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MARINE REVIEW. i 7 The Treaty Should be Amended, Lake ship builders have reason to be pleased with the broad spirit shown by ship building interests on the Atlantic coast in regard to the matter of abrogating the treaty with Great Britain which prohibits the construction of vessels of war on the lakes. Not long ago, Mr. Charles Cramp of the big Philadelphia concern wrote to Secretary Carlisle one of the strongest articles that has as yet been presented on this subject, and now the Marine Journal, a representative organ of eastern ship building interests, prints a leading editorial that supports in a very forcible man- ner the position taken by lake builders. The Journal says: "Itis high time that congress took some action in a matter that every once in a while crops up and by the progress and development of the country becomes more pressing every day. Thisis the prohibition of building war vessels on the great lakes. Owing to the treaty between Great Britain and this country made after the war of 1812 it is not poss- ible for either nation to build or maintain vessels of war on the lakes upon which the two nations have boundaries. This was an excellent idea when it was devised. It has saved both countries vast expense in the maintenance of armed fleets on the lakes and of a tremendous line of fortifications along the line which divides the United States from Canada. It has been faithfully lived up to by both nations, generation after gener- ation, until the present time, and it is to be hoped that its friendly spirit may continue as long as there are two flags upon the inland waters. In the progress of events, however, circumstances have arisen which make it undesirable that the strict letter of the treaty should be longer main- tained. Ifthese circumstances had been forshadowed when the treaty was made it is very certain that the contingency would have been pro- vided for, but as the development of the ship building industry on the lake front was then wholly unanticipated, it was but natural that the treaty should neglect mention of its possibilities. Now that ship build- ing has developed on the United States side of the lakes to sucha tre- mendous extent that many of the lake yards are entirely capable of com- peting with seacoast builders, and the St. Lawrence canals already afford facilities of vessel transportation undreamed of when the treaty was framed, there appears every reason why the matter should be looked at in its modern light and concessions agreed upon to permit the building even of warships upon the lake front. "That such concessions would be equally fair to both countries will readily be seen upon consideration. That the Canadians have not ac- quired ship building facilities equal to those of their neighbors on the opposite side of the lakes must be solely owing to their inferior enter- prise, ability and population; the people of this country have done noth- ing outside of legitimate competition to prevent them. At the same time it must be borne in mind that they have utilized their limited abili- ties to advantage, and even now, under the guise of fishery protection cruisers, maintain three steel steamers with ram bows, armed with guns that can throw shells three or four miles, besides having abundant stores of arms and ammunition at their lake front harbors with which to equip merchant steamers and transform them at short notice into powerful cruisers. A modification of the treaty to enable the construction of war vessels on the lake front would be equally to the advantage of the Cana- dians, and it should, of course, be continuously agreed that no war vessels should be maintained on the lakes. But that it would not avail anything for Great Britain to object to such a concession if the emergency arose re- quiring the use of lake ship yards for the construction of war vessels is also evident, for we have the facilities for construction whenever we choose to use them. "All laws by the changes of time become liable to necessity for amendment in order to apply their principles to more modern conditions, and this is the view that must be taken of the old treaty. Thereis not the slightest desire to be unfriendly with England or Canada, and we imagine that the fairness of the amendment we suggest. would be re- ceived entirely in the proper spirit by the Britishers if properly repre- sented by our government. It seems altogether probable, indeed, that if the Canadians were in the same disadvantageous condition as this nation now finds itself in regarding the treaty, they would be equally anxious to have such an amendment, and the only reason they have not first moved in the matter is because they have not equally developed the demand. Meantime our lake ship builders are constantly giving evidence of their ability to compete with coast builders in the construction of good, speedy and powerful vessels. They pay taxes equally with coast builders for the development and maintenance of our navy and they should be per- mitted to equally profit by their advantages in ability to bid for govern- ment contracts. That they are prohibited from partaking in this indus- try was demonstrated by the recent decision of the government throwing out the bid of a Detroit company