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1903-] cheap. transportation that most people do not dream of now. It ig quite the idea that the railroad car has about reached its limit and that the ton-mile cost by rail will not go much lower. Still a great many things have developed already in this. direc- tion that were thought impossible even ten years ago. The lake package-freight lines will, therefore, go on about as before. The two great lines centered here and at Erie will certainly not grow less and the. small lines may before long be entirely absorbed by them or driven out, as the Wabash, Clover Leaf, Lackawanna and Northern lines have been, but the traffic is not affected by this. Such changes have become the rule of the lakes as well as of the road. Such changes do not.affect the traf- fic question greatly. JouNn CHAMBERLIN. WATERWAY FROM GREAT LAKES TO GULF. A resolution as follows, indorsing the proposed waterway from the great lakes to the gulf and the Chicago sanitary canal as a part of that project, was adopted last week at the closing session of a meeting of the Interstate Mississippi River Improve- ment and Levee association held at New Orleans: "Resolved, That the convention of delegates representing the states of the great Mississippi valley from Duluth to the Gulf of Mexico gives its unqualified approval to the movement for the construction of a waterway connecting the great lakes at the north with the Mississippi river and the Gulf of Mexico at the south. We recognize the expenditure of $35,000,000 by the Sani- tary District of Chicago as a practical demonstration in the fur- therance of this project. : "We express the hope that the senators and representatives in congress of the various states represented in this convention will give their encouragement and assistance to congressional leg- - - jslation in favor of the completion of the deep waterway to which the Mississippi valley states have already given their approval, and to which the state of Illinois and the Sanitary District of Chi- cago are committed as a matter of policy and by great financial expenditures already made." LAKE CARGO RECORDS. The cargo of 185,399 bu. of corn, 40,000 bu. of rye and 43,600 bu. of wheat, 268,999 bu. in all, taken from South Chicago to Buffalo recently by the steamer Mataafa of the Steel Corporation's fleet, footed up in weight 7,619 tons (2,000 lbs.), or 87 tons in excess of the previous grain cargo record, which was held by the steamer Simon J. Murphy. Cargo records to date are: Iron ore--Steamer Wm. Edenborn, owned by Pittsburg Steamship Co., A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, manager, 8,807 gross or 9,864 net tons, Escanaba to South Chicago. Grain--Steamer Mataafa, Pittsburg Steamship Co. A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, manager, 185,399 bu. of corn, 40,000 bu. of tye and 43,600 bu. of wheat (268,000 bu. in all), equal to 7,619 tons (2,000 lbs.), South Chicago to Buffalo; steamer S. J. Murphy, Donora Mining Co., Duluth, 269,000 bu. of corn, equal to 7,532 net tons, South Chicago to Buffalo; steamer Douglas Houghton, Pitts- burg Steamship Co., A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, manager, 308,000 bu. of oats and 60,000 bu. of corn, equal to 7,520 net tons, Manitowoc to Buffalo. ; : ae Coal--Steamer I. L. Ellwood, owned by Pittsburg Steamship Co., A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, manager, 7,688 net tons anthracite, Buffalo to Duluth; steamer John W. Gates, Pittsburg Steamship Co., A. B. Wolvin of Duluth, manager, 7,659 net tons of bitumi- nous, Lorain to Duluth. is SUBSIDIES, HIGH TARIFF, OUR MERCHANT MARINE. Editor Marine Review: The continual cry for a sea-going merchant marine should finally awaken the people to see the real cause of its decline and destruction. For nearly half a century high tariff has prevented the importation of modern _buildingyma- terial for ships and has raised the price of labor. Now that'the material is produced in this country, prices of labor make it im- Possible to compete with foreigners in the building and running of ships. Under the high tariff the game of enriching a few at the expense of many has lustily been going on; and the artificially- Taised prices of all commodities have enabled manufacturers and Monopolists, not only to make large profits but to undersell for- eigners in their home market, the profits in this country being so large as to cover any loss from underselling abroad. The high tariff, instead of benefiting the general public, has impoverished them by compelling them to pay higher prices for goods of their Own manufacture than the foreigner, who has the benefit of lower Prices because the articles sold to him have already partly or wholly been paid for by the high prices realized in this country. € tariff is the great prison wall surrounding this land, within Which confine the people labor like convicts and wear the stripes 80 masterly symbolized in the prison flag, because of having to Sustain life at such prices as the big corporations dictate. The Impossibility of including the ocean in the high-tariff scheme has Prevented the building and running of foreign-going ships at a Profit and has caused the decline and destruction of the merchant Marine in the foreign trade. : ; Every shteroiice being subsidized by the high tariff at the ex- _ Pense of the farmer and the general public, the cry for subsidizing Ships will not cease so long as the high tariff remains. _Joun Maurice, Chicago, Oct. 30, 1903. Civil Engineer and Naval Expert. MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE: RECORD. 