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MARINE REVIEW. VoL. XIII. CLEVELAND, O., JANUARY 30, 1896. No:33: The Taxation Question Again. Cleveland newspapers have again taken to criticising vessel owners who have seen fit to organize stock companies and establish headquarters in surronnding towns where taxes are not excessive. Arguments against action of this kind on the part of vessel owners are not new, but just now certain harbor improvements are contemplated in Cleveland, and as the newspapers have seen fit to accuse the vessel interests of refusing to pay their share of the city's expenses, while deriving most benefit from these improvements, some answer has been made regarding this question of taxes. A vessel owner who has not listed his property outside the city, and who is therefore free to talk on the subject, writes as follows to one of the local papers: '"The vessel owners referred to in your articles on taxation were badly treated while they listed their boats in Cleveland. The assessors and board of equalization used what is known as the Lloyd's Register for determining values of vessel property. Valuations in this register are far above selling prices, and are quoted for insurance purpose only. In- surance companies do not care how high they place the values, as they insure for only five-sixths of the register value, and then have one-third off new for old on partial losses; and, as the bulk of the losses are partial, rather than total, you will see that they were only paying out on a basis of about one-half what was in the register. Where a total loss occurs, of course, they pay the five-sixths, but their premiums are very high, and the greater valuation, the greater income they have, the intention being, when they take a risk, to receive the premium and hope not to pay the loss. "' Another evil to which vessel owners were subjected at this port was that ifa man boughta vessel and paid one-fourth down, and gave a mortgage for the balance of three-fourths, they made-him pay taxes on the full amount, notwithstanding that the owner of the mortgage should pay taxes on his mortgage. '"Now these are the principal grievances in a money way, but these officials engaged a party known as 'the tax smeller,' Morgenthaler, to annoy almost everybody who had any property listed in the county. He was getting a large percentage on all he could wring out of the prop- erty owners, and many people submitted to his methods rather than go into litigation. If you will make proper investigation you will find itis not alone vessel property that has been driven from the district, but you will find that owners of many-other kinds of property have been compelled to change their places of residence on account of these abuses. "When this kind of work was begun we happened to havea lot of very new and very smart officials who were going to bring about a re- form. They have brought it about, and now are the people pleased with it? Ifthis vessel property you speak of is not far enough away from the district and you would like to legislate it into the district, we will go still farther away. Vessel owners will not be brought into a district where conditions are so unreasonable and where they have so much annoyance, even at the penalty of changing their places of residence altogether, as many others have already done. "Tt is a question in the writer's mind whether boats should be taxed at all in the port where they are owned, as they use every port on the lakes as frequently as they do the port from which they hail. If they should pay for use of harbors, as you make the point in your article, why not pay for all the harbors they use? The Cuyahoga river is being allowed to fill up with mud and sand, and it is not often our boats come here anyhow. They go to Lorain, Fairport, Ashtabula and Buffalo many times where they come to Cleveland once. We notice also that vessels are subject to sewer tax in Cleveland, though they do not often run in the sewers "' Under present customs laws no charge is made by collectors of cus- toms for furnishing abstracts of titles to vessels. The government pays collectors for this work. It is thought, however, that a fee of $1 should be paid for each certificate of this kind, and the United States senate a few days ago passed a bill establishing such acharge. The measure has not as yet been presented to the house. Japan proposes to build up her commercial navy by giving subsidies to ship builders for every ton above 1,000, and to ship owners for all ships of 1,000 tons that can make ten knots an hour, the subsidy being increased for every 500 tons additional burden or every knot additional speed. Chicago's Loss of Lake Trade. Chicago, Il]., January 30--This city is at last awakening to the fact that it is not keeping pace with its competitors for lake commerce. 'The river is filling up, and the city has no money to dredge it out. Every- thing on the river is behind the times. Delays in unloading coal, on account of antiquated appliances, together with heavy bills from ob- structions in the channel, are driving Chicago coal shippers out of the western field. In short, this city is handicapped in every direction, in meeting the competition of its lively rivals at the head of Lake Superior and along the west shore of Lake Michigan. All this has led to.a movement to get the general government to take charge of the river. Several meetings have been held at the office of the commissioner of public works; committees have been appointed, and an active crusade to that end has been inaugurated. It used to be that only marine men could be interested in any movement for the bet- terment of Chicago river, but now the vast elevator, coal, lumber, manu- facturing and allied interests along the river are working hard to have something done which will tend to preserve an open channel. Even the railroads, which have freight docks, are coming into camp. The day seems to be past when attempts to keep out obstructions were denounced in some of the newspapers as "tugmen's kicks." Had it not been for the small band, which made the fight for the Chicago river when it was an unpopular thing to do, it would have been closed to vessels long before this. The interests which had tens of thousands of dollars at stake to every dollar of the tugmen stood aloof. It was so much nicer to let the other fellow wage an unpopular contest. The situation now is most peculiar. The general government claims jurisdiction over the river, and enforces it by allowing no bridge to be built without the consent of the secretary of war. It also enforces its authority to order the removal of all unreasonable obstructions to navi- gation. Beyond this, the government does not go, and no appropriations have ever been made for the improvement of the stream. The drainage board also claims jurisdiction over the river asa part of the drainage system. By formal resolution, the drainage trustees have assumed authority to forbid any obstruction which might prevent the free flow of water through it. Third and last comes the city of Chicago, which has hitherto dredged the channel, maintained police authority over the movement of vessels and regulated the river the same as a street, which in one sense it is. = Be In view of the conflicting claims for jurisdiction, Major W. lL. Marshall, the United States engineer, has been steadfast against an ap- propriation for any improvement, so long as the city continued to empty its sewers into the river. He has held that it was not the duty of the general government to care for Chicago's sewage. The entire system of city sewerage is based on the use of the river, and that now can not be changed. Nor can the tunnels be lowered except at a great and prohibi- tory expense. The problem of putting Chicago riverin shape to meet the demands of the 20-foot channel seems to be past solution. If noth- ing is done, the port before long will be like Waukegan and Kenosha, where the water is too limited for even the old canalers, letting alone any preparation for the 20-foot channel. , There are several instances on record of mending a broken shaft at sea, but few of making a new propeller. Yet, thatis what the chief engineer of the steamer Strathnevis had nearly accomplished when she was taken in tow after having been a month helplessly adrift on the Pacific. This propeller was constructed by heating iron sheets, cutting them to the right measurements and hammering them into the proper shape. It had a length from tip to tip of 7 feet 6 inches, and by bolting the sheets together he obtained a thickness of from one-half inch at the tip to three inches atthe boss. Straps were bolted from tip to tip to hold the blades rigid and holes were bored through the boss. Had any favorable weather occurred it was the intention to shift the cargo suffic- iently to tip the ship and bolt this ingenious contrivance to the shaft, and there is no doubt that its use would have given the shipa speed of from three to five knots.--Marine Journal. M. E. B. A. No. 51, Muskegon, Mich.: President, Don McMillan ; vice president, Harry O'Hara; treasurer, A. A. Green; corresponding and financial secretary, James Cummings; recording secretary, Henry Con- nell; chaplain, Don McMillan ; conductor, E. V. Barry; doorkeeper, Frank White. ee Se