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MARINE REVIEW -- Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. Published «very Thursday at 418-19 Perry- VOL. XXI I I . Payne Bldg , by the Marine Review Pub. Co. CLEVELAND, O., APRIL 15, 190), Foreign $460 a year, No. 16 MANAGER OF STEEL CORPORATION SHIPS. Shortly after official announcement was made of the organization of the United States Steel Corporation, it was said that the position of general manager of the company's fleet of 112 steel vessels on the great lakes had been offered to Mr. A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, who is president of the Lake Carriers' Association and one of the best known managers of vessels on the lakes. Mr. Wolvin was said to have declined the of- fer, on account of other impor- tant business interests requiring his attention. When it was an- nounced later that Mr. James Gayley of the Carnegie Co. had Deen made first vice-president of the steel corporation, in charge of mines, docks and ships, it was concluded at once that the policy of handling the ore business of the lakes would be by direct rep- resentation, instead of employing any of the big agencies, such as Pickands, Mather & Co. or M.A. Hanna & Co., but it was not ex- pected that Mr. Gayley would go beyond the present Carnegie or- ganization for a general manager. The announcement, therefore, that Mr. Wolvin has been selected for the place, and that the duties have been so arranged that he has ac- cepted it, came as a surprise to the different interests involved. It is a tribute to Mr. Wolvin's ability as an organizer and manager of vessels. He is certainly fitted for the position. In the past few years he has organized companies that have built some twenty steel freighters, all of the very largest and finest kind, and several of them designed for salt water service. He is thoroughly acquainted with everything pertaining to the construction and operation of ships, as he has advanced with the business from the position of cabin boy on one of the earliest of the wooden propellers on the lakes. It is announced that the operation of the ships will involve the or- ganization of a company subsidiary to the United States Steel Corpora- tion, with D. M. Clemson of the Carnegie Co. as president. Mr. Clemson was closely associated with Mr, Gayley in the management of the ore business of the Carnegie Co. before the consolidation. It is said that as general manager in charge of vessel operation Mr. Wolvin will remain at Duluth, establishing headquarters there. Mr. E. S. Mills, heretofore manager of the Pittsburg Steamship Co. and Cleveland representative of the Carnegie ore and sales interests, will be assistant general manager, with headquarters in Cleveland. The Cleveland offices, it is understood, will have charge of vessel dispatch, distribution of ore to works and allot- ment of ore to docks. 'The 112 vessels in the fleet are capable of moving in « single season something more than 10,000,000 tons of ore from the head of Lake Superior, running up light, and an allotment of the cor- poration ore to the different fleets will, of course, be made at once, but no announcement has been made as yet as to whether the vessels will or will not all be taken into one office for the season now about to open. DESIGN FOR NAVAL ARCH. The design for the naval arch to be erected in Battery park, New York, has been accepted and the undertaking has already advanced to a sufficient stage to pronounce it a success. It is in no way connected with the movement to erect a Dewey arch, which, as is known, was aban- doned some time ago. Admiral Dewey has, however, given his unquali- fied approval of the present enterprise. The design accepted is that of Ernest Flagg, the architect of the Corcoran art gallery in Washington, one of the most beautiful structures in that city of beautiful buildings. The arch will be about 170 ft. high, almost twice the height of the Dewey arch and a little taller than the Arc de Triumph in Paris. It will be 125 ft. wide. The arch will be surrounded by a quadriga of sea horses, which will be flanked by ancient war barges, filled with trophies. At the bases of the piers of the arch there will be four great bas reliefs typifying memorable events in our naval history--Farragut in the rigging, Paul Jones on the deck of the Bonhommie Richard, Perry on Lake Erie and the death of Lawrence. The approach to the arch from the harbor will be through a beautiful sea gate enclosure in a sufficient basin and landing stage. Two piers will extend a short distance beyond the sea wall and at the end of each will be an immense beacon. The arch will stand about 100 ft. back of the river edge of the basin and will be approached by steps and terraces. CLEVELAND-CLIFFS CO.'S OPTION DECLARED OFF. The citizens of Marquette, Ishpeming, Negaunee, Gladstone and the Michigan peninsula in general will be interested to learn that the option of $9,500,000 upon the mines and mineral rights of the Cleveland-Cliffs Co. to the United States Steel Corporation has been declared off and that the company will continue as an independent factor in the mining of ore, manufacture of charcoal pig iron, development of hardwood lands, operation of railways and kindred interests with which it has been so long identified. Percy & Small, Bath, Me., have found their ship yard too small and have just purchased adjoining land for an additional ship building berth. BILLION AND A HALF IN EXPORTS. The fiscal year 1901 seems likely to exceed any preceding year in its record of exports from the United States. The steady growth of