for the construction of gunboats at their lake front yard. The opportunity for legislation to meet the occa- sion is now open to congress." ALL NEW HYDROGRAPHIC CHARTS ARE KEPT IN STOCK BY THE MARINE REVIEW, 516 PERRY-PAYNE BUILDING, CLEVELAND. _ Ohio to the most accessible harbor on Lake Erie. Around the Lakes. Capt. George W. Vickery, who sailed a number of well known crafts in the early days of lake navigation, died at Oswego recently aged 77. There is some doubt as to whether foreign insurance companies will bid for the grain cargo business out of Duluth. It is said that they took the business at 15 cents last year and lost money. Local companies have bid 30 cents for the business next season. M. J. Steffens of Chicago is having an $85,000 steam yacht built by E. W. Heath, Benton Harbor, Mich. She will have a Warrington water tube boiler, will be 85 feet long and 14 feet beam Her triple engines are expected to drive the yacht fifteen miles an hour. Nothing definite is known of the Ann Arbor No. 1 losing seven loaded cars in the middle of Lake Michigan recently, but it is said that the whole twenty-four cars were loose and moving back and forth on the track, and that after seven went overboard the balance became wedged. The accident was probably due to carelessness in fastening the cars. Col. Jared A. Smith, in his annual report, strongly recommends the building of a breakwater at Ashtabula, the cost of which he estimates would be $465,000. To further the project the city council has appointed acommittee consisting of Mayor McKinnon, H. 1, Morrison and J. P. Manning to go to Washington and labor with the river and harbor com- mittee for a liberal appropriation. Mayor McKinnon attended the annual meeting of the Lake Carriers' Association, to secure a resolution declar- iug a breakwater at Ashtabula a necessity, and the Ship Masters' Associ- ation, which meets at Washington, Jan. 21, will be asked to do likewise. Representative Dalzell, of Pittsburg, has introduced a bill in congress furthering the Pittsburg ship canal scheme. Itis to incorporate the Lake Erie & Ohio River Canal Co., with Andrew Carnegie, Geo. A. Kelley, and nearly a score of other Pittsburg gentlemen as incorporators. The bill authorizes the construction of a canal from Pittsburg, near the junc- tion of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, thence by way of the Ohio, Beaver and Mahoning rivers in Pennsylvania, and the Mahoning in Ohio, toa point at or near Niles, O., and thence northwardly through To succeed witha canal bill and to build a canal will be found two very different matters. Representative Corliss introduced his bridge bill in congress, Mon- day. It differs in several important particulars from the one previously offered in the senate by Mr. McMillan. It provides that the bridge shall have three spans. That on the American side shall be not less than 650 feet ; that on the Canadian side not less than 450 feet, and the center span not less than 1,100 feet. The purpose of this distribution is to bring the central span directly over the main channel of the river. The bill states that there shall not be more than two piers in the river. The secretary of war is to appoint acommission of three disinterested engineers to establish the location of the apptoach within these limits, to make rules for the equitable use of the bridge by the different railroads and to locate the piers. Stocks of Grain at Lake Ports. The following table, prepared from reports of the Chicago board of trade, shows the stocks of wheat and corn in store at the principal points of accumulation on the lakes on Jan. 11, 1896: Wheat, bushels. Corn, bushels. Chicagoi®G Ree i acieere v+0221,094,000 1,525 ,000 Dillutheiihsiisssserssce ieee ees 8,877 ,000 22,000 Milwatlke!.fs.ccs.cossscseesst eo facse eee 440,000} 1 94 iabes ees Detroiteis..ckscititnincais een 357 ,000 19,000 Poledontsdctissitherscs ou eee 867 ,000 202,000 Binffalotsssissislaces.loviscevsecnete eee 2,937,000 113,000 otal eee: cscs sissies 34,572,000 1,881,000 As compared with a week ago, the above figures show at the several points named a decrease of 165,000 bushels of wheat and an increase of 471,000 bushels of corn. On Jan. 11, there was afloat at Chicago 700,000 bushels of corn and 227,000 bushels of oats; at Buffalo, 259,000 bushels of wheat, 223,000 bushels of oats, and 304,000 bushels of barley; at Duluth, 512,000 bushels of wheat; and at Milwaukee 176,000 bushels of wheat and 120,000 bushels of oats. . The Almy water tube boiler has come into very good reputation at home, and now makes its appearance abroad in Rutherford Stuyvesant's new English auxiliary steam yacht Arcturus designed by H. Clare Byrne, Liverpool. On the official trip sufficient steam was easily generated, at 150 pounds pressure, to keep the triple expansion engines going 140 revo- lutions per minute, giving the highly satisfactory mean speed of nearly 113 knots on the messured mile, being fully a knot more than what was expected. In firing the boilers, and feeding with fresh water, no diffi- culty whatever was experienced. A comparison could thus easily be made, as duplicate engines in other vessels lately have been supplied with steam from other types of boilers, but with much less efficiency and nota- bly inferior speed.