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MARINE REVIEW Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. Published every Thursday at 39-41 Wade Bldg., by the Marine Review Pub. Co. VoL. XXVI. CLEVELAND, O., JULY 17, 1902. Subscription oe a year. Foreign 4,50 a year. Single Copy 10 cents. No. 3 INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN'S CONVENTION. Chicago, July 16.--Organization has been the keynote of the annual convention of the International Longshoremen's Association, held here this week. There were no strikes to be considered, and beyond the re- fusal of the new local union to handle railroad freight, which was being diverted to the Buffalo lake lines on account of the railroad freight handlers' strike in Chicago, no action looking toward a suspension of work has been talked of. It is planned to enlarge the scope of the organ- ization, to include all unorganized men employed by the inland trans- portation companies, both lake, river and rail, and this includes a change of name. If the action is taken the Longshoremen's national union will be called the International Association of Marine and Transport Workers. The question was set for discussion for Thursday. Four hundred dele- gates, representing a membership of 125,000 men, were called to order in Washington hall, 70 Adams street, by President Daniel J. Keefe on Monday morning. The morning was devoted to organizing the conven- tion and the report of the committee on credentials. President John J. Mitchell of the United Mine Workers' association made an address in which he declared the great need. for organized labor standing together. Some took his remarks to indicate that the longshoremen might be asked to lend their aid to the miners' strike if it cannot be settled otherwise, but this is not probable. President G. W. Perkins of the International Cigar Makers' union also spoke. : On Tuesday Secretary Barter read his annual report. He said that in the past year thirty-six local unions have been organized on the lakes, and work on the Atlantic coast had only just begun. Twenty-two locals have been formed on the coast within the past year, and it was proposed to extend the work from Maine to: Florida. On the Pacific coast sixteen locals were formed. As a start, eight organizations were launched on the Gulf of Mexico. On the Canadian water front remarkable progress was reported, fourteen new locals being affiliated. "Some progress has been made in the way of correspondence looking - to the organization of the river ports," the report ran. '"The Pool deck- hands have been unionized at Pittsburg and this is considered a start to- ward organizing the river workers. In Porto Rico two locals have been formed and if we are to keep step with the march of progress Porto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines must be organized." Mr. Barter laid great stress on the matter of organizing the transport workers of the inland cities. He said nine branches of that character had been formed in the last year and many more can be induced to join since a start has been made. It is urged that their affiliation will greatly strengthen the ranks of the marine transport workers. On Saturday afternoon the freight handlers on the Buffalo line docks - withdrew from work and caused the report to become general that they were on a strike. They were at a meeting on the north side, where a new union was formed known as the Marine Package Freight Handlers. They will ask the managers for a scale of 30 cents an hour, time and a half for work done after ten o'clock at night, and double time for Sundays. At present some of the men are paid 30 cents an hour straight, and other lines pay 25 cents. The union has aimed a blow directly at the freight handling system of W. J. Connors, and marine men are watching for the outcome when the scale will become effective on July 26. For nearly ten years the lake lines have..been practically free from union restrictions. The organization is aiming to bring in the men on the coal and ore docks and eventually the sale trade. Then the common laborers on the docks are to be asked to come in, so that every dock worker along the river front will be affiliated with the international organization. Another important feature of the convention is the plan to form an amalgamation between the International Longshoremen's Association and the National Union of Dock Laborers in Great Britain and Ireland, which has over 100,000 members. On Wednesday the delegates rested from their labors and took an excursion down the drainage canal. MORE ORDERS FOR NEW LAKE SHIPS. The American Ship Building Co. has just booked an order for its twenty-third vessel--all independent of those which are now on the stocks promised for this year's delivery. The twenty-third vessel is a freight steamer for C. W. Elphicke of Chicago of the following dimensions: Length, 376 ft. over all; keel, 356 ft.;beam 50 ft.;depth, 28 ft. She will have triple-expansion engines with cylinders 20, 3334, and_55-in. in diameter with a stroke of 40-in. Steam will be supplied by two Scotch boilers, 12% ft. in diameter and 11% ft. long, fitted with Howden hot draft. She will have a carrying capacity of 5,200 tons on 18 ft. draught and will be named after G. Watson French, vice-president of the Republic Iron & Steel Co. The list of orders now include a car ferry for the. Manistique, Marquette & Northern Railway, six cargo steamers for a syndicate headed by Capt. W. W. Brown of Cleveland, ten cargo steamers of Canadian canal dimensions for Capt. A. B. Wolvin's St. Lawrence river-Quebec company, a freighter for H. Av Hawgood of Cleveland, a package freight boat for the Lake Michigan service of the Anchor line, a freight and passenger boat for the Lake Superior service of the Anchor line, two new side-wheel passenger boats for the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Navigation Co, and the freighter for C. W. Elphicke of Chicago. Negotiations for more freighters are under way and it is expected that orders for two or three steamers will be closed within the next week or ten days. : It is announced from Chicago that the hull of the Milwaukee fire boat, for which plans were drawn some time ago by W. J. Wood, will be built by the Ship Owners Dry Dock Co. The engine contract was let several weeks ago. It is said that the price for hull and equipment 1s $48,995, and that five months is the time allowed for completion, with a forfeit of $250 for each day's delay beyond that time. as ASSETS OF THE STEEL CORPORATION $1,400,291,000. It has been repeatedly stated in these columns that the principal asset of the