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Pi MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, O. Chicago office, (branch), No. 706 Phoenix building. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Single copies 1ocents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on appli- cation. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,657 vessels, of1,183,582.55 gross tons register in the lake trade. The lakes have more steam vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the com- bined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections of the country. The number of steam vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons on the lakes on June 30, 1892, was 321 and their aggregate gross tonnage 534,490.27; in all other parts of the country the number of this class of vessels was,on the same date, 217 and their gross tonnage 321,784.6. The classification of the entire lake fleet is as follows: Gross. Class. Number. Tonnage. BS leRITISVEGSE Sheeei ci .t sc ciee oleae ener eteeet ese 1,631 763,063.32 SAU MMNS VESSELS. .crasrscce- foes tedournearsasehesec 1,226 319,617.61 Wanalaboats er, ee eokeseesc etka ee heb lasewaresaens 731 75,580 50 IBAGR CBr cwisnar vows ss sncabens codes cor cseee rene ent aire 69 25,321.12 MGtalaacesteerccsce ts strcepagiesscotccers 3,657 1,183,582.55 Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, is as follows : Number. Net Tonnage. TSS ieccuate cs ca sauehes tous. seveagdeses donde 222 IOI, 102.87 Ee Slee tension cae tdoun cstracisls <ossiaagasoes 225 107,080, 30 TOGO secon diecssscncssiecetostiewc: coscievesesci 218 108,515.00 USO A cceccccsecscocsscers vaseeestveserieceseece 204 111,856.45 GOO eewteitasaudcot ooteecene.setecsecdoeskte de 169 45,168.98 RO tal & 22.0. dis. ocossetes ceoeereteees 1,038 473,723.60 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. St. Mary's Falls Canal. Suez Canal. 1892. 1891. 1890. 1892. 1891. 1890. No. vessel passages 12,580] 10,19I| 10,557 3,559 4,207 3,389 Ton'ge, net regist'd 10,647,203 8,400,685 8,454,435 7,712,028 8,698,777 6,890,014 Days of navigation.. 223 225 228 365| 365 365 Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. Mr. FITHIAN of Illinois, chairman of the House committee _ on merchant marine and fisheries, is again preparing a free ship bill, which will receive a favorable report from his committee, and which, contrary to the wishes of almost the entire merchant marine of the country, will probably be passed by the present Congress, in accordance with the free trade policy of the party in power. 'The measure does not directly affect the lakes, as the Illinois free trader foresaw the absolute uselessness of trying to _ Secure votes enough, even in the present Democratic Congress, to pass a bill admitting foreign-built vessels to our prosperous coast- wise trade. It is needless to say that such a bill would be op- posed by most Democrats from the lake states, as well as the States bordering on the seaboard. 'The author has, accordingly, prepared a measure that will permit of any citizen or citizens of the United States purchasing the whole of any vessel, no matter where the vessel has been built, and securing American registry for it, provided that the vessel so purchased and registered shall not be used or allowed to engage in the coastwise trade. Mr. Fithian's claims in support of the bill are summed up in a state- ment made a few days ago. Against the argument that the achievements of the merchant marine of Great Britain are due to subsidies, he holds that subsidiesout side of those paid for carry- _ing the mails, which he says are very exacting, are confined to a few ships of admiralty subvention. He charges the opposition to free ships mainly to the ship builders, whom, he claims, have little immediate concern in the amount of commerce carried, and Who do not look to the future advancement of their own indus- try, through the development of American commerce in cheap ships bought from foreigners, 'The refusal of this country in the past to take this method of building up a shipping business is put down as the great cause of decline in the mercantile fleet. When England in 1855 proved herself able to then build iron ships cheaper than we could, we should have bought the iron ships in a cheap market, according to this line of argument, and by so doing build up a ship owning fraternity, that would fur- nish a demand sufficient to reduce the cost of iron ship building at home. 'This theoretical reasoning is not, however, accepted by a large majority of the ship owners and ship builders, and on the prinicple that the measure in question is the entering wedge towards free ships in all branches of this country's shipping, it is expected that representatives of lake interests will oppose its passage. THERH is significance in the fact that the best civil engineers in this country are giving more attention to questions relating to a deep waterway from the lakes to the Atlantic seaboard than any other subject of transportation now before the American people. G. W. G. Ferris, the young engineer who has become famous through the great wheel at the World's Columbian Exposition, intimates that he will shortly give the canal question active at- tention. 'he current issue of the Review of Reviews contains a lengthy interview with Mr. Ferris, in which he says he has a number of other schemes on foot, some of them of a kind that might be thought rather too daring. "For example" he adds "T shall make Chicago a seaport in a few years. I have had the matter long in mind, and I have taken out patents in the prin- cipal countries of the world. Ido not think that there is any- thing unfeasible in the idea of using compressed air instead of water in the locks of our canals. It would revolutionize the canal business. 'Today, as always, the great point about canals is not their first cost, but the expense of building and maintaining storage reservoirs for water. This item alone on the Erie canal has cost more than did the canal itself originally. There is no reason why a box could not be constructed into which the largest ocean ships could be floated, the box closed, and the whole box, water, ship and all, raised by compressed air as easily as you lift an elevator. But perhaps that is all I had better say about the subject." Mr. Ferris' plan of using compressed air in connection with canal locks is not entirely new. Schemes based upon radi- cal departures in the construction of canal locks, with a view to overcoming the need of large water supplies, have for some time past demanded the attention of engineers in other countries, notably France and Germany. Ifthe inventor of the big Chi- cago wheel has, however, gone so far as to secure patents through- out the world, he may soon spring a surprise on the people of New York state, who have claimed that the question of water supply was in itself sufficient argument against the proposition favoring a radical enlargement of the Erie canal. IN ALL of their dealings with legislative matters, the execu- tive officers of the Lake Carriers' Association have had nothing to say about needed reforms in fog signals. Neither have they shown any disposition to bring about a uniform method of steer- ing steamboats. The settlement of these questions on the lakes Seems to rest with the masters, nearly all of whom are of the opinion that in the matter of fog signals there should at least be a change that will do away with the danger of the porting signal of one blast being confounded with the fog signal of one blast blown by steamers running without consorts. As regards the question of uniformity in the arrangement of wheel chains, there is some difference of opinion, but it would seem that in view of the advantages to be derived through the adoption of straight chains, the advocates of the cross-chain method could be induced : to give up their preference. However this may be, the point now is with regard to an early settlement of these questions. Agreements can best be secured through this Shipmasters' As- sociation, but unless that body takes up this work early this fall another year must pass without anything being accomplished. The supervising inspectors of steam vessels will meet in January, and unless the wishes of the vessel masters on the lakes on these subjects can be presented to the inspectors in proper form at that meeting, there is no hope of the necessary changes in the steamboat laws,