinced, that the estab¬ lishment of a port with adequate terminal facilities will certainly attract ocean traffic in large volume, both inland and 62 outbound, and that this traffic will result in causing our present railroad lines to meet this situation and adequately serve the State. This traffic is the life-blood of railroads. Traffic Possibilities Incident to a Tide Water Terminal In order to warrant the construction of an ocean terminal, we recognize that there must be potential traffic to pass through it in both directions. We assume that with such termi¬ nal established at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, there will be operated in connection with the port, terminal facilities for a modern cotton warehouse of sufficient capacity, equipped with compress, and with modern fire protection that will make for the lowest possible insurance rates, together with reasonable storage and handling charges. Such facilities would attract to this port its share of the export, including the coast¬ wise movement of cotton from all territory in the cotton belt. Of every 100 bales of commercial cotton produced in the world in 1920, 68 were produced in the United States; of the 68 more than 37 were grown in Texas, South Carolina and Georgia. If Arkansas, and Oklahoma are added, more than one-half of the world’s commercial crop is accounted for. This crop was disposed of as follows: 1st. Export to Great Britain, Continental Europe, Japan and other countries, 47 per cent. 2d. New r England mills, 12 per cent. 3d. Southern mills, 23 per cent, and mills in other states about 4i /2 per cent. The balance is stock on hand in mills, warehouses, compresses, etc. The actual stock on hand July 31st, 1921 was six million five hundred and thirty-four thousand bales. Prior to 1914 two bales out of three were exported. In 1880 New England consumed one bale in five; today she takes one in eight. Forty years ago the southern mills were spinning one bale in thirty; today about one in three. Cotton seed and its products, together with cotton seed meal, has been moving in large quantities from the South and this traffic would be within reach through our rail connections for movement through our port terminal in connection with our 63 direct rail connections via Southern Railway, Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Ry., which reaches out and covers the entire southern territory. Grain and grain products from the west and middle west constitute the basic cargo for all steamships plying between the United States and European countries. Of these there was exported from all ports in the United States in the year 1920, 323,851,345 bushels, equal in weight to 9,264,458 short tons. The total short tons of all grain exported from all the ports of the United States, including bread stuff, wheat, flour, corn meal, rye flour, barley flour, oat meal and rice make a total of 24,099,113 short tons exported during 1920. A port terminal would be incomplete without a grain elevator and proper storage capacity. All the grain producing states are accessible to North Carolina through direct railroad connec¬ tions. The export of automobiles and accessories from the middle west has developed in large proportions and is still rapidly growing in volume, especially in the Detroit and middle west district. There are now about 10,300,000 automobiles registered in the United States, an increase in the past 10 years of 1200 per cent. As the product is increasing, then export must be and is being developed, even among the Oriental countries, including China and Japan. With suitable port termi¬ nals we will open a direct and economical route for the develop¬ ment of this high freight rate producing traffic. Under acces¬ sories we include automobile tires for export from such centers as Akron, Ohio, the largest producing locality in this country, and, as well, plants in our own State, such as Salisbury, Win¬ ston-Salem and Charlotte. With regard to petroleum and its by-products, we find that the production of gasoline in 1921 was 5,153,549,318 gallons. The home consumption was 4,516,129,076 gallons, so that our export in this same year was 524,279,031 gallons. In 1921 our export of kerosene was 704,542,145 gallons. Fuel oil is consumed in large quantities by all oil burning 64 vessels and by manufacturing plants in all parts of the United States. It competes with coal as a source of both commercial and domestic heat and power. It is true that the shippers of the petroleum products furnish their own cars, of which they had in this country in the year 1921, 114,829. But the sources of crude oil are now, generally speaking, outside of the areas of greatest consumption of both the oil and its products, which require the location of refineries at considerable distance from the source of supply. With our direct rail connection with the middle west and with Pennsyl¬ vania, a properly equipped port terminal would make this class of traffic accessible for movement through a North Caro¬ lina port. With an ocean port, with modern and adequate facilities for handling export and bunker coal, when such facilities are made known to the shipping public, there can be no good reason advanced why this class of traffic would not move in a large volume through such port terminal properly and newly established, as against the older ports on the South Atlantic, where congestion now exists and is constantly growing. From the statistics of 1918, the latest we have available, the largest amount of coal shipped to tide water was from the West Vir¬ ginia coal fields, or what is known as the New Biver fields, which amounted to 9,286,536 net tons. The total amount shipped from the West Virginia coal fields to the tide water amounted to 20,883,250 net tons. According to the best information obtain¬ able, bituminous coal exported from the United States in 1920 was 180% greater than in the year 1913. It has increased materially since that time. It is the view of experts that the continued increase in movement of this traffic is one of the most encouraging developments in our country’s drive for a leading place for the commerce of the world. Our close prox¬ imity and direct connection by rail, the shortest rail distance by 100 miles to the coal fields, ought to assure our port of our share of this important and growing traffic. Turning now from ocean to rail traffic: The movement of 65 commodities by water between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts through the Panama Canal has increased rapidly in the past two years, noticeably in 1921. More boat lines have been established and the lines already in the trade have increased their shipping, and an increased volume of cargo is offered. That this ocean traffic through the Panama Canal is still increasing, we invite your attention to the following tables showing the number of vessels and tolls collected for six months period, October to March in 1922 and 1923 as compared with the same period in 1921 and 1922: Number of Vessels Tolls Collected Month 1922-23 1921-22 1922-23 1921-22 October_ 294 255 $1,255,508.00 $1,047,935.62 November_ 294 222 1,264,436.54 923.018.70 December_ 304 239 1,312,570.12 1.003,598,27 January _ 352 210 1,505,285.53 847.767.55 February_ 330 212 1,423,972.51 866,266.18 March _ 415 234 1,827,733.00 956,726.76 Total_ 1,989 1,372 $8,589,505.70 $5,645,343.08 In this same connection we invite your attention to the fol¬ lowing statement of foreign trade from Southeastern ports giving a comparison of exports and imports from the southeast in 1920 and 1910: Foreign Trade From Southeastern Ports Total exports from Southeast, 1920- $1,153,458,000 Total exports from Southeast, 1910- 294,172,500 Increase_ $ 859,285,500 or approx. 300% Total imports from Southeast, 1920- $369,574,400 Total imports from Southeast, 1910- 76,018,400 Increase _ $293,456,000 or approx. 