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28 TAE MarRINE. REVIEW able that a certain influential American marine or- ganization may yet adopt strong resolutions denounc- ing as a piece of wicked extravagance, the whole proposition. The canal at Panama has been a nauseating scan- dal since its inception; it has made and unmade gov- ernments and reputations; and while it has been an American undertaking for only a couple of years, each succeeding month and week has brought a fresh crop of unsavory reports and scandals home.to our own doors. : The appearance of the hypnotic and oleaginous pro- moter upon the scene, gold-bricked our impetuous law makers into an undertaking that is going to be a great white elephant: for all time. It is a question if our over-zealous government officials have not already » embarked the country upon an enterprise the expedi- ence of which is questioned and the success of which is problematical. : The government of this country has no more right to squander American treasure and sacrifice Amer- ican lives in this foolhardy scheme to help our marine interests, than the president of a great life insurance company had to use a portion of the trust funds placed in his care for the widow and orphan, in a dis- honest effort to defeat a candidate for the highest office in the gift of our people. It will cost not to exceed $4,000,000 a year to aid the entire merchant marine of this country on galt water in the ocean carrying trade upon the present schedule, and the expenditure will be a national invest- ment in a hundred ways, affecting American interests through the vast ramifications of our industrial life, from our ore mines, furnaces, mills, shops, forests and farms, to the makers of the most minute mechan- ical device or nautical instrument that can be pro- fitably made in this country; and our national law makers who are voting many times that amount with- _ out any expectancy of a return on the investment, _ and involving the country, perhaps, in complications that no one can now foresee, without any good rea- son, should 'do a little serious thinking or the country is likely to do it for them. Our merchant marine does not require a $100,000,- 000 investment. It does not need one of 200 million or 500 million. It does not ask for a canal. It should. not be compelled to wait a century for simply justice. -- But it is entitled to a "square deal." Lake Superior's Great Storm. The recent great storm on Lake Superior was probably the most violent of which there is any record. Certainly it is the most violent that has occurred since steel ships were employed in the bulk freight trade, which would, roughly speaking, be during the past fifteen years. It has always been thought that when one of the great modern freighters was out in the open sea that she could success- fully withstand any gale that was likely to be encountered, but this gale was of such violence that the steamers, especially the light ones, were utterly unable to make head- way against it. It would seem as though the great steam- ers had too low power for their bulk. The practice of the past two or three years has been to install in these modern steamers engines of low power capable of driving the vessel at about ten miles an hour loaded. They have hitherto proved themselves to be economical, satisfactory and capable of meeting all the conditions of the trade. But this was a storm that no master of a modern freighter had any expectation of meeting with. For instance, the steamer John Stanton, bound for Fort William with _ coal, worked her engines full speed ahead continuously for fourteen hours and during all that time went astern. - They probably just about held her for she eventually reached Fort William without damage. The steamer Cres- cent City had both anchors out and her engines wide open, but for three hours and fifty minutes she drifted helplessly with the storm and finished up on the rocks of Duluth. Six times the captain tried to turn her around and six times he failed. It is impossible to determine at this time the exact property lost of the vessels that are total losses. There is such an enormous salvage in a steel steamer that total losses are rare. With the exception of the Owen, which foundered in the open lake, the only total losses are those of the Lafayette, Madeira and Vega. Several of the vessels will probably lie on the beach where they are from now until spring, but can at that time be * repaired and put again in commission. Following is the list of vessels that suffered: The steamer Mataafa, ashore at Duluth near ship canal; nine lives lost: , Steamer Lafayette, ashore at Encampment Island; one life lost. Steamer Edinborn, ashore on Split Rock; one life lost. 'Steamer Coralia, ashore on east side Keweenaw Point. Steamer Wm. E. Corey, ashore on Gull Island, Apostle group. Steamer Crescent City, ashore near Lakewood. Steamer Isaac L. Ellwood, sunk in Duluth Harbor. Barge Manila, ashore at Encampment Island. Barge Madeira, ashore near Split Rock. Barge Maia, ashore on the east side Keweenaw Point. Steamer R. W. England, driven ashore on Minnesota Point. Steamer Western Star, ashore near Fourteen -Mile Point. - Steamer Bransford, struck on Isle Royale. Steamer Monkshaven, ashore on Pie Island. Steamer George Spencer, ashore near Thomasville. 'Schooner Amboy, ashore near Thomasville. Steamer Ira H.-Owen, foundered off Outer Island; nine- teen lives lost. Steamer Vega, broken in two on Lake Michigan. Steamer D. C. Whitney; steamer C. H. Warner; steamer Ferdinand Schlesinger; schooner Georgia; schooner Vin- land; steamer Rosemount; steamer J. H. Outhwaite. FATE OF THE LAFAYETTE AND MANILA. The steel steamer Lafayette, towing the barge Manila, was driven ashore at Encampment Island. The crew of the Lafayette had lost all idea of their whereabouts in the blinding snow storm and had just signaled to 'the Manila to drop anchor, when the steamer struck the rocks and the Manila following at the end of 'her tow line