United States Steel Corporation was its iron ore holdings in the Lake Superior country. It controls nearly three-quarters of the known deposits of iron ore in that region; it mined last year nearly two-thirds of the output of Lake Superior ores. In a statement of its assets just filed in court the value of these deposits is placed at $700,000,000. We do not know, of course, upon what basis this value is figured, but we should say that it is conservative. A reasonable estimate of known Mesabi ores in the ground would be 1,000,000,000 tons. These deposits are an invaluable asset, because they cannot be duplicated. They are a constantly increas- ing asset, as the demand for iron and steel expands, because no rival can hope to obtain control of deposits of equal variety and volume. The statement of assets is filed in answer to the suit brought by J. Aspinwall Hodge, William H. Curtiss and Bernard Smith to prevent the corporation from carrying out its bond conversion plan--a plan which contemplated the transfer of $200,000,000 of 7 per cent. preferred stock into $200,000,000 of 5 per cent. bonds. The management of the corporation is much incensed at this latest suit, claiming that it is being made the victim of an organized effort to depress its stocks. An examination of the books -- shows that 100 shares of preferred stock were transferred to Hodge in August, 1901, but the corporation declares that it has no knowledge that Hodge is the real owner of the stock. Bernard Smith holds 200 shares of preferred stock and W. H..Curtiss none at all.. It does not, therefore, appear that these particular plaintiffs have anything at stake comparable to the investments of the men who actually formed the corporation by turn- ing over their plants to it. The statement of assets includes 400 producing mills of the value of $300,000,000; seventy-five blast furnaces of the value of $48,000,000; iron and bessemer cre properties of the value of $700,000,000; coal and coke fields (87,589 acres) of the value of $100,000,000; transportation properties, including railroads (1,467 miles), terminals, dock, ships (112), equipment (23,185 cars and 428 locomotives), $80,000,000; natural gas fields, $20,000,- 000; limestone properties, $4,000,000; cash and cash assets as of June 1, 1902, $148,291,000; total, $1,400,291,000. The corporation's earnings are stated to be at the rate of more than $140,000,000 a year. A saving of $30,000,000 is credited to the ownership of ore properties and it is esti- mated that the ownership of transportation facilities saves the company $10,000,000 annually. The earnings of the coal and coke properties are stated to be more than $1,000,000 a month. These statements as to values and earnings were presented to disprove a charge of the plaintiffs that Mr. Schwab, the president, and Mr. Trimble, the secretary, made a false cer- tificate when they certified that in their judgment the properties were worth at least the par value of the preferred stock after deducting all indebtedness. : The conversion plan was agreed upon at a stockholders' meeting on May 19. The answer admits that the conversion plan includes a payment of $10,000,000 to J. P. Morgan & Co. It denies that any of the acts con- templated will work fraud or injury to the complainants, but says that on the contrary such acts, when consummated, will be greatly to the benefit of the corporation and of every stockholder. The answer says that some of the directors are members of the syndicate formed by J. P. Morgan & Co. to float bonds, and that that*fact was communicated to stockholders in a circular dated April 17, 1902. It is further declared that the directors so interested constitute a minority of the board of directors, that they were individually at the time of the formation of such syndicate, and now are, owners and holders of large amounts of the stock of the defendant cor- poration, and that they became parties to said syndicate and assumed their proportion of the liability thereof in order to assure the success of the plan of purchasing and retiring the preferred stock, as they believed such plan to be of great value to the defendant corporation and its stockholders. The suit is based on the contention that the corporation's assets do not equal the amount of its preferred stocks, and that therefore it cannot pro- ceed as intended, under the act of 1902. The answer, which is supported by an affidavit of Charles Schwab, states that the assets will amount to more than the entire stock, bonds, common and preferred, or more than $1,400,000,000. Mr. Schwab, in his affidavit, maintains that his position is such as to give him knowledge of the actual worth of the properties, and list his estimates of their value. He says, among other things, that the earnings of the corporation in the fifteen months of its existence have been in excess of 10 per cent. of the entire capital stock. Mr. Schwab calls attention to the value of $320,000,000 placed on the Carnegie properties, as a result of the Frick litigation. It is set forth also that the fixed charges of the United States Steel Corporation are 5 per cent. per annum on $303,757,000 of bonds and an annual sinking fund of $3,040,000, making an annual charge of $18,227,850; and that when the proposed issue of second mortgage bonds is outstanding, namely, $250,- 000,000 at 5 per cent., together with an annual sinking fund of $1,010,000, the total fixed charges of the United States Steel Corporation for interest and bond sinking funds will be $31,737,850, to provide which Mr. Schwab says it is now earning at the rate of $140,000,000 per annum net. : "The profits of the United States Steel Corporation," the affidavit continues, "could be reduced more than 75 per cent., and there would still be ample funds to pay the interest and sinking funds upon the first and second mortgage bonds. Instead of a margin of 2 per cent. as intimated in the affidavit of Smith, there is a margin of 75 per cent. before solvency or financial ability of the steel corporation can possibly be questioned." Other affidavits corroborative of Mr. Schwab's estimate on the com- pany's properties were presented by Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the cor- poration's executive committee; James Gayley, vice-president; John Birk- inbine, consulting engineer and expert in iron and steel matters; Thomas Lynch, president of the H. C. Frick Coke Co.; William Nelson Page, president of the Gayley Mountain Coal Co.; James H. Reed, president of the Pittsburgh, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Co., and Richard Trim- ble, secretary of the United States Steel Corporation.