385% The timber shipment from the Pacific northwest to the Atlan¬ tic coast during the first quarter of the calendar year 1921 was 42,495,579 feet. Timber is now moving from the Pacific —5 66 coast to Atlantic ports at a monthly average of approximately 34,000,000 feet. This is equivalent to 1,360 carloads of revenue freight per month. Shipments from the Atlantic to the Pacific ports have increased in like manner. The coast-wise trade through the Panama Canal in the fiscal year ending 1921 equaled 1,430,977 net tons. In connection with the timber, less than 5% of the virgin forests of the Hew England States remains, and Hew York, once the leading state in timber production, now manufactures only 50 board feet per capita yearly, although the requirements due to increased population are 300 board feet per capita. The virgin pine forests of the South Atlantic and Gulf States have been reduced from about six hundred and fifty billion feet to about one hundred and three billion feet. It is estimated by the Forest Service that within 15 years these states will become importing regions, obtaining a portion of their require¬ ments on the long haul and higher freight rates from the Pacific coast. The average annual production of shingles in the United States is between six and seven billion. The greatest production of these is on the Horth Pacific coast, west of the Cascade mountains, in Washington and Oregon where practically all of the cedar shingles are manufactured. There is also a very considerable output of cypress shingles in Louisiana, and like¬ wise of the substitute patent roofings, such as asbestos, asphalt shingles, etc., in other sections. In the South, and in Horth Caro¬ lina, there is a very considerable demand for these shingles, and the red cedar must come from the manufacturing centers. At the present time this large movement of shingles, dried fruits, sal¬ mon and canned goods generally for Horth Carolina come by water from the Pacific coast to the eastern seaboard, and are generally distributed from the port of Horfolk for this State— no doubt our wholesale jobbers and the dealers at the coast ports, including Wilmington, have joined in the purchase of cargo lots of canned goods from the Pacific coast through Horfolk, for dis¬ tribution in Horth Carolina. Why should these pass Hatteras 67 and sail the extra distance to Norfolk? They will not if we estab¬ lish a port with modern terminal facilities in our harbor. The principal items moving from the Pacific to the Atlantic ports are wheat, food products, cold storage, lumber, flour, cop¬ per, canned milk, fruits and fish; and from the Atlantic to the Pacific ports iron, steel, merchandise and canned goods. The rates of carriers by water lines to the Pacific coast are approx¬ imately three-fifths of the existing rates on rail. We now invite your attention to the heavy import movement of crude rubber from South America to the United States, and also from the large territory in the Dutch East Indies. A glance at the map we have prepared will show the shortest route from the rubber fields of South America to the United States and to the plants using rubber in North Carolina and in the mid west, such as Akron. You will also note the area of great rubber production by the United States Rubber Company, which is 110,000 acres, with 5,000,000 rubber plants in the Island of Sumatra and on the Malayan Peninsula. The great field of rubber production, as you will note from the map, in addition to Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula, are the Islands of Ceylon, Java, Borneo and the Celebes. Our information is that the great bulk of the rubber coming from the East Indies up to the World War came via Liverpool and thence to New York. During the war this was forced to seek a direct route to the United States via the Panama Canal. From the traffic possibilities and other important and far reaching factors recited herein, it is evident that the construc¬ tion of a modern terminal, with ample harbor depth for any size of ships, with reasonable charges and other regulations under public control, together w r ith direct rail connections, as we now have, with the great producing sections of the West and Middle West, should result in a financially successful enter¬ prise and give to North Carolina an equality of freight rates with “The Virginia Cities” and other existing and prospective favored freight rate zones. It should bring about transporta¬ tion conditions in North Carolina in the same way and to the 6S same extent that favorable transportation conditions have been built up in other states north and south of us. It should attract tonnage in large volume. It should open up an outlet in our own State for our growing manufactured products. In 1919, the largest available data from the United States Census report on manufactures, the value of manufactured products made in North Carolina for that year was $1,347,000,000 in round figures, and the output of our manufacturing plants is not only rapidly increasing, but moves to all parts of the world. That business in unlimited amounts for this port by inland and ocean traffic exists and is obtainable has been clearly indicated to you. Shall we remain passive and asleep while our neighbors to the north and south are lending their credit in millions of dollars to secure this traffic, or shall we awake, recognize the situation as it is, lend the credit of our State and thereby not on! ' secure our full share of the business, but likewise cure the evils of which we complain ? Coaling and Oil Station at Southport It must be evident that the first step to accomplish this will be a coaling and oil station and we do not hesitate to em¬ phatically assert without fear of contradiction that the harbor at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, or Southport, is the logical, practical and only place in this State for the location of rai ocean port with terminals for a coaling and oil station. This location for such station is as definitely fixed by nature as is the great tidal basin as the only ocean terminal. The harbor and the only harbor that will accommodate ships of any draft desiring to enter for coal or oil, or any other purpose, is at Southport. It has cost nothing to maintain the necessary depth of water in the harbor itself since the river current main¬ tains this without cost. Moreover, it is the only location in this tidal basin into which vessels will enter for coal, except of course those actually bound to Wilmington. The evidence shows that for forty- five years passing vessels have inquired and still inquire whether 69 they can secure coal at Southport, and when informed that they cannot but that they can get it in Wilmington, do not put in for that port but keep on their course. In the earlier days as many as eighteen vessels in one day made this inquiry of the light ship at the point of Frying Pan Shoals, and they continue to inquire but quite naturally not so many do so. It is manifestly unreasonable to expect a vessel to spend a minimum of forty-eight hours off of its course in order to take on coal when with suitable terminal facilities at Southport they can leave their course, take on coal or oil and get back on their course within twelve hours. Pilots will bring them into and out of Southport at any hour of the day or night. They will not take them up the Cape Fear or return at night, espe¬ cially if large vessels. We Avish now to invite your attention to the official reports of certain district engineers of the Wilmington district which confirm our statements, with a comparison as between South- port and other harbors on the Atlantic coast. Colonel Earl I. Brown, as District Engineer of the Wilmington District, in an official report in 1909 said: “The location at Southport at the mouth of the Cape Fear River is especially adapted for a coaling station, since both foreign and coast-wise shipping would find it advanta¬ geous to coal at Southport in preference to Savannah, Charleston, or Newport News, as the distance from the line of ocean travel to Southport is shorter than to any of the other ports named. The dangers of Hatteras would also be avoided. . . . Such a coaling station at Southport would be situated nearer the route of steamers for all ports north of Cape Hatteras to the Panama Canal or to Gulf ports than Charleston, Savannah, or Jacksonville, having the advantage over Charleston, the next nearest port, of over 60 miles.” In 1917 Major A. E. Waldron, U. S. District Engineer at Wilmington says: 70 “The location of Southport at the mouth of the river is especially adapted for a coaling station, the distance from the line of ocean travel to Southport being short. Vessels coaling at Southport would also avoid risking the dangers of Cape Hatteras.” We clip the following from the Wilmington Messenger of April 2d, 1905. Favor Southport. Advantages of Southport for a Coaling Station. Letter to Col. F. H. Fries Wilmington Will Aid Her Sister Port in Getting the Railroad. Mr. J. Allen Taylor, President of Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, gives few reasons why Southport should be selected for a coaling station—depth of 30 feet could be obtained for $150,000 against $2,250,000 for same depth at Charleston. Colonel F. H. Fries, of Winston-Salem, is actively inter¬ ested in having a railroad built from Winston, N. C. to Charleston, S. C., the primary object being a coaling sta¬ tion. Charleston has not definitely been decided upon as the terminal of the road and persistent efforts will be made to have the road go to Southport instead of Charleston. The City of Wilmington will use every effort to induce those interested in the building of the road to decide on Southport, and with a view to showing the greater fitness of Southport from every standpoint, the following letter has been sent by Mr. J. Allen Taylor, President of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, to Colonel F. H. Fries: Wilmington, 1ST. C., March 24th, 1905. Col. F. H. Fries, Winston-Salem, IV C. Dear Sir: Referring to the project of a railroad