our exports from $392,000,000 in 1870 to $835,000,000 in 1880, $1,030,000,000 in 1892 and $1,394,000,000 in 1900 has been a subject of much attention and much favorable comment, but it seems that 1901 is to surpass the record of the year 1900 and bring the export figure nearly if not quite to the billion and a half mark. The March import and export figures, just completed by the treasury bureau of statistics, show a total exportation from the United States in the nine months ending with March, 1901, of $1,140,170-, 728, or $86,540,032 in excess of last year, which held the highest record in the history of our export trade. Another interesting fact developed by the March figures of our foreign commerce is that imports seem likely to show a decided decrease in 1901 as compared with 1900, while the exports are showing the in- crease above indicated. The figures of the nine months ending with March, 1901, show a decrease of $42,292,639 in the imports, as compared with those in the corresponding months of the preceding year. Thus the excess of exports over imports in the nine months under discussion is more than $100,000,000 greater than in the corresponding months of last year and far beyond the figures of any preceding year. The excess of exports over imports in the nine months ending with March, 1901, is $540,687,337, as against $411,854,666 in the corresponding months of 1900, an increase of $128,832,671 in the net excess of exports over imports for the nine months of 1901 as compared with the corresponding period of the fiscal year 1900. _ The farmers are apparently the chief beneficiaries in this remarkable increase in our exports, and are in the fiscal year 1901 showing greater gains in their exports than are the manufacturers, whose record in 1899 and 1900 showed a greater percentage of growth than those engaged in agriculture. The analysis by the bureau of statistics of the March ex- portations of domestic merchandise has not yet been completed, but that of the eight months ending with February showed an increase of $88,- 000,000 in the exportation of agricultural products and but about $2,000,000 each in manufactures and products of the mines, forests and fisheries. This check in the growth of the exportation of manufactures is more ap- parent than real, being due in part to the absence of statistics of exports to the Hawaiian islands and to the separation of the trade of Porto Ricco from the regular statements of foreign commerce in the returns to the bureau of statistics; while the temporary reduction in the exports to China, due to the disturbed conditions in that country, also accounts for ne lack of growth in the figures relating to the exportation of manu- actures. _ The reduction in the import figures is largely due to the reduction in price of the materials imported by manufacturers, and occurs chiefly in the class "articles in a crude condition which enter into the various pro- cesses of domestic industry." Yet, while the figures of value are mate- rially reduced, the quantities of these particular articles imported for use in manufacturing show little reduction. In india rubber, for instance, the fall in value of the imports during the eight months ending with Feb- ruary, 1901, as compared with the same months of 1900 is from $21,000,000 in 1900 to $16,000,000 in 1901; yet the reduction in quantity is only from 33,000,000 Ibs. in 1900 to 32,000,000 Ibs. in 1901, showing that the chief reduction is in the price rather than the quantity imported. In raw silk the value of the importations falls 51 per cent., while the quantity falls but 42 per cent., and in other importations of manufacturers' materials the re- duction in value is greater than in quantity. TO MAKE THEIR OWN RIVETS, BOLTS, ETC. Ship builders of Scotland have in the past bought rivets and bolts from a number of small concerns that engaged in that line of manu- facture. Recently these manufacturers entered into a consolidation and now the ship builders are arranging to make their own rivets, bolts, etc. John Thomson of Glasgow, who is now in Pittsburg, says of the plans on this score: "We are going to build a rivet and bolt works at home, and I have come here to look at machinery for the plant. There will only be an outlay of about $250,000, but a great deal can be turned out from small works of this kind of material. The new mill came about in this way. All the rivet and bolt works effected a combination some time ago and advanced the prices to a point where the ship builders on the Clyde felt something had to be done for their own protection.. They got together and hit upon the scheme of building a rivet plant for them- selves. The venture is co-operative in a sense, as the stock is held by the ship building firms in a ratio to the amount of business they have for such a plant. I expect to buy the machinery while here to equip it." _ The iron market in all departments shows continued signs of strength. Pig iron is scarce and grows scarcer every day. Nearly all the furnaces that make pig iron for sale are almost entirely sold up for the first half of the year. An advance in steel rails to $28 per ton is expected shortly on account of the heavy orders that have been booked of late. The ocean going tug Nellie Pearson was launched from N. C. Peter- son's ship yard at the Sumner Iron Works, Everett, Wash., this week. Her dimensions are: Length 65% ft.; beam 15 ft.; depth 5% ft. Ttis said that W. P. Palmer, who has been tendered a vice-presidency of the United States Steel Corporation, with charge of sales, has declined the position and plans an early trip to Europe. :