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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. XX 1T1; CLEVELAND, O., JUNE 20, 1901. Gubserintion $2.00 s year No. 25 EXPORTS OF A BILLION AND A HALF. THAT IS THE ESTIMATE OF THE UNITED STATES TREASURY DEPARTMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDING WITH THE PRESENT MONTH--ELEVEN MONTHS SHOW A TOTAL OF $1,385,013,595--IMMENSE INCREASE IN OUTGO OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. Exports from the United States in the fiscal year 1901 now about to end will probably reach $1,500,000,000, the highest point ever recorded for a single year in the history of our export trade. For the eleven months ending with May, 1901, the total exports were $1,385,013,595, being double those of the corresponding period of 1889, and $100,000,000 in excess of the total for the eleven months of last year, which broke all previous rec- ords. Taking the commerce of the eleven months ending with May of various years as the basis of comparison, the figures of the treasury bureau of statistics show that during the period under review our exports in 1889 amounted to $694,133,804; in 1894, to $834,636,085; in 1899, to $1,130,629,- 075; in 1900, to $1,285,831,125, and in the present year, as already stated, $1,385,013,595; while for the full fiscal year our total exports give promise of exceeding one and a half billion dollars, as the eleven months' figures only fall $115,000,000 short of that amount, and the monthly exportation of merchandise from the United States has exceeded $120,000,000 since March | of this year. The distribution of our exports during the year among the grand divisions, basing the estimate upon the percentages for ten months al- ready available, will be in about the following proportions: To Europe, $1,155,000,000, as against $1,040,000,000 last year; to North America, $195,- 000,000, as against $187,300,000 last year; to South America, $44,000,000, as compared with $38,900,000 in 1900; to Asia, $48,000,000, as against nearly $65,000,000 in 1900; to Oceania, $36,0000,000, as against $43,400,000 last year; and to Africa, $26,000,000, as against $19,500,000 in the preceding year. It will be observed that the only decreases will be in our exports to Asia, where unsettled conditions in 'China have seriously affected trade, and to Oceania, from which Hawaii has been omitted as a foreign country since its organization as a territory of the United States. To products of agriculture is due the credit for the greater portion of the increase in our exports during the present year. In the ten months for which detailed figures are available, products of agriculture were valued at $811,591,955, and formed 65.53 per cent. of the total domestic exports; last year they amounted to $717,372,746, and forined but 62.21 per cent. of the total domestic exports. For the same period of this year manufactures aggregated $339,310,614 and formed 27.40 per cent. of the domestic exports, while last year they were $352,671,206 and formed 30.60 per:cent. of the value of domestic exports. The exports of agricultural products for the full fiscal year will be about $965,000,000, as against $835,858,123 last year, while those of manufactures will be about $405,000,- 000, as compared with $483,851,756 last year. This decrease in the expor- tation of manufactures is due chiefly to the following causes: First, the war in 'China, to which country our exports consisted largely of manufac- tured articles, and to which market alone our sales in ten months de- creased from $13,474,703 in 1900 to $7,706,188 in the present year; second, the transfer of Hawaii from the list of foreign countries to classification . as a customs district of the United States, necessitating the omission from our exports of all goods passing. between that island and the United States, and thus decreasing by approximately $15,000,000 our exports for the year; and, third, the omission for similar reasons of merchandise pass- ing between the United States and Porto Rico, to which island we sent in the ten months of the present year merchandise valued at $5,611,583, of which sum manufactures formed an important part, cotton goods alone representing over $1,000,000. FIVE LARGE FREIGHTERS TO COME OUT IN 1902. It was announced, a few days ago, that the contract for two steel~ ~ freight steamers of about 6,000 gross tons capacity placed with the Ameri- can Ship Building Co. by Capt. John Mitchell of Cleveland had been fol- lowed by another order for a large freighter to come out next year. Later information is to the effect that the order is for three steamers in- stead of one, so that the consolidated lake yards will soon have under way five large cargo ships for 1902. The vessels are to be of the same dimen- sions and about the same power as the six steamers of the Planet fleet (Mars, Venus, Saturn, etc.) recently completed for J. C. Gilchrist and others of Cleveland. It is understood that representatives of Milwaukee coal interests as well as some of the officers of the ship building company are to control the vessels and that they will probably be managed, if not sold while under construction, by W. E. Fitzgerald of Milwaukee. Di- mensions and other particulars of the new ships are: Length over all, 366 ft.; length of keel, 346 ft.; beam, 48 ft.; depth, 28 ft.; engines, triple expansion with cylinders of 22, 35 and 58 in. cylinder diameters and 42 in. stroke; Scotch boilers, 170 lbs. steam pressure. Mr. Warren F. Purdy, manager of the Northwestern Steamship Co. of Chicago, is quoted in Montreal as saying that his company is satisfied with its venture in having ships ply directly between Chicago and Euro- pean ports by way oi the St. Lawrence. He is of the opinion that the Northwestern company will build more vessels of the same kind, but no definite arrangements on that line have been made as yet. Mr. Purdy says he is satisfied that the announcement of the Dominion government that there is 14 ft. of water in the St. Lawrence canals is well founded, as on the voyage of the Northtown, one of the new ships in the Chicago- European service, he held the tape himself and found a minimum depth of. more than 14 ft. Rumors. of a ship yard to be started somewhere in \Canada by. the Clergue interests of Sault Ste. Marie have been widely circulated of late. Mr. Clergue says in a letter to the Review that he is not contemplating the establishment of a ship