Alabama's Pride

In population, Mobile, Ala. ranks far down the list of U.S. cities (118th by the 1940 census). But in foreign trade (imports) it is the nation's No. 6 seaport. Last week, at a seafood-gumbo celebration of the 20th anniversary of Mobile's Alabama State Docks, Alabamians made claim to even greater distinction: they crowed that their port was the most modern in the U.S.

Before it got around to building Mobile's docks, the state of Alabama had worried long and listlessly about the decay of its only seaport. But once started, Alabama moved fast. It floated $10,000,000 in bonds to finance the project, appointed a retired Army engineer and native Alabamian, General William L. Sibert, to do the job. As builder of the Gatun locks and dam of the Panama Canal, Sibert had learned to shun the short-range economies of second-rate construction.

Over a 550-acre tract, he built three huge piers on concrete piling, one of them strong enough at the outer end to support 1,000 pounds per square foot. They had warehouse-flanked slips for berthing 22 ocean liners at a time. There were also a loading plant with a capacity of 600 tons an hour, a cold storage plant with room to ice 50 railroad cars simultaneously. Sibert transplanted three miles of mainline railroad track which were in his way, diverted a creek to make room for more ships.

The depression robbed the docks of a good start, but from 1933 on, the port picked up rapidly. The non-political managers of the docks solicited business all the way from Canada to South America. One big boost came from the Mobile-based Waterman Steamship Corp., one of the largest lines in the U.S. in point of ships operated (70). Last year the port handled some 4,000,000 tons of bauxite, bananas, sugar, flour, textiles, machinery, wood, paper, manganese ore, etc. In addition, Alabama State Docks are credited with attracting more than $50,000,000 worth of new industries to the area.

On a paying basis since 1943, the docks have spent several million dollars out of earnings for improvements, are now spending $5,000,000 more to increase the ship berths. With an envious eye on New Orleans, Mobile's rival and neighbor, the state plans eventually to spend $15,000,000 more on "Alabama's proudest venture." Said Governor "Kissin' Jim" Folsom last week: "You ain't seen nothing in port progress to what you're going to see here in the next 20 years."

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