from Winston-Salem to Charleston, S. C., in which you are act¬ ively interesting yourself, and understanding that the project has for its primary object a coaling station at 71 Charleston, I take the liberty to write you in behalf of the claims of Southport, N. C., which are submitted here¬ with, and to which your attention is earnestly invited. If the object is to establish a coaling station at the most available point, and the development of the country is but incidental to this primary purpose, I take it that established lines will be availed of to procure connections at the smallest cost. I desire, therefore, to direct your attention to the fact that a line from Winston-Salem to High Point, Asheville, Sanford, or Hamlet, would put you in touch with the A. C. L. at Sanford, or the S. A. L. at Hamlet, and in either case necessitate the building of only 25 miles of line from Navassa, a junction four miles from Wilmington, over a level country to Southport. Surveys and estimates have already been made for this line of 25 miles and the road can be built for about $7,000 per mile. I am informed that either the A. C. L. or the S. A. L. would be willing to make advantageous traffic terms, so that the object sought could be accomplished much more cheaply to Southport than to Charleston. By this route the distance from Winston-Salem to the coast is about 75 miles in favor of Southport. Now, as to the relative advantages of Southport and Charleston as a harbor, I beg to submit the following facts: A vessel on her course would go out of her way only 54 miles round trip to coal at Southport, 135 miles to Charles¬ ton, and 365 miles to Norfolk. The depth of water at Southport is greater at present than at Charleston, and a greater depth can be obtained and maintained at Southport than at Charleston. The harbor at Southport averages from 25 to 45 feet, while at Charleston it is much less. The bar channel at Southport is perfectly straight, while at Charleston it is very crooked. The Federal Government has recently made an estimate for a depth of 30 feet on the bar at Southport and Charleston and reports are now on file at the department in Washington, estimating that with an expenditure of $150,000, and a maintenance cost of $15,000 per year, a depth of 30 feet can be obtained and maintained at Southport; while at Charleston to obtain 30 feet depth would be at a cost of $2,250,000, and the ability to maintain this depth is problematical at most any cost. The channel to be dredged at Southport is 800 feet and at Charleston two and a half miles. I submit that the above facts are worthy of your consid¬ eration, and hope that before you definitely decide the matter that you will give them their due weight. I will add that I am authoritatively informed that Bruns¬ wick County would subscribe $100,000 to the stock, and I suppose that counties traversed between Winston-Salem and junction points with either the S. A. L. or A. C. L. would also subscribe liberally. I desire to extend you an invitation to visit Southport at your earliest convenience, and to be the guest of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce while in Wilmington. I feel quite sure that you will be astounded to know the superior advantages of Southport as a coaling station, and I have only enumerated some of them. We would spare no effort to make your trip pleasant as well as valuable to you. I will add that Southport is a free port, while compulsory pilotage obtains at Charleston and elsewhere. This is a point so vital as to spell success for Southport and failure to Charleston. Yours very truly, J. A. Taylor, President. It is strange indeed that a railroad has not long since been built to Southport and that excellent harbor taken advan¬ tage of. As a coaling station the place has every advantage over the ports of Norfolk and Charleston. To establish a 73 coaling station at Charleston it would be necessary to build high trestles, at an enormous cost, from which to dump the coal. This would not have to be done at Southport, or at least very little trestle work would have to be built, as compared to Charleston. The bank along the river front is very high and the channel is deep to within a short distance of this bank. This would be a wonderful advantage and one that Charleston does not possess. There is a magnificent bay at Southport and one that is large enough to accommodate an enormous fleet. The improving of the harbor would afford a haven for vessels during storms and when in Southport harbor they would be absolutely pro¬ tected from the fury of storms. With a wide and deep channel, and it w r ell merked, steamers could easily come in without a pilot and the largest of the sailing vessels would never have to take a pilot. The fact of Southport being a free port is wonderfully in her favor. Southport is a small place and consequently is not in a position to place her advantages before the world to such an extent as Charleston. If those interested in the proposed road would investigate the matter thoroughly, they would see that there is no comparison between the advantages of the two ports. Southport has every advantage and the only one that Charleston has is in being a town of importance and therefore in a position to press her claim. The size of the town when it comes down to the real object of the proposed road is of small importance and this being the case, Southport possesses all the advantages. It is difficult to see why Charleston should have been seriously considered. The business men of Wilmington are going to exert their best efforts to get Southport made the terminal instead of Charleston. Should they succeed, the old and quiet town down by the sea would at once assume new life and the minute a railroad struck the town the growth would be wonderful. With a 30 foot harbor, the largest vessels would come to South- port and it would become a great shipping point. All this 74 business would accrue to the railroad entering the town and the road could not help but pay handsome profits. Not only would this be a benefit to the town of Southport and the railroad, but all the towns along the line would be wonderfully benefited in the way of getting freight at a cheaper rate. Before taking any further steps in the matter Col. Fries and other capitalists interested should visit Southport and Compare her advantages with those of Charleston.” In addition to the foregoing, more ships pass close to this harbor than to any other port in this country. We know that many of them will bunker at Southport as soon as it is known the facilities exist for reasons given and because it will save them in both time and money to do so. We are assured that the oil supply will be secured at cheap rates since this will be transported in large vessels of deep draft, which are economical carriers, and all of them can easily enter the harbor at any stage of the tide. As to the coal supply for export and bunkering, we are convinced that under the most adverse construction a coaling station in this harbor will be given the same rates as at Norfolk and Charleston so that competition will be easily met with other stations. Moreover, we believe that State action in establishing modern terminals for a coaling station will result in securing a trunk line to this harbor from the coal fields. The opportunities and advantages are too manifest. As this will unquestionably result in a paying investment from the start and the policy of other states invites State construction, we urge that this State construct such coaling station at once as a first step in establishing a port with complete terminal facilities. The Cape Fear River Tidal Basin As a complete knowledge of this basin is essential for a proper solution of the problems of your Commission, we pre¬ sume to set them out in some detail. Between Wilmington, located on the east bank of the Cape Fear River at its junction with the Northeast River and the mouth of the Cape Fear 75 River, is a tidal basin about seventy-seven miles long, with a drainage area of 350 square miles and an average discharge of about 160,000 cubic feet per second during the ebb. At Wilmington the Cape Fear is reported as 300 and 600 feet wide in two official reports. It is actually about 450 to 500 feet wide there. The river gradually widens to the mouth of the Brunswick River (4 miles below), where it is about one and one half miles wide. From this point to the mouth its width varies from two to four miles. Its general direction is south until it reaches Hew Inlet, where it turns to the southwest until it reaches the town of Southport. It then flows southward until it reaches Baldhead or Smith’s Island, when it turns westward and flows past the bar. The Ocean Bar This ocean bar is two miles from the mouth of the river and about five miles west of Cape Fear Point. A shoal extends into the ocean for a distance of about 22 miles from Cape Fear Point and is known as Frying Pan Shoals. There is a light ship at the end