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TAE Marine. REVIEW 21 river, he makes the following' statement in regard to the cost of work for river improvements: I am satisfied that the amount named is insufficient to secure first- class work, and none other is worth construction. Inferior. work is not specially objectionable when used above water, where it is always fully under the eye of those responsible for its safety, but in sub- aqueous work it is folly to construct anything that is not strictly the best possible. 'The severest strains on submerged constructions come at, a time when they are invisible, and when it is impossible to detect the weaknesses that might easily be strengthened if they were per- ceived, but which, by neglect, become entirely uncontrollable. So many cases of the destruction of river locks and dams, due to mis- taken economy in first cost, have come under my notice, that I feel bound to enter my protest against such work by making my own esti- mates fully up to what experience shows that they should. be, if the works are expected to be permanent. : This holds equally good today, and it should receive due consideration from the present Board of Engi- neer Officers, who have the improvement of the Ohio river under consideration. Especially is the fore- going applicable to the Ohio river, as its bed consists of sand the greater part of its length, rock often lying at a great distance below the surface. There are also numerous freshets to withstand, floods occurring al- most every year, which carry large quantites of heavy drift. To this must be added ice, which has done much damage to works in the past. Poor construc- tion is, as a rule, expensive and should not have a place.in government structures. FREIGHT SITUATION The railways of the country have awakened to the fact that they lack sufficient rolling stock to care for the augmented volume of trade--this too in spite of the fact that all of the leading railways have been most liberal purchasers of cars during the past two years. Every car shop in the country is crowded with orders. In no depart- ment of industry is this shortage of cars felt more than in great lakes trade. There are not enough cars in opera- tion to bring an adequate supply of coal to Lake Erie docks. The result is that coal shipments have seriously fallen off and some of the shipping docks have dismissed one of their shifts. The ore trade is badly crippled, Lake Erie docks being fairly piled with ore for want of cars | and some of the vessels that are scheduled to load directly into cars are waiting in port a week to be unloaded. The movement of ore from now on will really be determ- ined by the car supply. It is not expected now that the movement during October and November of this year will reach the movement of the corresponding months for last year Owing to delays in port. The movement of ore, how- ever, is very well in hand, and probably to date, 27,500,000 tons have been moved. The total movement of the year will be somewhat in excess of 32,000,000 tons. Ore ship- pers have covered this movement very thoroughly by con- tract and as they are holding contract. vessels to their agreements there is slight prospect of the wild ore rate advancing, though the grain rate has been established at a | somewhat attractive hgure. The truth is that there are very few vessels to be had and it would not be surprising if grain shippers would have to pay still more. The rate from Chicago is two cents and from Dultth three cents. Not only is it difficult to get cars to take it from Chicago, but Buffalo railways are refusing to take grain to the seaboard and shippers are unable to get enough grain from Buffalo to fill ocean engagements. The congestion at Buffalo is daily becoming more serious and it is said exporters at New York are losing as high as three cents a bushel on account of being compelled to buy at open market. Elevators are jammed with grain and as a result of the tie-up Erie canal boatmen are getting the best rate on grain to New 'York. that has. been paid in twenty years. Four cents is now being paid and the rate is expected-to go to five.and one-half cents unless conditions change. - . Following is the comparative statement. of ore ship- ments from upper lake: ports for September: and up to Chcty. 4 -: Port. * : 2 Sept. 1904. sept. 1915. Escanaba "Socio clea 594,338 697,490 Gladstone Toe eh bee Vidas ee ea ae Marquette (0.0.70 2 360,034 377 023 Ashland (nvr ees ee 403,762 437,843 SUPETION. (ieee ee 760,557 698,752 Duluth. ohio) oe ee 892,087 1,097,887 Two Harbors : , 928,664 1,015,055 4,006,442 4,425,550 1905 Increase .ivels. vas 419,108 To Oct. 1, Lo Oct, 1; Port. 1904. : 1905. Escanaba) 45 7 ae es 2,202,646 3,925,355 (Gladstone 4.4) (eu eg, ASO. ees ' Marquette 22.0055 «G4 OG ae 1,178,044. 2,250,034 Asilagd! Gi csg a. ieee 1,431,731 © 2,586,104 DUDeTION Gu... be uae ee ge 2,683,034 3,866,778 Dat oes Sa cae 3,041,006 6,787,378 awe Blarhors® sce 2,995,497 6,048,067 13,622,438 25,473,606 Too5 -Uneresse: is via i 11,851,168 SHORTAGE OF CARS IN NORTHWEST Duluth, Minn., Oct. 10--Since the very beginning of the present wheat movement there has been a serious shortage of-rolling stock on the roads that do the bulk of the grain business for the northwestern state--notably the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern and the Soo line. All these roads had been busily preparing for the crop, had been pass- ing old cars through their shops, placing repaired and _ re- fitted cars along the lines where they would be first needed, and all of them had bought large numbers of new cars. The Northern Pacific road alone supplied itself with 2,500 80,000- Ib. cars, fresh from the shops, and the other roads bought a large number. But so great has been the demands on rolling stock and motive power that all the roads have been completely stalled and unable to care for their business. There has been a -- remarkable and rather unexpected increase in general. mer- chandise, and there have been many days recently when the merchandise demand at the port of Duluth alone on the Northern Pacific road has been 300 cars in excess of the possible supply. There has been a very large coal business and the lumber trade by rail has shown an increase that was not looked for. But the chief addition to the fall traffic has been wheat. It is coming in here at the rate of 600 cars aday,andafew mornings ago there were 1,600 cars at the three chief northwestern markets--Duluth, Minneapolis and Chicago. The interior line elevators, scattered all through the northwest, are full of grain and cannot receive what the farmers are delivering, for they have no room and cannot ship for there are not cars enough. There is need at the present time on the leading roads traversing the grain belt of Minnesota and the Dakotas of more than 10,000 new freight cars, for wheat, merchandise and coal, and for not less than 400 road locomotives. If this is a condition common to other parts of the United States, the car and locomotive works are pretty sure of good busi- ness for a long time to come. The new car ferry which the Great Lakes Engineering Works of Detroit will build for Lake Erie service, will be laid down at the St. Clair yard.