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MARINE REVIEW Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. Published every Thursday at 418-19 Perry- Payne Bldg., by the Marine Review Pub. Co. Vou. A XIII, CLEVELAND, O., MAY 2, 1901. Foreign Subscription $3.00 a year. $4 50 a year. No. 18 SHIPS FOR MORGAN STEEL INDUSTRY. Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has submitted a proposition to the ordinary shareholders of the Leyland line, which controls sixty-five sea-going steamships, offering £14 10s per share for every £10 share. A circular to this effect has been issued by Chairman Ellerman of the Leyland line to the ordinary shareholders. Mr. Ellerman states that his entire holdings of 71,000 ordinary shares have been sold to Mr. Morgan upon the basis above noted. He advises the other shareholders to part with theirs. Mr. Ellerman adds that he proposes to retain his entire holdings in preference shares, amounting to over £180,000 and his co-directors will retain all their preference holdings amounting to £120,000. Mr. Ellerman also offers to buy any preference shares at par and their accrued interest. A circular issued by the secretary of the Leyland line accompanies Mr. Ellerman's circular. It explains that the directors, including Mr. Ellerman, hold £886,680 out of £1,200,000 ordinary share capital and £314,- 900 out of £1,415,000 preference capital. Several of the directors also control a large amount of other shares and all the directors intend to vote in support of Mr. Ellerman's arrangement at all the meetings called in | connection therewith. The secretary adds: "It is anticipated that prac- tically all the ordinary shareholders will accept the offer and the effect will be that the Morgans will hold £1,200,000 ordinary shares at a cost of over £1,750,000." oe A significant incident in connection with the negotiations for the Leyland line is the fact that Mr.,Morgan and Mr. Bernard N. Baker, the president of the Atlantic Transport line, have been much together abroad. Mr. Baker admits that Mr. Morgan owns stock in the Atlantic Transport line and has been financing that company for some time. A while ago negotiations for the consolidation of the Leyland and Atlantic Transport lines reached an advanced stage, but later fell through. In view of the fact that President Clement A. Griscom of the International Navigation \Co. is one of the directors selected by Mr. Morgan for his United States Steel Corporation, it is not probable that any of the Morgan undertakings in the shipping world will be hostile to the American line. Newspaper dispatches, which claim to have the highest authority for their statements, are to the effect that the American line will join a com- munity of interest with the Leyland and Atlantic Transport lines. Mr. John D. Rockefeller, who is heavily interested in the American line, is said to be closely identified with Mr. Morgan in the endeavor to get possession of the Leyland line. The consolidation of the Leyland and Atlantic Transport lines is an enterprise upon which Mr. Baker, the president of the Transport line, has been laboring for some time. When he found that he could not successfully finance it he enlisted the aid of Mr. Morgan. Mr. Morgan thereupon took the subject up with Mr. Ellerman and submitted the proposition mentioned in the opening para- graph of this article. The Leyland and Transport lines are the two principal cargo lines on the Atlantic. BUSINESS OUTLOOK ON THE GREAT LAKES. 'It is now more than probable that the loss in capacity of the lake fleet this year as compared with 1900, due to the strike of engineers and the St. Clair river ice blockade, will be full three weeks' business. This is why lake freights are, for the present at least, holding to the season- contract basis established by the United States Steel Corporation--80 cents on iron ore from the head of Lake Superior, which is more than was expected for a beginning. The soft coal freight basis--40 cents to all leading ports--is also higher than the shippers expected to pay, but these figures will probably govern the limited amount of business that will be done until such time as there is assurance of general operation of the vessels. There is so much of labor uncertainty in the present situa- tion that several weeks may yet pass before the full capacity of the lake carriers is in force. At the present writing not more than 10 per cent. of the entire fleet is ready to move and some of the largest vessel organiza- tions, notably the United States Steel Corporation, have not settled dif- ferences with the engineers. On the score of having secured their schedule of wages, and some of their demands regarding increased engine-room force, the engineers are winning from a great many lines, but as the owners have insisted from the beginning there is to be no recognition of the engineer organization. The struggle has left a breach between the ship owners and the engineers that will probably never be fully settled. The situation is unfortunate, as it very probably means for the future determined opposition on the part of the employers to all efforts of the engineers as an organized body, and a severance of close relations that have existed in the past between the men and the large element among the owners who are disposed to be liberal with all classes of labor. In the great line-up of American capitalists, announced some time ago by J. Pierpont Morgan as the board of directors of the United States Steel Corporation, appeared the name of Clement A, Griscom of Phila- | delphia, president of the International Navigation (Co. As head of the American line, Mr. Griscom is a leader of shipping interests in America. He has been closely associated with the management of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. and with the Cramps, ship builders of Philadelphia, but was not prominent in the steel industry. When his name appeared among the directors of Mr. Morgan's steel corporation the question was natur- ally asked, "What interest taken over by the corporation is Mr. Griscom to represent?" Probably the answer will come when more is known of Mr. Morgan's plans in connection with his latest purchase of ocean carriers. A New York dispatch announces that the United