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MARINE REVIEW. Answering Mr. Babcock's Article on Ship Building. Let everybody get posted on shipping matters. From the manner in which the newspapers of. the country are discussing the question of building and operating ships it is more than probable that "A New Mer- chant Marine" will be the leading topic in the next congress. But the advocates of legislation favorable to the shipping interests will not have it all their own way.. A strong opposition will be made to any measure of subsidies and to the proposed scheme of discriminating duties, Every news- paper article favoring assistance from the government for merchant ships is met by argument on the other side from papers like the New York Com- mercial Bulletin, Philadelphia Record and others. The Commercial Bul- letin takes up, the article of Mr. W. I. Babcock on possibiuties of ship building in this country, which was. published in the Review recently, and answers it with the following lengthy editorial: ape "The Mr. W. I. Babcock of the Chicago Ship Building Co., whose study of British ship yards and their payrolls and their wols has satisfied him that American ship yards could compete with them }f they could only get a small part of the business the English yards have. is the same Mr. Babcock who three years ago published in a New Yor} paper an article two columns long demanding discriminating duties in order to protect. American shipping from foreign competition, and also, if we are not great- ly mistaken, insisting upon liberal subsidies from our government in order to prevent the utter extinction of the American merchant marine. . It is possible that the cost of shipbuilding has declined here in the past three years, but the important change has been in the amount of Mr. Babcock's information. It is true that iron and steel have been going down, but when Mr. Cramp built the two ships for the American Line he used American material, though the law gave him the right to use foreign material duty free; evidently the domestic material was not very much more expensive than the foreign, or Mr. Cramp would not have refused he pe eae Z all construction in domestic yards and higher subsidies on the navigation of national vessels than on vessels bought abroad. In his communication to a New York newspaper three years ago, Mr. Babcock deeply bewailed the reciprocal abolition of discriminating duties between this country and England at the close of the last war. He was pleased to say that 'outwitted by diplomacy we agreed by treaty to discontinue this wise system." What we got was a chance to compete with England in the carrying trade, and it contributed largely to that won- derful development of out sailing tonnage. which excited the gréatest ap- prehension of British shipowners, and. which lasted till the iron steamer proved a more economical carrier than the wooden sailet, and till the ac- quisition of territory from Mexico, primarily the acquisition of the gold region of California, and the development of the railroad offered us better profits on land than we could expect to get at sea.' The development of a continent created a demand for labor which probably made the cost of production much higher here than abroad till it was equalized by me- chanical improvements, but it also offered to labor and capital better em- ployment than could be found at sea. - Now. that the attention of Ameri- can capitalists is turning to the sea it is found that the cost of construction has been nearly equalized, but there still remains a greater cost of operat- ing American than foreign vessels, due mainly to the fact that the em- ployment which can be had on land keeps up the wages upon the sea. With decreasing opportunities for investment in building western cities and in spanning the continent with railroads, American capitalists will make further discoveries of their ability to compete with foreigners on the sea. To invite European nations to discriminate by dues against our vessels would tbe about the worst thing that could befall our mercantile marine, and no one has been bold enough to propose subsidies for all our vessels; the most extreme subsidists have only proposed subsidies for a few favored lines of steamers, several of which have tried the policy and found the number of sailings and the rate of speed required cost more than "United States Torpedo Boat Porter running under Full Power. the English offers which were pressed upon him and which he once said he carefully considered and fears on a 'There being no very great difference | : ; : in the cost of abc Bat ie helplessness of the Rr De taie: the presence of foreign competitors had to be ee a eseer tent puted that wages were higher here than in England; Mr. Ht sew alien investigations have satisfied him that English wages are 0 d pnilder cent of American wages, but he explains that the ined be nee of economizes in labor by the use of better tools and a ae Minin dimetable machine work, while the labor unions in England t ad so that there obstacles in the way of the men's rendering efficient oe Oe eee is little or no difference in the cost of labor. Se fer eet the well known three years ago, and a very long time Paks degree by the higher wages in this country were offset in greater hs i hinery, and that greater efficiency of labor and the much freer use of mac ' i nearly so the labor unions, obstructive as they are Bee e Desicutdayts Sere as many foolish obstacles in the way of a mans Hie CORRE. 1s they do in England. The greater cost of prone ee 'a heomiale exaggerated for very evident purposes US We congratulate Mr. and where there is a prospect of getting subsidies. is di i een the cost of ship- Babcock on his discovery that the difference betw fhe Oe building here and in England is so moderate nd oe Paes on a lage Out if they get orders enough so that they cou oO ago, and it might scale, The discovery was made by others somé aioe fish ship builders have been guessed easily enough from the fact thati eee are higher are able to undersell Continental ship builders, ; 2H : vast business upon in England than on the Continent, and much 0 " om countries where which Mr. Babcock casts longing eyes 1s on anders x wages are lower than in England and where & the cost of the material, it is ernments pay bounties on | the. subsidy came to. The advantage of the subsidy has generally been as much exaggerated as the disadvantage of high wages and prices of ma- terial." ae Spy eer et Cargo Records--Lake Freight Ships. With steel vessels like the Polynesia, Victory, Constitution and others of the 400-foot class taking coal during the past week, big cargoes of coal have been quite numerous. The largest--5,654 tons--was taken by the Polynesia. Following is the cargo record corrected to date: Iron Ore--Schooner Amazon, owned by James Corrigan of Cleveland, 5,631 tons gross, or 6,307 net, Duluth to South Chicago, draft of 17 feet 1 inch; steamer Empire City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 5,022 tons gross, or 6,296 net, Two Harbors to Cleveland, draft of 17 feet 2 inches; schooner Polynesia, James Corrigan of Cleveland, 5,477 tons gross, 6,134 net, Du- luth to Fairport, draft of 16 feet 8 inches; Andrew Carnegie, Wilson Transit Co. of Cleveland, 5,425 tons gross, 6,076 net, Two Harbors to Cleveland, draft of 17 feet 4 inches. Grain--Steamer Crescent City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 225,000 bush- els of corn, equal to 6,300 net tons, South Chicago to Duluth, draft of 17 _ feet; steamer Empire City, A: B. Wolvin of Duluth, 205,445 bushels of wheat, equal to 6,163 net tons, Duluth to Buffalo; schooner Amazon, James Corrigan of Cleveland, 217,000 bushels of corn, equal to 6,076 net tons, Chicago to Buffalo, 16 feet 6 inches draft; steamer Crescent City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, 318,000 bushels of oats, equal to 5,088 net tons, Duluth o Buffalo. Coal--Schooner Polynesia, James Corrigan of Cleveland, 5,654 net tons of bituminous, Cleveland to Duluth, 16 feet draft; schooner Aurania, John Corrigan. of Cleveland, 5,187 net tons bituminous, Toledo to Mil- waukee.