25 QUESTION: OF LOW. FREEBOARD. From the time that naval powers began to build battleships there has. been a difference of opinion as to the value of low freeboard and vice versa. It is again brought to attention by the publication of part of the report of the naval board of con- struction on the designs of the 13,000-ton battleships. The dis- senting member of the board, Admiral Bradford, in his minority report, makes this note: "The Idaho class would still. be use- less in a moderate seaway, owing to her low freeboard." The other members of the board disagree with the minority and de- clare the statement entirely unjustified by. the facts or by ex- perience. 'They add, in their rejoinder to Admiral Bradford's statement, that, by comparison, the. freeboard of the Idaho is the same as that of the Virginia class and 6 in. 'less than that of the new Maine. The forward 12-in. guns and the eight 8-in. guns of the Idaho in turret, are carried 26 ft. above the water line or 6 in. higher than the corresponding guns of the Virginia, and 6 in. lower than the forward 12-in.: guns of the Maine. The after 12-in. guns in turrets are carried 1734 ft. above the water line, or 2 ft. lower than those on the Maine, and the 7-in. guns of the main-deck battery are carried 14.ft. 9 in..above the water line, the same as on the Virginia. The majority report declares that in a seaway the Idaho will have superior fighting ability to the Maine. This element of freeboard in warship construction was earn- estly discussed by such men ar Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, Admiral De Horsey, Admiral Colomb and J. H. Biles before the Insti- tution of Naval Architects in England as early as 1891, at a 'time when the British admiralty had under consideration the development and progress of the American navy. It was ad- mitted by the British admiralty that the British navy had not a vessel that could be closely compared with the Baltimore, the Newark and the San Francisco, as in the period between 1883 and 1887 the cruisers built in England were belted, and, there- fore, larger and more costly for the same fighting power, or, if of the same type, were smaller and slower. About that time the contracts were given for the Oregon, the Massachusetts and the Indiana, which were recognized as superior in design to any bat- tleship in the British navy, especially in the: matter of height of freeboard. The low freeboard type had been favored 'because they were supposed to be able to develop greater speed, but it was also recognized that this type had disadvantages which might be remedied; hence the question of freeboard entered: largely into 'the discussions of the naval architects' convention.' The propo- _ sition of the admiralty was to increase the height of freeboard about 15 in. on the new turret battleships and 'the proposition was strongly advocated. Although it had been recognized that_ the moderate freeboard has been associated with higher speed, the experience with vessels of the low freeboard turret type, such as the Thunderer, the Dreadnought and the Trafalgar proved to the contrary. It was remarked by Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, and he was not corrected, that if one may judge from the amount of water coming in on an Atlantic liner with a. freeboard of 26 ft. the chance of fighting the big guns end on in a head sea is not promising te a warship of only 17 ft..freeboard. @ RESULT OF ATTACK ON BELLEISLE. A month,ago the old British battleship Belleisle was sunk in Portsmouth harbor by the explosion of a torpedo under her hull, and so disastrous was the effect of the explosion that-it has. taken"a'morith to get her afloat again, although she was in shal- low water. The object of the torpedo experiment was to ascertain whether ccllulose material made of corn pith could be relied upon to prevent the inrush of water when a ship has had a big hole knocked in her. Accordingly, on the Belleisle's hull, 10 ft. below the water line, a section had been constructed, representing a double bottom of a modern battleship, and this was packed with cellu- lose. The Belleisle was towed to Fareham creek in Portsmouth harbor and a torpedo warhead charged with gun cotton exploded under the false bottom. The effect was more disastrous than was anticipated. Not only was the false bottom blown to pieces, and the cellulose sent high in the air with the volume of water that followed the explosion, but a big hole was also made in the ship's bottom. The Liverpool Salvage Co. undertook to raise her but the task has been a difficult one, owing to the soft nature of the bottom. As fast as the mud was cleared away to enable the divers to work on patching up the rent the next tide would bring more mud back. At length a cofferdam was constructed inside the ship, and eight pumps, each capable of discharging 3,000 tons per hour, were kept at work with the result that the old battleship was finally floated and put in dry dock. It was - evident that she had sustained serious damage, for the old ves- sel had a big list to port a8'she was being towed across the har- bor and two immense pumps were kept continually at work upon her. When she was dry-docked the hole in her hull was cov- , ered with canvas to keep inquisitive persons from finding out precisely what had happened to her. The latest dividend of the United States Steel Corporation goes to 40,128 preferred shareholders and 34,958 common share- holders, a total of 75,086 persons. This is an increase of over 12,000 shareholders in three months and shows that the stock has been widely bought during the recent period of low prices. No corporation in the world now approaches the Steel Corporation in the number. of its shareholders. oe he