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12 MARINE : c-fos SS SSS SS SSS DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, O SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per yearin advance. Singlecopies 10 cents each. eu yenlent binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on appli- cation. The books of the United States treasury department on June 30, 1895, contained the names of 3,342 vessels, of 1,241,459.14 gross tons register in the lake trade. The number of steam vessels of 1,000 gross tons, and over that amount, on the lakes on June 30, 1894, was 359 and their aggregate gross tonnage 634,467.84; the number of vessels of this class owned in all other parts of the country on the same date was 316 and their tonnage 642,- 642.50, so that half of the best steamships in all the United States are owned on the lakes. The classification of the entire lake fleet on June 30, 1895, was as follows: Gross Class. Number. Tonnage. Steam vessels...........ccccsscsssscscsevsces poses 1,755 857,735.00 Sailing vessels.............. Soneatae secinenes tea sees 1,100 300,642.00 Unrigged.......... Becpinae deseeeadenas seanact acces 487 83,082.00 MOtAlsracscssceccscccsoscssoseuecsesces ee: 3342 I,241,459.00 The gross registered tonnage of vessels built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the reports of the United States com- missioner of navigation, is as follows: Number. Net Tonnage. Year ending June 30, 1891..........cseceer 204 I11,856.45 Ss ss ss SYP sscqan0Ga coogoneD LS) 45,168.98 s " 1893...-000008 cooces GIG 99,271.24 § i) of T8Q4...0eccccecee Renee 106 41,984.61 g s i 1895) <<.-c0s6 Reece aS 36,353.00 MOtalicscccsasersscess esas baotacacteses 747 334,634.28 ST. MARY'S FALLS AND SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC. (From Official Reporte of Oanal Officers.) St. Mary's Falls Canal. 1895.* | 1894. 1893. 1895. 1894. 1893. No.vessel pass'ges| _17,956| 14,491| 12,008] 3,434] ---3,352| 3,341 T'n'ge,net registd|16,806,781|13,110,366|9,849,754||8,448,383|8,039,175|/7,659,068 Days of Navigat'n 231 234 219 365 365 365 * 1895 figures include traffic of Canadian canal at Sault Ste: Marie, which was about ¥ per cent. of the whole, but largely in American vessels. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. . Suez Canal. 'NOo RAFTING regulations were incorporated in the river and harbor bill, and it is now quite certain that after all the fight that has been made by vessel owners, there will be to legislation on this subject in the present congress. Congressmen who were depended upon to look after the rafting regulations in the river and harbor bill were not inclined to insist upon the regulations being included in the bill, on account of a fear of jeopardizing appropriations, and now there is little probability of even the introduction of aseparate measure. If vessel owners regard this rafting question of as much importance as they did some time ago, it would seem that the details of legislation regarding it have been neglected. THESE are certainly days of combinations in the iron business, but if they work out rightly lake vessel owners will have nothing to complain of, as the aim of all of them is to hold production within bounds and thus create a stability of market conditions. Great surplus stocks and wild fluctuations in prices are disastrous to all interests concerned in the iron industry. Itis said that the combination of manufacturers of soft steel is as strong as that of the ore mining companies. They have fixed upon $20.25 and $21.25 as prices of billets in Pittsburg and Chicago respec- tively. A pool of Bessemer pig iron makers would now seem in order. _ "Don'r grow weary Willie while we're wiggling well," was the word- ing of a telegram received by Capt. Wm. S. Mack from Harvey D. Goul- der, who went to Washington, Tuesday, to look after the Detroit river bridge bill for the vessel interests. Capt. Mack had just returned to Cleveland from Washington, where he had found sentiment in the bridge matter somewhat against the vessel interests. Mr. Goulder, upon reach- ing the capital, was probably not inclined to look upon the bridge ques- tion with feelings quite as dismal as those of his predecessors. - ALTHOUGH the Rockefeller fleet of sixteen ships--twelve building and four purchased recently--will be capable of carrying about 1,150,000 gross tons of ore from Lake Superior in 1897, it is not probable that this fleet will move, during the season now about to open, more than 500,000 tons, so that their influence in freight matters this year is not of great importance. The completion of new ships for this fleet will be delayed "company is $20,000,000, in shares of $100 each, of which $16,500,000 i longer than was expected when contracts were let. ™ <a -- REVIEW. LAKE SUPERIOR mining companies that produce non-Bessemer ore are still engaged in an effort to follow the example of the Bessemer pro- ducers and effect a combination covering prices and output. The matter is