yard. ENORMOUS MOVEMENT OF IRON ORE. A movement by lake of 4,000,000 gross tons of iron ore during June would not be surprising. Shipments of grain are so light that practically the entire lake fleet of general carriers are in the ore trade. They are meeting with delay in port more so than last year, both at the shipping docks and at Lake Erie ports, but the capacity of the lake fleet has been so enlarged of late that the four-million mark in shipments is nevertheless looked for with the end of the month. During the period of heaviest shipments last year the greatest total for one month was but very little in excess of 3,000,000 gross tons. But notwithstanding the present heavy movement of ore, the lake freight market is really stronger than it has been at any time since the opening of navigation. Some of the ore ship- pers say they fear a congestion of ships at Lake Erie ports before August that may result in a slump similar to that of a year ago, but they also fear an immense grain crop. The big grain crop seems more probable, in tact. than a blockade at the ore docks, and that is the main cause of strength in freights. A rate of 3 cents from Duluth to Buffalo, equal to more than $1 on ore, has already been paid for vessels to load in Sep- tember next. Heavy sales of Bessemer pig iron within the past few days and some further improvement in iron and steel lines generally are other elements reflecting strength to the lake situation. The monthly statistics of pig iron show that this material is being produced at the rate of 314,000 tons per week and that the consumption is over 320,000 tons per week, or about 16,700,000 tons annually. This surpasses all previous records. Just now coal shipments by lake are also restricted greatly by the pressure of the ore movement on the railroads of Ohio and Pennsylvania. From the Pittsburg district the supply of cars for lake coal has for three or four weeks past been down to about 50 or 60 per cent. of requirements, and this shortage must, of course, be made up later in the season. It may be said, therefore, that in the past week or two business conditions have tended towards the vessel owner's side of the freight market, POLICY OF THE STEEL CORPORATION. Judge E. H. Gary, who with other officials of the United States Steel Corporation has just returned from a two weeks' tour of inspection of a number of the plants of the corporation. has expressed himself as satis- fied with the trip and says that so far as he can observe there is not a threatening cloud hovering over the iron and steel situation. Judge Gary when asked regarding the corporation's purchases during the past few days of large quantities of pig iron, said: "Our furnaces have a capacity of 9,000,000 or 10,000,000 tons of iron a year, but as this is not sufficient to supply our mills, it is likely that we will have to buy considerable pig iron--possibly several hundred thousand tons." He said the purchases of raw material are made by the constituent companies and not by the United States Steel Corporation direct; conse- quently he had no knowledge of the quantity of iron that had been con- tracted for. When the multiplication of independent iron and steel con- cerns was called to his attention he said: _ "The United States Steel Corporation was not organized with the view of monopolizing the iron and steel business of the country. Compe- tition is natural, and the belief that the organization of the steel corpora- tion would discourage the building of independent concerns was never entertained. Our object is to secure and maintain the best ore properties, equip our mills, furnaces, factories, etc., with the best machinery in the market and keep our plants up to the highest standard of efficiency. Ow- ing to the fact that the consolidation of iron and steel properties has been conducted on a very extensive scale during the past several months I am inclined to believe that construction will not be as pronounced the current year as last." Judge Gary then explained that the concentration of iron and steel plants would have a tendency to regulate production, and therefore limit construction. For example, a plant that has a capacity of 200,000 tons of pig iron and a capacity of 100,000 tons of finished product would dispose of its surplus raw product to a plant whose output of raw material was not adequate to the capacity of its finishing mills, and vice versa. By this arrangement it will not be necessary for the constituent plants of the steel combine to enlarge their capacity, which they might be compelled to do were they conducting their business independent of any other con- cern. Mr. Gary intimated that the United States Steel 'Corporation is not in the market for other concerns. He added that labor appears to be well satisfied, and that no trouble from this source is anticipated. He treated the report that an English syndicate proposed to combine the independent iron and steel concerns of the country as ridiculous. Printed announcements from the Minnesota Iron Co. and the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad 'Co., tell of changes in officers made recently to conform with the wishes of officials of the United States Steel Corpora- tion, which now controls the two companies named. New officers of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad Co. are: F. E. House, president; A. H. Viele, vice president; C. P. Coffin, secretary and treasurer; Thomas Mur- ray, assistant secretary and assistant treasurer. The new men in charge of affairs of the Minnesota Iron Co. are: T. F. Cole, president; N. P. Hulst, vice president; 'C. D. Fraser, secretary; W. W. Watson, Jr., treas- urer; Thomas Murray, assistant secretary and assistant treasurer. The Chicago office of the Minnesota company has been removed to Duluth. It is quite. probable that the Cleveland office having to do with trans- portation affairs of the United States Steel \Corporation will be even more limited.in its scope later on than it is at present. The plans seem to contemplate the centralization of transportation offices as well as mining offices at. Duluth. Within the next few weeks the entire office force of the Oliver Mining Co. will remove from Pittsburg to Duluth. These mining offices have occupied in Pittsburg nearly the entire eighth floor of the Carnegie building and it is probable the quarters will be given over to the office force of W. W. Blackburn, treasurer of the Carnegie Steel Co.