The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

103. | lakes at a wonderful rate during September, the output for the month exceeding that of the entire year of 1902 by 32,005 tons. On account of the great miners' strike but 6,200 tons were sent forward during the month of September last year. The passenger steamer City of Charlevoix of the Northern Michigan Line stranded on a reef in Northport bay Sunday morn- ing and slid along until there was only 9 ft. of water under her bow and 13 ft. under her stern. her off with tugs,it became necessary to call a car ferry to their assistance. The steamer City of Erie of the Cleveland & Buffalo Line has been equipped with wireless telegraph apparatus and as soon as the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Co. has completed its sta- tions at Nottingham, O., and Silver Creek, N. Y., tests will be made. If satisfactory, General Manager Newman has agreed to equip the City of Buffalo with wireless telegraph apparatus also. The revenue cutter Tuscarora, which was built at the ship yard of the W. R.: Trigg Co., Richmond, Va., has reached her station at Milwaukee and is under command of Capt. David A. Hall. The Tuscarora is a very handsome craft, her lines being especially graceful. She 'is 170; ft..long, 36 ft. beam and -14 ft, deep, equipped. with a triple-expansion engine and Scotch boilers. At a meeting of the Lumber Carriers' Association, held in Detroit this week, the carrying charges per 1,000 ft. on pine were advanced from $2.50 to. $2.75 to take effect on Oct. 20. The steamers. Norseman, W. RP: Thew, Isaac Lincoln and Miami, and the schooners Eva Robinson and Gebhardt, were dropped from the association, owing to the fact that the owners felt that they could not. pay the increased wages demanded by the Seamen's union. - 'A - Another large steel freighter, the Western Star, was launched at the Wyandotte yard of the Detroit Ship Building Co. last week. The new steamer is 435 ft. long, 52 ft. beam and 28 ft. deep. She . will be equipped with triple-expansion engines, with cylinders 22, 37 and 58 in. diameter and 42 in. stroke. The owner, Capt. M. J. Cummings of Oswego, and wite, attended the launch. The Western Star will be commanded by Capt. P. J. Griffin, who is also part owner. In a southeast gale on Lake Superior Sunday night the schooner Pretoria broke away from the steamer Sultana off Cop- per harbor. The Pretoria was drifting across Lake Superior when she was sighted by the steamers Boyce and Gratwick and towed to an anchorage under Manitou island. Thére she was found by the Sultana with her sails blown away, her anchor and anchor chains: gone, her wheel chains parted and her windlass broken. The Pretoria was towed' to Sault Ste. Marie for repairs. Receipts of lumber at the Tonawanda ports during September show a large increase over the corresponding month last year and a slight increase over the preceding month. Receipts for September were 64,870,684 ft., of which 52,242,900 ft. were un- loaded at the north Tonawanda port, while the balance, 12,627,- 784 'ft., went to Tonawanda. * During the present season 322,606,- 571 ft. of lumber have been brought down the lakes'to the Ton- awanda ports, or an increase of 47,099,706 ft. over last year's re- ceipts: os announces that an examination will be held at his office, Buffalo, Oct. 30, at 11 a. m., for the purpose of establishing an eligible list from which second mates will be selected for lighthouse tend- ers. Applications must be made and submitted on or before the date mentioned, upon regular forms of the United States civil service commission, which may 'be obtaitied of Major Theo. A. oe U. S. A... lighthouse "engineer, °537' Federal building, u alo. ' bere ee een £ Oy eH A controlling interest -in the Manistee, Ludington & Milwau- kee Transportation Co. has been purchased by W. S. Eddy of © Saginaw; Robert R. Blocker, Louis' Sands, E.G. Siger, Edward Buckley and R. C. Peters of Manistee, -all large stockholders in the Michigan Salt association. The following officers of the transportation company have been elected: W. S. Eddy, presi- dent; Edward Buckley, vice-president; P. G. Siler, treasurer ; John Kitsinger, general manager; and S. P. Reynolds, general traffic manager. ; It is likely that-a meeting of creditors of the Columbia Iron Works will be called next week to ascertain the progress of events and to determine whether there is any hope of reorganiza- tion. The Detroit: Trust Co. is in temporary charge of the plant as receiver and efforts are now being made to have it appointed trustee, with the hope that the plant may be rehabilitated. The company has been adjudged bankrupt in the United States dis- trict court upon the petition of the National Lead Co., one of the creditors, and the matter has been referred to Harlow P. Davock, referee in bankruptcy. ' an 'Another of the eight large steel freight steamers which the American Ship Building' Co. has had under way for some time past at Lorain, Chicago, Bay City and West Superior yards for J. C. Gilchrist and others of Cleveland will be. launched at the Lorain yard Saturday and nattied Joseph C. Gilchrist.. The Perry-G. Walker of the same fleet was launched at Chicago Saturday, and she followed the Robert C. Ireland, launched at /Chicago some time ago. The R. E. Schuck, a Lorain product, has just gone into commission. The vessels building at Superior and Bay City will not be completed until very late in the season. Probably not all of these new craft will go into commission this year. A Chicago dispatch announces that with the title of district superintendent of repairs Capt. Thomas Johnson of Chicago will have charge of the Great' Lakes Towing Co's tugs at Chicago, ' MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. After several attempts to pull . Major Bingham, engineer of the tenth lighthouse district, South Chicago, 