of the shoals for navigation. These shoals serve as a protection for this ocean bar and the harbor at the mouth of the river. Improvements The first improvements of this tidal basin were commenced by North Carolina in 1822 and continued until 1829, when it was taken over by the Federal Government and has been con¬ tinuously carried on by it, except from 1839 to 1847, and again during the Civil War from 1860 until 1870. These improve¬ ments have consisted in dredging the channel from the ocean across the bar up this tidal basin to Wilmington; also in con¬ structing a dam from Federal Point, inclosing New Inlet, to Zeke’s Island, 5,300 feet long, and a defensive dyke from that island to Smith’s Island, a distance of 12,800 feet, known as swash dam, and constructed for the purpose of protecting the dam proper that closes New Inlet. With the exception of 76 these two dams the work has almost entirely been done by dredging. “The existing project, as modified, provides for a mean low water channel 30 feet deep and 400 feet wide across the bar; thence 26 feet deep and 300 feet wide in the river up to Wilmington, with an anchorage basin at Wilmington 2,000 feet long, 900 feet wide at the upper end, and 1,100 feet at the lower end, with approaches 1,500 feet long at both ends.” In 1921 the project was about 64 per cent completed. This new project also provides for changing the channel across the ocean bar and running it in a straight line southwest from Smith’s or Baldhead Island, and for maintaining the present channel until the new channel is completed. There was included in this project the construction of a stone jetty 10,000 feet long from Baldhead Island, parallel to the new channel, at a cost of $2,275,000, and $30,000 annual maintenance. This was not approved because of the cost and uncertainty as to the necessity for it after the new channel is constructed. The mean tide is 4.5 feet over the bar and is projected at the rate of 12 miles an hour up the tidal basin, so that high tide at Wilmington is about 2% hours later than high water on the bar. This tidal wave gives rise to flood velocities of from three to four miles per hour, and ebb velocities of from five to six miles per hour. The mean tidal variation at Wilmington is 2.5 feet. The Harbor at the Mouth of the Cape Fear River There is a natural harbor from the bar at the mouth of the Cape Fear and for a distance of several miles up the river which has a natural depth of from 35 to 50 feet. This depth is maintained without cost to the government for 5 miles above Southport through the natural scouring of the river. This resulted from the closing of the ISTew Inlet channel by the dam and swash defense dam which forced the river to follow its present channel. We cannot describe this harbor at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in more expressive language, or in a more correct 77 statement of the facts, than to quote from Mr. James Sprunt in his “Chronicles of the Cape Fear River,” (pages 546-547). Mr. Sprunt is a citizen and resident of Wilmington and the owner of private terminals in this city. He says: “In view of the opening of the Panama Canal and of the manifest destiny that the United States will have closer commercial relations with the countries of South America, whose development is now progressing with such rapid strides, the admirable location of Southport for a govern¬ ment coaling station is apparent, and it will surely become a commercial entrepot of importance. Business is quick to avail itself of superior advantages, and the facilities offered by Southport are unrivaled. Its land-locked harbor, ranging from thirty-five to forty-nine feet in depth, and five miles long, with a width varying from one quarter to three quarters of a mile, affords a commodious and secure anchorage for the fleets of commerce and the navies of war, while the frowning ramparts of Fort Caswell assure ample military protection. Its bar is almost perfectly protected from the heaviest gales; for twenty-five years the hurricane signals have been hoisted at Southport only twice, and no hurricane wave can possibly enter the port. Safety of all shipping is thus assured. “While possessing these advantages, Southport enjoys the distinction of being on the direct line between the vast coal fields of the interior and the points where the coal will be wanted—Colon and Guantanamo Bay. It is as near Panama as Charleston, and, being south of Hatter as, has evident advantages over Norfolk. No other Atlantic port is so near to the ports of the Caribbean Sea or to the ports of the east coast of South America. Its climate is remark¬ ably fine; it has a constant sea breeze and fogs are almost unknown. Its temperature is free from extremes. For twenty-nine years the mean temperature during the months of June, July and August has been 79 degrees, and for 78 December, January and February 44-8 degrees. And its water supply is excellent. “Located upon the system of inland waterways now in process of construction, and connected with the great south¬ ern railway lines, it has every facility for commerce, and, directly connected with the great coal fields, it offers ad¬ vantages for a government coaling station second to no other port on the coast.” A personal examination of the temperature chart shows that the mean average temperature of Southport during the months of December, January and February has been slightly more than 48 degrees, or 4 degrees higher than stated by Mr. Sprunt. The Southport-Chicago syndicate above mentioned, in de¬ scribing the harbor of Southport, said : “The practically land-locked harbor, with a deep water area of more than five square miles, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, 1ST. C., is the only great seaport on the Atlantic coast of North America not as yet connected with its tributary country either by rail or by practicable water¬ ways. Here the Gulf Stream, which is followed by all steamers bound from Gulf or West India ports to northern or transatlantic ports, is nearer the land than at any other point on the coast, and the demand for coal is great and constant. Ocean steamers requiring coal are compelled to leave their course off Southport for a side trip of from three to six days to Newport News, Va., returning before resuming their voyage, practically to the same point at which they originally left their course. Less than one day would be lost in coaling at Southport and coal would readily command one dollar per ton more than at Norfolk or New¬ port News. As a matter of fact, with limited facilities and less dispatch, coal at Southport today brings 80 cents more per ton than at the other ports named. “Wilmington, the present port of entry for the trade of Cape Fear River, is thirty-five miles up the stream. Its 79 400,000 tons of merchandise, received and shipped by sea, representing an annual trade value of twenty-five million dollars, passes through Southport harbor, with five square miles of sheltered anchorage 30 to 50 feet deep, and works up and down a narrow, tortuous and dangerous artificial channel, with difficulty and enormous expense maintained by the United States Government at an unsatisfactory and shifting depth of from fifteen to seventeen feet. The depth of water at the entrance to Southport harbor is now twenty- two feet. Improvements in progress will shortly give a permanent depth of thirty feet. The entrance is well lighted and well buoyed and the distance from the open sea to anchorage, with good holding bottom, less than two miles; to the Southport piers, where coal chutes, docks and ware¬ houses will eventually be located, less than four miles. “For nearly one hundred years the safe and thoroughly protected natural channel at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, and the deep and capacious land-locked harbor to which that channel gave entrance, have been practically unused and the commerce of the river has passed through what was known as the “New Inlet,” an accidental channel opened by a great storm nearly one hundred years ago at a point several miles above the natural mouth of the river and through the narrow sand spit forming the eastern bank of the river and separating it from the Atlantic Ocean. Through the ‘New Inlet’ a portion of the volume of the river was diverted and a practicable channel was formed which was sufficient to accommodate the light drafted coasters and small steamers of former days and which was much abused by blockade runners during the Civil War. The commerce thus built up sought security by centering at Wilmington, and it has been and still is the policy of that city to oppose the transfer of her commercial interests to the deep harbor at the mouth of the river, where they naturally belong, and where alone they can be permanently and successfully established. 