yet in a preliminary stage, and the problem seems more difficult than that of the Bessemer producers, not so much on account of a complica. tion ofintereats involved as the matter of price for a material that can be produced in quantities far in excess of the demand. THE quarterly dividend of 14 per cent--first in about three years-- which the Minnesota Iron Co. will pay on April 15, will involve the distribution of $247,500 to stockholders. The authorized capital of the ; paid up. THE most complete and interesting account of the Cuban situation that we have as yet seen is that written by Murat Halstead for the April Review of Reviews. The same number contains a sketch of Mr. Halsteaq by Albert Shaw. ; Trial by Jury in Admiralty Cases. The United States district courts are occasionally asked to submit admiralty cases to a jury. With the rapid growth of personal injury litigation, demands for trial by jury will undoubtedly be more frequent, owing to the mistaken notion that the function of a jury in the admiralty court is the same as that of common law juries. In cases coming Square- -- ly within the statute, trial by jury may be demanded as a matter of right, but in any admiralty case its verdict is merely advisory, and the court is at perfect liberty to disregard it. Its only function is to "enlighten" the conscience of the court, but considering the technical and complicated character of most admiralty cases, it is thought by some that nautical as- sessors would fulfill this function with more even justice. The history of trial by jury in such cases is peculiar and interesting. Under the judiciary act of 1789, the jurisdiction in admiralty was thought to be limited to waters affected by tides. This left the great lakes and their connecting tributary waters without any admiralty jurisdiction. In 1845 an act was passed extending the jurisdiction to these waters, and in that act, tomeet the constitutional right of trial by jury, it was pro- vided, "saving, however, to the parties the right of trial by jury of all facts put in issue in such suits, when either party shall require it." This was not intended to be a grant of anew right, but a reservation of a sup- posed right which congress was without authority to deny. In 1854 (Genesee Chief, 12 How., 443), the supreme court held that the jurisdiction in admiralty was not limited to tidewater, but extended to these waters without reference to the act of 1845; that that act was not necessary to confer jurisdiction; and later (1868, the Eagle, 8 Wallace, 15), the same court held that it was " inoperative and ineffectual as a grant of jurisdiction," and the logical conclusion would seem to be that the reservation of right to trial by jury in such cases must have fallen with that decision. But the court said: 'We must, therefore, regard it as obsolete and of no effect, with the exception of the clause which gives to either party the right of trial by jury when requested, which is rather a mode of exercising jurisdiction than any substantial part of it." The revisors of the statutes, mistaking the reservation of a supposed pre- existing right for a positive grant, and the unfortunate language of Mr. Justice Nelson above quoted as sanctioning such right, retained that por- tion of the act of 1845, and it now appears in the revised statutes in the following greatly modified form: Sec. 565 * * * 'In causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction relating to any matter of contract or tort arising upon or concerning any vessel of twenty tons burden or upward, enrolled and licensed for the coasting trade, and at the time employed inthe business of commerce and navigation between placesin different states and territories upon the lakes and navigable waters connecting the lakes, the trial of issues of facts shall be by jury when either party requires it." It will thus be seen that the right extends only toa portion of the cases arising in the admiralty courts; that it is restricted in its operation to the lakes and connecting waters; and that one vessel may be within its provisions and the other not, in which case the lovely hodge-podge of one side of the case being submitted to the jury and the other to the court would be found. 'These are only part of the incongruities mentioned by Judge Lonyear in reviewing the law some years ago, and it is undoubtedly in view of these that the courts look upon such trial with disfavor, and insist in each case that the parties bring themselves entirely within the statute. In its present form, Judge Longyear characterized it as "a mere excrescence upon the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts," and recom- mended that the attention of congress be speedily called to it, so that it be repealed or made general and uniform, and provision made for review of such cases. This wasin 1875, and so far as our knowledge extends no step has yet been taken to correct its inequalities. The Welland Canal will not be open for navigation before 'May 1.