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MARINE REVIE VoL. XV. CLEVELAND, O., MAY 13, 1897. Ore Sales--Lake Freight Matters. * Purchases of old range ores by the Carnegie Steel Co. aggregate about 400,000 tons, while those of the Illinois Steel Co, aside from ore carried over on last year's contracts, are of about an equal amount. This has no reference, of course, to Mesabi ores, which the big com- panies will use far more extensively than in the past, and which in the case of the Carnegie company are provided for by the Rockefeller contract. The Illinois company's purchases of Mesabi from the Min- nesota Iron Co. are said to aggregate about 600,000 tons, making in all about 1,000,000 tons of new ore for the western concern. The Car- negie company's purchases of 400,000 tons of old range ores are said to represent about 25 per cent. of their requirements, if the several big plants which they own are to be operated in full. The purchases of the Illinois company are also limited, and other furnace concerns have bought only sparingly, so that it must be said that a waiting disposi- tion still prevails in the ore business as in all branches of the iron and steel industry. Ores purchased by the Carnegie company are to | come mainly from the Chandler, Minnesota and Norrie mines, while those of the Illinois Steel Co., aside from their Mesabi contract, are confined to the Marquette and Menominee ranges, and will be moved through Escanaba. As far as can be learned, the Norrie company is not represented in the sales made at Chicago, and as their portion of the Carnegie sales is not very large, it is not surprising that their mining force has been cut down within the past week. The announcement of these sales caused vessel men from different parts of the lakes to visit Cleveland during the past few days, in an effort to close up lake freight contracts, but they found that such ore as had been sold was controlled aloe entirely by companies that have large fleets of vessels to provide for, and the few contracts that were secured by vessels that have no ore connections are hardly worth mentioning. One Cleveland shipper engaged three vessels to move 50,000 tons of ore from the head*of the lakes to Toledo, running through the season, at 70 cents, and it was announced from Chicago that, as a result of a very low rate made to the Illinois Steel Co., the vessels controlled by C. W. Elphicke of that place had also been taken for the season, Escanaba to South Chicago. These are the only contracts that have been made, aside from engagements covering the vessels of the ore companies. It is expected, however, that before the close of the present week quite a little business will be done at 60 _ cents from the head of the lakes to Sept. 1, as two shippers who have options at this figure have expressed their intention to cover as much ore as possible on the short season plan. No season engagements from Escanaba are talked of as yet, and the only additional contract re- ported from Marquette is that of the Christie and Sonsmith for four trips with coal to Portage at 25 cents and return cargoes of ore at 50 cents. The wild ore rates now fully established are 60 cents from the head of the lakes, 50 cents from Marquette and 40 cents from EHsca- naba, but cargoes have been very scarce even at these figures. The increased draft from Lake Superior, which has admitted of vessels of ordinary dimensions carrying 400 to 700 tons more freight, each trip, through the Sault river this spring, than was carried a year-ago, isa big factor in the freight situation. It is this increase of carrying capacity that has caused a large number of vessel owners. to seek 70-cent ore contracts. They would have no difficulty in secur- ing such contracts, if the coal and ore trades were not held back by a hand-to-mouth policy on the part of all buyers. Ore shippers are all disposed to cover their sales by lake freights as rapidly as it is pos- sible for them to do'so. They realize that practically a full month of the season has passed with only a small portion of the lake fleet in commission, and they also seem to understand, more readily than Some vessel owners, that every day of delay is acting to the disadvan- tage of the shipper and in fayor of the vesel owner. The producer of ore has made a price on his product and this price has been based on very low lake freights. Each day of delay in moving ore brings further probability of increased lake freights, and this is why several of the leading ore sales agencies have, within the past few days, sent out letters of a most urgent kind to their customers, pleading with them to do everything in their power to move ore from Lake Erie docks and otherwise do what they can to avoid crowding the business of the season of navigation into less than six months, instead of seven or eight in ordinary years. A British View of It. Within the past few months English newspapers and trade journals have been filled with articles discussing the effort that is being made in this country to have congress adopt some measure of. assistance for American shipping.' The following from the London Times i Is. asample of what is being written on the other side: "As matters at present stand the 'United States is a very long way indeed from the realization of its ambition to obtain a more com- manding place in the carrying trade of the world. It does not, how- ever, follow that that aspiration is impossible of attainment, and it is worth while looking for a moment at the conditions that would have to be met in order to enable such a purpose to be fulfilled. From a purely commercial point of view, the rivalling of the. British marine is not so difficult as it might appear. If we take the value of. steam shipping at the current year's rate, about £6 per ton, it would follow that the aggregate value of the Brittish marine of fyel tat million tons woud be approximatey seventy-two millions sterling, andthe build- ing of a merchant navy at that cost is not likely to be impossible to a nation that has carried out a system of railroad transportation the cost of which is estimated at over 2,000,000,000 sterling, or about thirty times as much, including, of course, the loans raised and the stock created. The question that most urgently calls for solution is, what would the United States be likely todo with the merchant navy so provided after it had been called into existence? Would it be likely to take from the British marine any considerable part of the world- wide commerce that has planted the Union Jack wherever trade is carried on? Such a result could only happen if the one country -had a better mercantile system, a more effective personnel, a lower work- ing cost, a more extended trade of its own than the other. Is it prob- able that the United States, as now situated, would be likely to fulfill these conditions, even if the possibility of being able to secure the same varied, powerful and efficient fleet, from the mere tonnage or carrying capacity point of view, were granted? The latter is, of course, a large assumption, and one that is hardly likely to be realized in view.of the difficulties that would certainly attend the economical | administration of the service, if created. America, moreover, 'could not construct even an ocean tramp at £6 per ton, although that price has been common in our own country during the present year; and if, as is likely, the cost were nearly double that amount, the higher rate of interest on the original investment, which such a difference would involve, must suffice, even if the other necessary conditions be ful- filled, to deprive American tonnage of any prospect of successful com- petition with our own. While, therefore, it would be a rash thing to. assert that the American fmether navy will never seriously compete, - with the British marine, it is safe enough to assume that the Union, Jack is not likely to have ane to fear from the Stars and. Snipes for a long time to come.' ee ba yah A vest pocket pamphlet, just issued by the Marine Ravicee,<é dori tains appointments of captains and engineers for 172 fleets of vessels' owned on the lakes. It is practically a complete list of vessels; own' Bs ers, captains and engineers on the lakes, corrected to date and put in the most concise form that it is possible to arrange the several thousand names contained in such a collection. It is neatly bound and durable. Mailed to any address on receipt of $1. Now that the Lake Ontario grain movement will i increasing," masters will want Lake Ontario general chart No. 61 and coast chart? No. 1, as well as St. Lawrence river charts Nos. 4, 5 and 6, 'The five will be sent by the Review to any address by express for $2. + mierda a