States Steel Cor- poration has secured a contract for 20,000 tons of steel plates from Har- land & Wolff, well-known ship builders of Belfast, Ireland. PROPOSED COMBINATION OF SEABOARD SHIP YARDS. Newspaper dispatches indicate that the proposed combination of several of the seaboard ship yards, which has been under way for several months past, is progressing, but upon lines that do not involve all the plants which it was first intended to include in the consolidation. A meet- ing was held in New York during the present week, at which the move- ment was greatly advanced. It is represented that the combination will probably build a great dry dock at New York, the need of which has long been felt. The yards in the deal are, as announced last week, the Newport News works, the Crescent Ship Yard, the Union Iron Works and the Bath Iron Works. It is said that H. E. Huntington, nephew of the late Collis P. Huntington, may be the president, and Irving M. Scott, presi- dent of the Union Iron Works, the vice president. Mr. John S. Hyde, president of the Bath Iron Works, which is said to be one of the plants that will certainly be included in the proposed consolidation, was a few days ago quoted as follows on the subject: "Up to the-present time the Bath Iron Works is not in any trust or combine, neither has it pooled interests with any other concern or con- cerns. J] admit that the matter has been discussed and is under consid- eration. While no decisive action has been known as yet, the prelim- inary steps have been taken, and further developments alone can tell whether or not we shall go into a combination. '(Circumstances alter cases, and up to the present time everything is in the air, and time alone will tell. The Bath Iron Works will never enter any combination or pool its interests with any other concern unless we are firmly convinced that it will be for the best interests of the plant. My father, who founded the plant, firmly believed that a combination of the ship building interests would come about in time for many reasons." CARGO RECORDS---LAKE FREIGHT VESSELS. Lake ships have begun breaking cargo records very early in the pres- ent season. The steamer Hendrick S. Holden, owned in the office of Mitchell & Co., Cleveland, is on her way from South Chicago to Buffalo with a cargo of 362,000 bushels of oats, In number of bushels this is the largest cargo ever moved on the lakes, but in weight it is not, of course, anything like the cargoes of iron ore, wheat and corn that have been car- ried during the past two years. As much as 8,333 net tons of ore has been moved in one load and 7,532 net tons of corn, as will be noted by the fol- lowing summary of record cargoes: Iron Ore--Steamer William Edenborn, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, man- aging owner, 7,446 gross or 8,339 net tons, Two Harbors to Conneaut; tow barge John Smeaton, owned by Bessemer Steamship Co. of Cleve- land, 7,446 gross or 8,339 net tons, Duluth to 'Cleveland, draught 18 ft. 1 in.; tow barge Manila, Minnesota Steamship Co. of Cleveland, 7,300 gross or 8,237 net tons, Two Harbors to South Chicago, draught of 18 ft. Grain--Steamer Simon J. Murphy, owned by Eddy Bros. of Bay City, 269,000 bushels of corn, equal to 7,532 net tons, South Chicago to Buffalo; steamer Superior City, A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, manager, 266,550 bushels of corn, equal to 7,463 net tons, South Chicago to Owen Sound, draught of 18 ft. 2 in.; stéamer Hendrick S. Holden, Mitchell & Co. of Cleveland, 362,000 bushels of oats, equal to 5,792 net tons, 'Chicago to Buffalo. Coal--Steamer I. L. Elwood, owned by American Steamship Co., A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, manager, 7,688 net tons anthracite, Buffalo to Du- luth; steamer I. L. Elwood, owned by American Steamship Co., A. B. Hess of Duluth, manager, 7,388 net tons of bituminous, 'Cleveland to uluth. : Another important appointment in connection with the organization that is to manage the ships, docks and other transportation interests of the United States Steel Corporation on the great lakes was announced a few days ago. John A. McGean, who was in charge, with Mr. L. M. Bowers, of the Rockefeller ships that went into the combination, is to act as assistant treasurer of corporation business on the lakes and as pur- chasing agent. Mr. McGean takes up his new duties at once and will undoubetedly prove a valuable acquisition to the Cleveland force of the big institution, as in addition to special fitness for the work to which he has been assigned he has the advantage of a very wide circle of acquain- tances in the lake region and possesses the faculty of making and retaining business friendships. Another appointment is that of James R. Mills to the position of manager of the sales department of the Carnegie Steel Co. Mr. Mills is a brother of Edwin S. 'Mills, assistant manager of the general lake organization of the Steel Corporation. He is much younger thar men usually assigned to such places, but the appointment comes to him by right of succession after a thorough training with his brother in the successful management of Carnegie interests in Cleveland during three or four years past. _Mr. Wm. L. Brown of Chicago, president of the American Ship Building Co. (consolidated ship yards of the great lakes), has numerous interests associated with the iron and steel industry of the United States and as a man of large industrial affairs keeps well in touch with general business conditions. He has just returned from an extended trip to Eng- land, France and Italy. 'General conditions of business abroad are highly favorable,' Mr. Brown said, "and the prospects for a demand for our products are equally so. The world will want our iron and steel the com- ing year." Mr, Brown predicted that freight rates on the ocean would be maintained owing to the scarcity of vessel capacity. The supply turned out from the ship yards, while large, is not equal to the demand. He re- turned with full confidence that with ocean tonnage in good demand the lake ship yards would do considerable business in supplying a class of ships now in much demand in special lines of traffic on salt water. He was extremely hopeful regarding conditions in the iron and steel market.