'Escanaba, Sault Ste Marie, Marquétte and Du- luth. Capt. William Hill of similar title will take charge in. Ten- awanda, Buffalo, Erie, Conneaut, Ashtabula, Lorain, Cleveland, Poledo, Amherstburg, Detroit, Port Huron and Sheboygan. eLne 3, two Officials will have superintendenee of the 140 tugs in the com-. All repairs in Capt. Hill's district will be made at,-; It" is: also jane. pany's fleet. Ashtabula and in Capt. Johnson's at Chicago. nounced that Capt. Walter Hamilton, marine superint the Hines Lumber Co's fleet, will be offered the management, of. the tug trust's tugs at Chicago and South Chicago. . SHARP ANSWER TO FORECLOSURE SUITS. _ Guggenheimer, Untermyer & Marshall, as counsel for the United States Ship Building Co., and James M. Smith, Jr., re- ceiver, have filed the answer of the company in the two foreclos- ure suits brought by the New York Security & Trust Co. as trus- tee of the $10,000,000 of bonds given to Charles M. Schwab in part payment for the Bethlehem Steel Co. stock (which the. lien covers) and by the Mercantile Trust Co. as trustee of the $10,-... 000,900, first mortgage secured by the other plants. ' Both. answers. . set up that the bonds were executed by persons who, not being bona fide stockholders, had no power to act, and that because the constituent companies were turned in at greatly inflated, values ; the bonds were given without consideration and are void. It is. asked that both suits be dismissed. In the answer to' the suit of: the Mercantile Trust Co. Henry T. Scott, Lewis Nixon, John S... Hyde, E.! W.. Hyde, 'Irving' M) Scott; C.J. Canda and Hi Wwe. Gause are accused of acting with the complainant and D. Leroy Dresser in planning the trust and representing their companies to be worth $41,000,000, whereas their business was not worth over $10,000,000 and their plants sabout $10,000,000, while the assets were not in excess of liabilities and they had not sufficient work... They caused the, concern to issue mortgage bonds. ing capital. and stock to the value of $11,000,000 and in receiving $25,000,000. of common and preferred stock became indebted to the company under section 21 of the New Jersey corporation law, and the com- . pany through the receiver is entitled to recover. such indebtedness. . In the answer. to Schwab's suit practically the same thing is said. - D. 'Leroy Dresser's testimony in the case to dismiss the fore- . closure suit against the United States Ship:Building Co. was very... He said that after a pool of 200,000 preferred and. sensational. 250,000 common stock had been placed in the hands of Harris, Gates & Co., it was agreed that none of this stock should be marketed until 25,000 preferred and 25,000 common owned by J. P. Morgan & Co., and 75,000 shares of each. kind owned by C. M. Schwab had been first sold. The purchase of the Bethle-.., hem Steel Co.'s plant was discussed. Mr. Schwab, ,according to Mr. Dresser, wanted $9,000,000 in cash for his stock in the steel .,, company and submitted reports which showed that it, cost him, endent of. oy +) more than $7,000,000 and was earning $1,400,000 a year. Dresser. . told him, they could not trade on a cash basis and Schwab said. he would: take $10,000,000 in bonds at 90 for the $0,000,000. This. , was agreed to, Mr. Schwab stating that $2,500,000 of the.stock.. . ue was to go to J. P. Morgan & Co. For the stock o bonds, $1,000,000 in common stock and $9,000,000. in preferred. ne x of the Bethlehem » company Mr. Dresser said there was really given ,$10,000,000. in There was some talk of pooling the stock of the;ship building. . company, he said, Mr. Schwab insisting that all the stock be held until his and Mr. Morgan's had been put on the market. , | a } STEEL COMMON DIVIDEND REDUCED.' The newspapers make a. point of the fact that John D, Rock-. ° efeller and son were absent from the meeting of the board of directors of the United States Steel Corporation at its meeting... in New York on Tuesday, but there is really no point to be made | The conservative element in the Steel Corpora- . tion, which include the Rockefeller holdings, has for some time: -- past been opposed to the distribution of earnings upon the com-_ on that score. mon stock, believing that the best interests of the corporation would be subserved by strengthening itself financially with an abundant.surplus. Undoubtedly the reduction of the dividend upon common from 1 per'cent. to 4 per cent. quarterly is a concession to those who were in favor months ago and was dictated as much by prudence as it was by a decrease: in earnings. the effect upon the stock market; but it would not be surprising if, before the next dividend period, it should be suspended. The statement of earnings shows a decrease of $4,642,668 for the third quarter of the calendar year, with September estimated, compared with the same period last year, and a decrease of $4,339,487 compared with the preceding quarter of this year. On Oct. I, 1902, the corporation had unfilled orders of 4,943,000 tons _ of a reduction three - It is quite likely that the % per cent!' was declared, instead of being passed altogether, in order to ease © on hand. This year the unfilled orders on the same date were " 3,728,742 tons. net earnings, The statement for the nine months gives total' | after monthly deductions for repairs, renewals . maintenance and interest on bonds and fixed charges of subsidi- ~ ary companies, $94,013,836. Deduciting amounts for sinking funds on bonds of subsidiary companies and depreciation and re- serve funds brings the net earnings down to $82,211,692. A fur- ther deduction of interest on the corporation's bonds,.including the sinking. fund, leaves a balance of $85,978,217. Dividends. on... the preferred and common shares for the nine months aggregate . $36,620,475, leaving a balance of undivided profits or surplus. for... that period of $20,348,742. :