80 “All the great railroads which tap the coal fields of south¬ western Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee are seeking a future outlet on the south Atlantic coast for the purpose of realizing the large profits incident to the coaling of coastwise and transatlantic steamers. Southport is the only point at which the maintenance of such an out¬ let for coal and naval stores is at least practicable. Charles¬ ton, the only alternative port, is exposed to the full fury of easterly gales and has not yet recovered from the devas¬ tation caused by the storms of 1893 which washed vessels from their moorings up into the city streets and did in¬ calculable damage to docks and wharves not only in that city, but at Savannah, Port Royal, Beaufort and at every other port on the southeastern Atlantic coast save only at Southport, where the rise of the water in the safe and sheltered harbor did not exceed seven feet and did no dam¬ age whatever. About ten years ago Colonel S. A. Jones of North Carolina, at one time the chief engineer of the plant system of railroads, presented to Congress a joint resolution passed by North Caro¬ lina, Florida, Tennessee and 19 other states urging, among other things, the establishment of a foreign mail route to South America from the Cape Fear Harbor. In stating the reasons which impelled North Carolina to pass the joint resolution he said: “North Carolina, because her port is on the shortest (route) and is on an air line from the center of American population and the Tennessee coal fields and the great Northwest, through Wilmington and Southport Harbor, to reach the entire east coast of South America, the West Indies, southwestern Europe, and at the same time save the people of North Carolina over $2,000,000 per annum on coal alone, and a like amount to the people of South Caro¬ lina, and break up a freight discrimination prevailing against North Carolina of $15,000,000 per annum more for the same service rendered her by the railroads than they 81 are charging for the identical same service rendered to her adjoining sister states, because North Carolina has not got open a rate-basing port. “The reason for the discrimination against her ports is to maintain the right to collect this discrimination and maintain the long railroad and long ocean haul that the opening of the North Carolina [port] would cut in two. “Yet, notwithstanding, North Carolina, with its natural harbor at Southport, second to no other harbor south of Norfolk on the Atlantic coast, and on a direct air line as far hack as Winnipeg, Canada, clear across the United States and on across the coast of South America, cannot get a through rail and water rate, domestic or foreign.” In the joint resolution itself we find the following: “Southport, N. C., is the closest harbor that can be cheaply made available for ocean steamers drawing thirty-five and forty feet of water, and be closer to unlimited base of sup¬ ply of coal by over one hundred miles of railroad haul, than any other such harbor to any other American base of coal supply on the American continent that can be made available for so great a saving to the navy and to commerce, for so small an amount of money, and which will be the closest tide water that can float the American navy by over one hundred miles to the great bread, meat and grain pro¬ ducing states than any other harbors cn the coast of the United States that can be equipped with many times the amount of money asked for.” The Anchorage Basin The protected anchorage basin begins at the ocean bar and extends into and up the river and is ample for any number of vessels which may enter the harbor. The width of this basin from Southport to Fort Caswell is more than two miles and extends for about the same distance towards the mouths of Dosher and Dutchman’s creeks and Elizabeth River on the —6 south and west. Between and on both sides of this river and the two creeks is a salt marsh which can be economically con¬ verted into an anchorage basin of at least sixteen square miles by cheap dredging. This is unnecessary for present or antici¬ pated anchorage space, but it might well be undertaken as an investment, since the land reclaimed would be exceedingly valuable. The narrow neck of land separating this marsh basin from the ocean would be widened and with the other reclaimed land would be exceedingly valuable for business, residence and agricultural purposes. This opening up of Elizabeth River, which is to be the outlet for the coastwise inland waterway south of Southport, would enable vessels entering the harbor to anchor or dock in fresh water. On the northern edge of Southport is Fiddlers Drain. Two miles north of this is Prices Creek and about the same distance further north is Walders Creek. At the mouth of each of these is an extensive area of marsh land which can be readily dredged to any depth as anchorage basins. With the growth of com¬ merce this dredging will certainly be done because in these basins thus created piers can be constructed so that vessels can avoid the current when docking perpendicular to the river. The entire Cape Fear River basin can be dredged to practic¬ ally any depth as far as Wilmington without encountering any serious obstacles. In two or more places in the present channel shell deposits have been found in the river channel. Of course it will cost a very large amount of money, greater doubtless than present or immediately prospective commerce will war¬ rant. To this first great outlay must also be added a large annual maintenance charge. All of such improvement of the river channel will necessarily be done by the Federal Govern¬ ment. Before such improvement is even recommended by the II. S. engineers the commerce of the port must demand it. Even when convinced of the necessity for such improvements Congress is slow to act or appropriate the necessary funds, frequently failing to appropriate for unfinished parts of a pro¬ ject already begun and useless without being completed. 83 The west bank of the river from Fiddlers Drain to Walders Creek is quite elevated above high tide. It is sufficiently high to permit of loading coal or oil into the largest vessels by gravity. The natural channel of the river follows generally this west bank the entire length of this tidal basin and this high land is generally found along this bank. Between Fiddlers Drain and Prices Creek lies the land which has been offered the Commission for the purpose of port development. Southport or Wilmington It is generally conceded that the development of a tide water terminal by the State should be located somewhere on the tidal basin of the Cape Fear River, at one or the other of the two municipalities on this basin. The question, therefore, is re¬ duced to Southport or Wilmington. A. Wilmington. We invite your attention to: 1. The anchorage basin or harbor. The anchorage basin at Wilmington, when completed under present plans, will be 2,000 feet long, 900 feet wide at the upper end, and 1,100 feet at the lower end with approaches 1,500 feet long at both ends. We as¬ sume that this basin will be located below the ferry crossing be¬ cause the river is not over 500 feet wide at that point and the widening to 900 feet would be very expensive, even if practical. This basin will not permit of anchoring many vessels with neces¬ sary swinging space, so that practically every vessel must actu¬ ally tie up to the docks and be under expense for the usual charges all of the time in port. To obviate this situation will in¬ volve large expenditures, which will grow with increasing com¬ merce. 2. The approaches to the harbor. In order to reach this anchorage basin, the river channel for 24 miles above South- port must be widened and straightened and maintained at an average depth of 27 feet at least, all of which depends now, as in the past, upon uncertain Federal appropriations. Moreover, it is generally recognized that the present channel is entirely inadequate for the passage of ships which must be utilized in 84 order to economically transport ocean-going freight. None of this draft can now navigate this channel. Many of lesser draft cannot navigate without lightering and all will wait for tides and daylight. 