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20 DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR _ ASSO-' CIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. ? Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Ce. CLEVELAND. PCAC os el het ties 932 Ellicott Sq. PIICACO oo cck sven: 1362 Monadnock Bik. CINCINNATI i204... 124 Government Place. NEW YORK 3 30... 3s 1005 West Street Bldg. PITTSBURG 2. ose eiss ee 521 Park Bldg. DULUTH... ee ie 411 Providence Bldg. Curresboniince on. Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, »>U. S. and Mexico, $3.00 per annum. ' Canada, $4.00. Foreign, $4.50. . 'Subscribers can have iadéresses changed ati will. retort tl ch: nge of adverticing 'kopy must reach this ' office on Thursday preceding date of publication, ; The Cleveland News: Co. will supply the fade with the Marine Review through the regular channels of the American Néws Co. Agents, The International News Breams Building, Chancery London, E. C. England. * European Company, Lane, Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class Matter. July 25, 1907. STRIKES AND THEIR RESULTS. Inquiry among the lake ship yards develops a state of affairs calculated to make one pause. At this time last year lake ship yards had booked something like twenty-two orders for vessels . for 1907 delivery and other orders followed fast upon them. The year 1907 is more than half gone but there are few orders | on the books of lake ship yards for ves- 'sels for 1908 delivery. conditions as many orders would have Under normal been placed for next year's business as Unfortu- nately, however, conditions are not nor- were. placed for this year's. The ship building programs that "were definitely outlined by the great steel- mal. 'making companies have been. abandoned, owing to unsettled conditions. of labor and the: consequent inability to guarantee prompt delivery. The steel-making com- panies are content to get along with what hardship and 'egy on the , part of the federation. TAE MakiNE REVIEW they have, and independent interests are reluctart to order while the future re- If the truth could be got at it would probably be discovered mains so uncertain. that the ship building companies them- selves are glad of the let-up, so harassed and embarrassed have they been by their : workmen for months past. of lake trade is exclusively the work of labor. The present demoralization Candidly there appears to be no reason- able justification for it. 'The men who struck on the shipping docks violated an agreement which. had: been entered into betWeeti them and the companies' 'at the beginning of the season and which in- volved a ' substantial increase in wages. Common justice would require that this contract be observed to the letter, but Those on the Allouez dock actually formulated the men broke it without excuse. their demands after they had_ struck. This strike has enforced idleness upon in much The strike of the miners on the Mesabi range train men and has resulted injusticeée to them. at the instigation of the Western Fed- eration of Miners seems an injudicious. move from the new standpoint of strat- Tt not present circumstances does under add company. seriously to the. trouble of. the _It has. been. pointed out hitherto in that lake trade, mainly concerned with iron ore, lies at the. base of this these columrs being 'country's prosperity. Iron is the king of industry. The phe- nomenal development of this country during the past few years is to. be direct- ly traced to the profusion of ore in the Lake Superior country and the ease and cheapness of its transportation across the chain of lakes to the furnaces of Ohio It does not exist elsewhere and Pennsylvania. is a combination which in the world and it has lifted this country into the premier position among the iron and steel-making nations. If there is . halt 'placed upon this business it must effect the entire country, and the chief of all In this case labor will be responsible for sufferers will be the laboring man. its own suffering. RAID ON COASTING LAWS. The navy department recently char- tered some British ships to carry coal > CVeTE € from Norfolk to Puget Sound and San Francisco. 'The reasons advanced for- justifying th's infringement upon the coastwise laws was that there were no American ships offering for the service and that the naval stations on the Pacific were depleted of coal. It was pointed out at the time that American ships had offered to carry coal -to the Pacific coast earlier in the year at a rate that was but slightly in advance.of that at! which) British ships were charteréd. ' Shortly 'after this ac- tion was taken by the navy depart- ment an editorial appeared in the New Mork Maritime Register which is in- tétestire as merely showing the di- réction of the wind. . There have been noted from time to time in the past few months certain similar articlés in the presaging a raid upon the coasting law public prints evidently inspired, next winter. The article in the New York Maritime Register is as' follows: The chartering of a steamer to take coal from Newcastle. New South Wales to San Francisco marks a new departure in that trade. If this venture proves successful it will uhdoubtedly be followed by further charters of steamers for the same voyage, in which it may be possible that in the near future the steamer may supplant the sailing vessel in that trade and by its quicker service help to increase more rapidly. the growth of the Australian coal trade with qur Pacific coast. The San Francisco coal market is one which our éastern mine owners should largely con- trol, but on account of the lack of available vessels to transport their coal they are placed in the pectliar situation of having to witness an important market for their products sup- plied by foreign colleries.. This condition is, however, one that could not 'have been fore- seen. Voyages from our eastern seaboard to the Pacific coast by way.of Cape Horn, except for coal cargoes may be looked upon as a thing of the past. The opening of the Te- huantepec railway has done away with the necessity of sending merchandise by the former route, and the ultimate opening of the Panama canal will no dotbt entirely eliminate the Cape Horn route as a commercial highway between our eastern and. western seaboard. There is practically no coastwise trade by the way of this route nor any appreciable amount of, American tonnage that might be put into this -trade. It does not appear under .these circumstances that any injury to the American ship owner would result if in this particular branch of the coastwise trade eastern. shippers of coal were given the privilege of employing foreim> vessels' to take forward cargoes. 'There would be no competition -between American and foreign vessels as there are no American vessels envaged at the present time in that trade by way of the Cape Horn route. It seems in this particular case that an excention might be consistently made in regard to the use of foreign vessels by our eastern coal shippers. It, however, lies with coneress. to grant a privilege of this kind. The effect at the present time of the coastwise laws upon trading by the way of Cape Horn is that shippers are denied the means of getting coal to an important market, which. under ordinary conditions would be supplied largely by them. Coastwise interests are advised to' be alert and to see that no further the If the national govern- ment could only be persuaded to be fair to the American ship there would encroachments made are upon coasting laws.