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8 MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. HOMER J. CARR, " | Associate Editor and Manager Chicago Office, Western Union Building, 110 LaSalle Street. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION--$z2.00 per year in advance. Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on application. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,600 vessels, measuring 1,154,870.38 tons in the lake trade. In classification of this fleet the lakes have more steamboats of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the combined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections of the country. The number of vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tous on the lakes on June 30, 1891, was 310 and their aggregate gross tonnage 512,- 787.58; in all other parts of the country the number of this class of ves- sels was, on the same date, 213 and their gross tonnage 319,750.84. The classification of the entire lake fleet is as follows: Class. Number. Tonnage. Steai VESSCIS scar pce tecaeeseugsase rer emcecrs 1,592 756,751 -53 AMM VESSE Spectres sss oMeemcenreeas neste 1,243 325,131.06 GanralebOatsreaasscccnccuevan causeesdoscedcnsiestenctcs 703 72,515.42 BAL SESH. veers ands eldle.lhitee toncusb¥ sebhn carer ssc dae 62 20,472.37 Ms OCA eaiiga oe ares otto sdcae oes peeves 3,600 1,154,870.38 Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the report of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows: : No. of boats. Net Tonnage, TSS ee ccetencdeteide ccaneeeecatedses dene sntsarte case 152 56,488.32 TO OO scesadatre neh als eis det adie caster slonae momen te 222 IOI, 102.87 TiS ©) seme ceese tes scian nate seecederaiese teres: 225 107,080.30 MSO OMsmemcseec ree aretecencaianscieeeccnesceccens 218 108,515.00 TiC) Meeaeen cites peereen ee eae oececreniear steer 204 - T11,856.45 SISO PALS te aaicnes ss semethe eapwacmsenn T,021 485,042.94 St. Mary's Falls and Suez canal trafic: Number of boats through St. Mary's Falls canal in 1890, 234 days of navigation, 10,557; tonnage, net registered, 8,454,435. Number of boats through Suez canal during 1890, full year, 3,389; tonnage, net registered, 6,890,014. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. MuNICcIPAI, authorities in Cleveland have again taken up the question of ownership of lake front property,and it is probable | that proceeeings at law will be instigated against two or three of the railway companies claiming title to certain lands over which a dispute has arisen. 'The question of title to such lands in Cleveland, as well asin other ports where similar disputes have arisen, is a matter that belongstothe courts and does not ad- mit of an opinion before the proper course of testimony has been submitted. Itis manifestly unfair,therefore to all interests that in the Cleveland case especially a great deal of rot has been printed about these railway companies taking lake business away from Cleveland while securing control of lake front property. In the case of the Lake Shore Railway Company, for instance, it is charged that with the interests of the company in the coal and iron ore at Ashtabula Harbor, the aim of its managers is to prevent an increase in these lines of trade at Cleveland. Such statements, calculated to have a bearing upon matters like the present question of land title, may do some harm among those unacquainted with the conditions that govern the relations of lake shipping interests toward the railways, but they will have no effect among vessel owners. 'The shorter haul between Ash- tabula and the furnace districts has been and will continue to be a leading factor in giving that port the largest share of the iron ore trade. Distance is against Cleveland in this regard just as it is against Lorain, Huron, Sandusky and Toledo, the ports farther up Lake Krie. The vessels engaged in these lines of trade are owned and controlled in Cleveland, and it isa narrow view of this question to claim that the railway companies bear- ing such an important part in the advancement of a city should be hampered in other directions on account of the efforts of man- agers to adjust their business to conditions ruling in certain lines of trade. It might as well be claimed that Detroit and other St. Clair and Detroit river cities with their vessel] owning and ship building interests should renounce all measures per- taining to the welfare of lake commerce because the actual car- rying trade to and from the northwest passes their doors. There are two sides to this question of the relations borne by the rail- ways toward lake commerce and city authorities will do well to remember this point in cases like that now being considered in Cleveland. AGAIN it seems evident that the only way in which the Welland canal toll question can be settled is by prompt meas- ures on the part of the United States government to put in force at the St. Mary's Falls canal regulations similar to those gov- erning the shipment of grain, coal and other commodities through the Welland. Secretary of State Blaine and Secretary of the Treasury Foster were engaged in a conference with Messrs. Bowell and Foster, the Canadian ministers, on the sub- ject when Mr. Blaine's resignation was sent to the president so abruptly a few days ago, but they had arrived at no conclusion further than a reply from the Canadian ministers that, while the rebates allowed might be considered discrimination in favor of the Canadian route, it was not discrimination against the citizens of the United States, for the reason that British subjects were treated in precisely the Same manner as citizens of the United States. 'The admission that the Canadian system of tolls favors a Canadian route is in itself enough to warrant retalia- tory measures at the Sault, if a satisfactory settlement can not be reached. But there is no danger of Canada allowing the question to extend so far as to involve retaliation at the Sault canal if the proper spirit is shown by our own government. Asa result of having wheel chains on lake steamers rove in different ways the owners of the passenger steamer Pilgrim presented her to the owners of the Kalamazoo, which was sunk by the former in collision. The owners of the Kalamazoo paid $6,000 towards the mortgage on the Pilgrim, but aneminent ad- miralty lawyer says that this was a contribution, as the Pilgrim was entirely at fault. This is only one of many cases of loss through the different methods of steering lake vessels. Some more of these cases are needed to convince owners, as they pre- sent more forcible arguments on uniformity in steering than wordy debates or newspaper agitatation of the question. Some data was collected by the REviEwW a short time ago showing that of the representative fleet of the lakes 286,950 tons steered ship fashion and 179,735 steamboat style. It was expected that the old Lake Carriers' Association would endorse the universal straight chain plan and that this endorsement would be laid be- fore the supervising inspectors of steam vessels at their last an- nual meeting, but as many of the line boats steer with cross- chains it failed to receive attention. It is to be hoped that the new association will look after this matter in time for the next meeting of the inspectors. THe New York Engineer quotes from the Postal Guide a letter in which the first assistant postmaster general says there is no law which compels a subscriber to pay for a paper after he has notified the publisher to stop it. This, of course, only oc- curs where publishers do not require subscription money in ad- vance. A subscription list paid up in advance is the least troublesome to subscriber and publisher, and certainly the most valuable for advertisers. Every branch of trade has its Ishmael- ites, and the alleged technical publications that exist upon ad- vertising secured through practices demanding rulings of this kind are the greatest detriment to the journal that is con- ducted on honest business principles. Foreign naval powers are constantly showing uneasiness on account of the advancement being made in our merchant marine as well as the navy. 'The latest decree is to the effect that here- after American naval architects shall not be admiteed to Euro- pean dock yards in which war ships are being built. or