3. Terminal facilities . It is claimed before your Commission (testimony of J. S. Williams) that Wilmington has adequate port facilities at the present time, and has the same unloading facilities as at Norfolk and Charleston to the extent of eco¬ nomically handling 9 ships at the same time. In order that you may form your own conclusions as to this matter, we now call your attention to the following data, taken from the official reports of the engineering department: There are 73 wharves at Wilmington. The city owns seven with a total frontage of 350 feet, which it secured from the United States Government. At present all of the important wharves are located on the east side of the river, leaving the western bank of the river practically undeveloped, which offers excellent opportunity for the development of public terminals. The wharf owned by the Wilmington Compress & Warehouse Company is the only wharf of any size open to the public in Wilmington. Their rates for wharfage, handling, and storage are fixed and equal to all, but controlled solely by themselves. Their wharf has a frontage of 436 feet. The wharf is covered and used as a warehouse, and just back of this there are three brick ware¬ houses, one containing a modern compress. The combined floor space is about 200,000 square feet. This wharf is equipped with a Hunt elevator for unloading, and the warehouses with distributing tracks. These warehouses store fertilizer materials, fertilizer, cotton and general merchandise. The water terminals owned by the Seaboard Air Line con¬ tain a total frontage, including slips, of 2,700 feet. These terminals contain warehouses with a combined floor space, in¬ cluding platforms and wharves adjacent, of 245,834 square feet. The wharves are fitted with modern appliances for unloading and the warehouses with distributing tracks. The water termi¬ nals owned by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Co. contain 85 a total frontage of about 2,700 feet and warehouse with a combined floor space of about 100,000 square feet. Their stor¬ age warehouses are fitted with modern appliances for trans¬ ferring cargoes into the buildings. The Clyde Line Steamship Co. has purchased property and constructed a warehouse. This property has a river frontage of 418 feet and the warehouse a floor space of 51,500 square feet. Other wharves well equipped with transfer facilities are those belonging to the Springer Coal Company, the three fertilizer manufactories, Champion Com¬ press Company and the Hilton Compress & Warehouse Com¬ pany. A belt line railroad extends along all that portion of the water front south of the Atlantic Coast Line yards; north of that point the wharves are served by spur tracks from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Air Line Railway. 4. Traffic. We have previously indicated the volume of traffic that now enters the port of Wilmington. This we believe com¬ pares very favorably in tonnage and volume with that entering the ports of Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville. At one time this traffic was as large as all three combined and yet, in spite of this, the fact remains that Wilmington has never been declared a rate-basing port of entry for this State. This is, as we all recognize, the crying need of our State. 5. Lightering. We can illustrate this best by quoting from letter of Heide & Company, of Wilmington, of June 30, 1917, to the District Engineer: “In reply we beg to submit information contained in two sheets attached as well as this letter. “You will note in the first statement a list of vessels which had to go to neighboring ports to discharge part cargo before coming to Wilmington, N. C. In the case of the potash ships, a great many of them did this on account of expecting to be ordered to the factories beyond Wilmington, the depth at these points being only about 16 feet on the North East River and about 19 feet 6 inches at Navassa on the Cape Fear River. Even when lightened so that the 86 draft has not exceeded the amount of water between Wilmington and these factories we have had trouble with vessels grounding on account of the twisting of the river between here and Havassa factory. “You will note in first statement a list of vessels which on this statement. These vessels were forced to go to other ports to discharge either because their owners feared ground¬ ing or on account of actually being too deep to come to Wilmington with a full cargo. The owners of the Charlton Hall have several times expressed themselves that they pre¬ fer to charter their boats for almost any port besides Wilmington, H. C. “In our second statement you will note vessels whose draft was about 23 feet or over. You will note that several of these vessels had to lighter cargo before being able to make the trip up the river. This expense is considerable and un¬ doubtedly works a hardship on the port, as importers have to take what ships are offered now and if they cannot pick up small ships they must send the large ones to Charleston and ship from that port to the Wilmington territory. “You will note the steamship Santa Rosalia. Hot only did this vessel ground at quarantine, but in making the trip up the river she struck the bank while making a turn, the tide turned her completely around and she then headed down to Southport again. Fortunately the Wilmington was passing and at a wider point down the river assisted the Santa Rosalia to turn. She came on to Wilmington without further incident. “We have had many complaints from masters of steamers regarding the depth of water in the river, especially in connection with the many turns to be made on the trip up. We do not keep any record of these complaints, except when there is actual grounding, but we believe that every effort should be made to maintain the present depths and if possible to increase them. “If the river was straight there would not be the hazard 87 that there is at present, therefore it appears to us that it is absolutely essential that dredging work should be main¬ tained. We also quote from report of the Chamber of Commerce of Wilmington of July 16, 1917, as follows: “We may add that our principal competitors for com¬ merce, more particularly for foreign exports, have been, and still are, Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah. Each of these ports, neighbors to ours, have a greater depth of water than Wilmington, and therefore we are entitled to some consider¬ ation on that plea, because we have not been able to keep pace with the competition of these points, as we cannot ac¬ commodate the deep draft vessels which they employ.” Vessels too large when fully loaded which touch at Norfolk, Charleston, or Savannah before coming to Wilmington, N. C., to discharge: Draft on Date of Cargo Arrival Steamer's Name Arrival Ft. In. Nederland _ _ _ Jan. 8, 1912 Potash salts 21 0 Gratia Feb. 27, 1912 u u 15 0 Drumlanrig , _ . June 21, 1912 Nitrate soda 19 0 Manchester Merchant. July 10, 1912 Potash salts 22 4 Anglo Canadian July 13, 1912 Nitrate soda 18 6 Pruth _ _ Oct. 5, 1912 Potash salts 16 10 Hittfeld _ Oct. 10, 1912 66 66 21 6 Helsinborg Dec. 20, 1912 66 66 18 6 Waltraute__ June 14, 1913 66 u 19 6 Alster_ _ _ _ . June 12, 1913 u a 19 9 Rokeby July 27, 1913 a u 18 0 Tropei Aug. 10, 1913 u u 16 8 Unfield _ Aug. 28, 1913 u u 19 0 Woglinde _ . Sept. 11, 1913 a a 19 3 Kylestrome Sept. 12, 1913 Salt 18 3 Nora _ Oct. 22, 1913 Potash salt 18 9 Holtye Oct. 25, 1913 a a 15 10 Riverdale_ Nov. 27, 1913 66 u 22 0 Waverly Nov. 28, 1913 66 66 15 8 Eagle Point Dec. 4, 1913 66 66 19 6 Lingfield Dec. 18, 1913 66 66 19 3 Urna Dec. 22 1913 66 66 18 2 88 .T oa eh ini Zelck _ ... Dee. 22, 1913 ii ii 15 5 Charlton Ilall _ _ _ . Jan. 1, 1914 Nitrate soda 19 6 Barrsheld_ Jan. 3, 1914 Potash salt 17 4 Mascara. - . . Jan. 4, 1914 Nitrate soda 18 2 Snowdonia n Jan. 11, 1914 Potash salt 15 8 Locksley. ___ Mar. 24, 1914 a a 15 6 Charlton Hall- June 30, 1914 Nitrate soda 20 6 Zvldijk _ . . June 30, 1914 Potash salt 16 5 Harhurg_ . . . . July 4, 1914 ii ii 17 4 Honenfelde_ - July 10, 1914 a a 20 2 Kiel-__ July 29. 1914 a a 20 3 Lena _ _ _ _ Sept. 1, 1914 a a 19 9 Isthmian_ May 26. 1915 Nitrate soda 19 7 Howick Hall _ Mar. 31. 1916 ii ii 22 O imd Pennsylvanian _ . Nov. 18, 1916 ii ii 22 2 List of steamers handled by Heide & Co. at the port of Wil- mington, N". C., from January 1, 1912, to date, whose draft ex¬ ceeded 23 feet: Date of Draft Remarks Steamer's Name Arrival Ft. In. Shiela_ April 14, 1912 23 0 No trouble. Celia. __ _ June 1, 1912 26 0 Went ashore twice while coming up Cape Fear River. Auchenblae -- Nov. 27, 1912 23 0 No trouble. Chimu_ _ . Feb. 1, 1913 25 5 ii ii Vermont_ Mar. 13, 1913 23 9 ii ii Strathardle_ Mar. 26. 1913 22 11 Went ashore at No. 2 buoy while approaching bar. Floated with assists ance of tug. No trouble in river. Auchencrag__ May 1, 1913 24 7 No trouble. St. Nicholas_ May 7, 1913 24 0 ii ii Foxton Hal_ May 14, 1913 24 0 ii ii Strathallan_ May 17, 1913 23 3 ii ii Kildale— _ May 20, 1913 24 8 ii a Queen Elizabeth June 24, 1913 25 4 a a Dorothy_ Feb. 19, 1914 23 2 Rubbed bottom while passing No. 9 dredge. Bergenhus May 4, 1914 23 8 No trouble. Strathgyle.. _ _ May 15, 1914 23 0 ii ii Geo. Pyman_ June 23, 1914 24 0 ii ii Strathlorne Oct. 6, 1914 23 10 ii ii 89 Falls City Oct. 16, 1914 25 5 a a Bellgrano _ Mar. 1, 1915 25 4 Grounded at Southport. Pulled off by tugs and revenue cutter. Charlton Hall... April 28, 1915 26 0 Over bar. Anchored at Southport, lightered car- go. 25 0 Up river. Hartington _ May 3, 1915 25 6 No trouble. Hornelen May 28, 1915 23 7 u u Bantu _ _ _ Dec. 21, 1915 24 o a a Maipo _ _ Oct. 24. 1916 30 0 Over bar. Anchored at Southport, lightered car- 25 10 go. Up river. Santa Rosalia_ Feb. 25, 1917 25 3 Grounded at quarantine station, Southport. Hilonian_ April 8, 1917 25 4 No trouble. Blaamyra June 14, 1917 25 0 ii ii Dora Baltea*__. Sept. 3, 1916 24 0 a 44 *Came to Wilmington and completed her cargo, sailing thence. 6. Difference in costs. The cost of vessels entering and dis¬ charging at Wilmington as compared with Southport is meas¬ ured by a number of factors. (1) The time consumed in pass¬ ing up the channel of the river from and return to Southport, about 25 miles distant. (2) Is the additional cost of lightering in certain cases. (3) Delays incident to waiting for daylight. (4) Delays incident to waiting for the tide. (5) The necessity for docking at practically all times instead of lying at anchor in the harbor. An approximation of the cost of vessels of different tonnage from Southpoft to Wilmington and return is obtained by com¬ puting cost of charter at $1.00 per ton per month, from which we have: Charter of 3,500 ton vessel 12 days $1,400.00 “ “ 5,000 “ “ 15 “ 2,500.00 “ “ 10,000 “ “ 20 “ 6,666.67 90 For operating expenses: Vessel Steam- Cost Lay Days Cost ing Days 3,500 ton 2 $540.00 10 $1,750.00 5,000 “ 2 750.00 13 2,600.00 10,000 “ 2 860.00 18 3,960.00 Total $ 3,690.00 5,850.00 11,486.67 This is based on discharging 700 tons per day and we assume that the vessel will carry double the net tonnage; i.e., a 3500 ton ship will carry 7,000 tons of cargo, from which we find the cost of charter and operating expenses if no cargo is taken on: For a 3500 ton vessel_ $3,690.00 For a 5000 ton vessel_ 5,850.00 For a 10000 ton vessel_ 11,486.67 If cargo is taken on we assume ten days, which will be the mini¬ mum for loading, so must add the following: Grand Charter Operating Total For a 3,500 ton vessel 10 days $1,166.67 $1,750.00 $ 6,606.67 “ “ 5,000 “ “ 10 “ 1,666.67 2,000.00 9,516.67 “ “ 10,000 “ “ 10 “ 3,333.33 2,200.00 17,020.00 We are convinced that a 10,000 ton vessel could not navigate the river from Southport to Wilmington, so would have to lighter at great expense at Southport or at some other port out¬ side of the State. The foregoing takes no account of the cost of pilotage which is based on the draft of the vessel and not on tonnage. For example, a vessel drawing 20 feet of water the cost is to South- port, $78.30 and to Wilmington, $125.28 each way. A vessel coming into Southport to hunker will only pay pilotage one way and with a material increase in shipping these charges will be much reduced. The average cost of docking in Wilmington is $150.00. These costs are much less than those of the Board of Engi¬ neers because no account is taken of insurance, of interest on the investment, etc. In short, we have endeavored to reduce our difference in cost to a minimum. 7. Coal and oil. We have sufficiently amplified Wilmington’s position as a bunkering or coal exporting port. Beyond serving 01 those ships actually bound for that port there is no real chance of its being a competing port for coal or oil. Its most wildly enthusiastic boosters will admit this as a fact. With bunkering and coal exporting terminals established at Southport, we have no doubt trade in coal and oil at Wilmington will certainly in¬ crease very greatly in volume and value. Wilmington, however, is now and will always remain the business center of our tide water port. She has today and will continue to have all of the banking and other facilities upon which the commerce of the port must depend. She will be the first and greatest beneficiary from the establishment of port terminals wherever located in the Cape Fear tidal basin. Should these terminals be located at Southport, not only the banking but all the other business, including the headquarters of all shipping, will center in and function from Wilmington. The mere location of terminals at Southport will not and can not change this situation. It will simply add very greatly, as we are convinced, to the growth in population, in business, in commerce, both domestic and foreign, and in material wealth and prosperity to Wilmington. That Southport will grow with increase of business, due to terminals, there can be no question; but long before Southport can hope to become a competitor in any sense the two places will have been joined together by a practically continuous stretch of terminals and terminal rail¬ ways, and have become essentially one municipality. We have endeavored in every way to resolve this question dispassionately and without prejudice of any kind and, as we see it, the establishment of State terminals at Wilmington will not, and cannot, cause the growth and development she desires and to which we think she is justly entitled; (1) because she now has and for many years has had port terminal facilities which evidence presented, to you by her own experts demon¬ strates are modern and more than adequate for expeditiously handling all traffic she could develop; (2) because the location of these terminals there is in direct opposition to the provisions of nature, which has seen fit to provide all the essentials for a 92 harbor, such as depth of water, proximity to the ocean, etc. at another point on the tidal basin; (3) because, in spite of having more traffic than other ports, such as Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville, she has been unable to secure for ISTorth Caro¬ lina an ocean port of entry, which is necessary to relieve our people of the octopus of freight rate discrimination. We con¬ clude, therefore, that her own interests and especially the more vital interests of the State demand that the State terminals be located at Southport. B. Southport. 1. The anchorage basin or harbor. This anchorage basin has been fully described. It is there and will cost the State noth¬ ing. Any freight ship in the world can enter it at any time during the 24 hours of every day in the year. It can anchor in good holding ground with ample swinging space however many vessels may be in the harbor. It will not crowd out or endanger other shipping however numerous. It will be always protected from storms and tidal waves. It has entered a harbor of the first class by international definition, because it has more than 30 feet of water at all stages of the tide. 2. The approaches to the harbor. When you cross the ocean bar you are in the Southport harbor. The channel across this bar is maintained by simple dredging. It can be and will be maintained at any depth desired, and is and has been satisfac¬ torily buoyed and lighted for navigation. 3. Terminal facilities. The following is the official report as to existing terminal facilities below Wilmington: “Below Wil¬ mington there are 27 wharves, of which 2 are at Fort Caswell and 12 at Southport. One wharf between Wilmington and South- port, belonging to a fertilizer factory, has a frqntage of 226 feet and is equipped with an elevator and 2 derricks. Four of the wharves at Southport and vicinity are owned by the Fed¬ eral Government. All wharves below Wilmington, except at Fort Caswell, are free to water carriers when not in actual use by the owners, to which must be added a quarantine station of the first class.” It is manifest that there exists a clear field for 93 locating and constructing modern terminal facilities that will most economically meet existing and contemplated demands of shipping. This condition insures no tearing down or demoli¬ tion of existing terminals and no interference with private or railway terminals already in existence. Arrangements have been made to avoid and prevent any holding up of the State in prices demanded. Already a suitable site has been tendered free of cost to the State. We now present to you blue prints of this site showing its location with respect to Southport, and a proposed development of terminals which cost the owners many thousands of dollars. These blue prints we believe will be of assistance to you in determining the approximate cost of terminals, such as you will recommend for construction at Southport. The estimated cost of these terminals at that time, including a railroad to Navassa, was $2,000,000.00. The esti¬ mated cost of the same terminal facilities today, we think, should be obtained through computations by an expert terminal engi¬ neer. We do not have detailed data. 4. Traffic. More ships pass within a short distance of South- port than pass any other port in this country. In addition, every vessel that comes to the port of Wilmington must pass and return through Southport. We have shown that a large proportion of the passing ships on the ship lanes will “bunker,” i.e., secure coal and oil, at Southport if facilities are available. It is certain that many of those entering for coal or oil would gladly accept freight consignments less than full cargo. It is equally certain that others will make regular calls on schedule at this port when its facilities are known to be in existence. We have positive assurance from two companies that they will do this. It is these relatively small consignments and regular calls rather than full cargoes that establish a rate basing port at tide water. 5. Lightering. Manifestly all expense of lightering will be obliterated with terminals at Southport. 6. Costs. The expense of entering the port at Southport will depend upon the character of facilities provided by the State 94 terminals. If the port of Rotterdam can discharge 11,000 tons of grain, bunker the vessel, furnish all needed supplies and clear the vessel in less than 24 hours, the State terminals we con¬ struct must be equipped to closely approximate such results, since modern competition demands it to secure the business for the port. It is well known that proximity to the sea invariably saves in time and in operating expenses. With State owned and operated terminals at Southport there will be no delays waiting for tides or daylight, as vessels can enter and depart at any hour of the day or night, and when in the port there will be an equality and reduction of charges with an equality of right to all in the use of all terminal facilities. It is such modern and up to date facilities with equality to all that bring ships and railways with large volumes of business to any and all ports, and upon which North Carolina can and must rely. 7. Coal and oil. We have shown that Southport is the only place in the State where a coaling port for export and bunker¬ ing of coal and oil can be economically established. Southport. What is it, and why? It is a village of 1,600 people with its own electric light and water plant, supplying excellent water in abundance; an ice plant, some fish, prawn scrap and oil factories and with several miles of cement walks. The wonder is not that it has grown but that it exists at all after the years and years of complete isolation and strangula¬ tion to which it has been subjected. Its principal excuse for existence is that it is located on the only deep tide water in North Carolina, forming the potentially best and safest harbor on the Atlantic coast south of Norfolk, and capable of equaling that as a port. As this harbor cannot be moved or stolen, resort has been had to extraordinarily successful concealment of its value as a natural harbor and of its unlimited potentialities as a tide water port for the commerce of the State, the country and the world. The people of this State who own it have been kept in Egyptian darkness as to the real asset they possess in this harbor and surroundings. Practically none of them realize the priceless value of the locality as an all the year health resort, 95 of its limitless resources in horticultural products and of the value of the waters in fish and sea food of all kinds, including the diamond back terrapin of equal or better flavor than those that made Maryland famous. Shall we in North Carolina continue in our ignorance and neglect of this great harbor ? Or, shall we unshackle the products of our farms and factories from the strangle hold of freight rate discrimination by opening up this great port to the com¬ merce of the world? You cannot depend upon Southport to do this; it is impossible. It has neither the influence nor the financial backing to accomplish it. This is clearly the business of the State, since the entire State will receive the benefits, and therefore the State must do it. We have tried to point out the way by showing: (a) That nature has fixed the great tidal basin at the mouth of the Cape Fear River as the one and only place on the North Carolina coast susceptible of being developed into a deep tide water port. (&) That nature has also fixed and with equal definiteness the harbor at the mouth of this basin as the one and only natural location for a rate basing port. O) That the location of port terminal facilities for a deep tide water port at any other place in this State or in this tidal basin will involve the unnecessary expenditure of many millions of dollars to secure harbor requirements in depth ol water, pro¬ tection and anchorage space, already existing at Southport, without a penny of cost. ( d ) That a tide water port or ocean terminal with adequate modern facilities is the first essential for breaking up freight rate discrimination against this State. O) That there is ample traffic naturally and logically tributary to Southport, when suitably equipped with terminal facilities. (/) That the State is fully justified by reason of precedents shown, and as a promising business proposition, in lending its credit for locating and constructing these terminal facilities, 96 since such investments have always been profitable and always take care of bonds issued. (g) That this construction of a State port with modern and adequate port terminal facilities is not only warranted but de¬ manded in order to: (1) Relieve the congestion in other existing ports upon which hundreds of millions of dollars are being expended to increase existing terminal facilities. (2) To reduce, regulate and, as far as practicable, avoid excessive port charges at other ports, and likewise prevent discrimination against shipping entering the harbor. (h) That this tide water port must be connected by a suitable railway under one management through the coal fields of the Virginias, Kentucky and Tennessee, to the Middle West in order to secure the best results. ( i ) That this tide water terminal by the State will certainly result in (1) securing coal and oil at competing prices for a coaling station and for export through such terminals; (2) in securing through and satisfactory rail connections for all traffic to Cincinnati and the Middle West through the coal fields, and (3) in breaking up the existing freight rate discrimination by having the port officially declared a rate basing tide water terminal. Recommendations We urgently request, therefore, that you actually and defi¬ nitely recommend to the Governor and Council of State for the earnest consideration of the General Assembly of the State: 1. That the State of North Carolina locate and establish a deep tide water port at Southport, North Carolina, to be equip¬ ped with adequate and modern terminal facilities, and to be maintained and operated by the State in perpetuity. 2. That the actual management and control of this State port be invested in a State commission, duly appointed by the Gov¬ ernor of the State, with the approval of the Senate. 3. That these terminal facilities be constructed as follows: By first providing adequate and modern-facilities for hand- 97 ling coal and oil for bunkering and for export, for freight and passenger, and then for lumber, grain, etc., as demanded. That for the location and construction of this State port with terminal facilities the State Port Commission be authorized and directed to employ competent experts as port engineers, etc., as long as their services may be needed. That the State of North Carolina issue bonds in the minimum amount of $10,000,000.00. The proceeds of such bonds to be utilized for the construction of this deep tide water port with adequate and modern terminal facilities at Southport under the supervision of the State Port Commission. That the income from this investment, after providing the necessary sinking fund and paying all costs of administration of the port, shall constitute a revolving fund and be invested in improvements of this port and terminal facilities. That should the establish¬ ment of such port with adequate and modern terminal facilities not result in the immediate abolishment of the existing freight rate discrimination against North Carolina through the exist¬ ing railways, or through the immediate construction of one or more trunk line railway systems connecting this port of South- port with Cincinnati and the Middle West through the coal fields, that then, and in that case, the State of North Carolina take appropriate steps to secure such railway connections. In concluding may we urge that you make a positive and direct recommendation in which you fix the location definitely for a deep tide water port with adequate modern terminal facili¬ ties, to be constructed and operated by the State in perpetuity. We believe that the time has past for dilatory proceedings and calls loudly for definite and positive action for the relief of the State. We are at the parting of the ways in our future progress. We have been long enough shut off from our full, free and rightful access to the ocean commerce of the world. A terminal through which our people and our commerce must pass to and from the ocean will not come into existence of its own initiative. We must construct it. Let us do this by direct action of our State and through it get acquainted with the world and at the —7 98 same time acquaint the world with us and with what we have to offer them. This is the one most promising way to secure our full share of the world’s commerce and thereby build up a successful and contented citizenship. Let us do this for our¬ selves and never forget that the Lord helps those who help themselves. In closing our brief we desire to express our appreciation of the services of Gen. E. F. Glenn in preparing and submitting this brief to your honorable body. The Southport Chamber of Commerce, By T. H. Lindsay, Secretary .