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TAE Marine. REVIEW DEVOTED TO EVERVTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR ASSOCIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Company CLEVELAND. CHICAGO: MONADNOCK BUILDING. PITTSBURG: PARK BUILDING. NEW YORK: 150 NASSAU STREET. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, $3.00 per annum. To Foreign Countries, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on Thursday preced- ing date of publication. _ The Cleveland News Co. willsupply the trade with the MARINE REVIEW through the regular channels of the American News Co. European Agents, The International News Company, Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C. England. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio,as Second Class Matter. MAY 17, 1006. CAUSE FOR CONGRATULATION. It is a subject for national congratulation that the longshoremen's strike on the great lakes has been ter- minated so satisfactorily to all parties concerned. The material prosperity of the nation was more closely concerned in this strike than might appear to the cas- ual observer, The United States holds its premier po- sition in iron and steel manufacture to the great abun- dance of its ore deposits, lying almost wholly in tne Lake Superior country. These deposits are not only high in grade, but they are mined so easily and shipped so cheaply that their cost delivered at the furnace door is very low. There is no way for those ores to reach the furnaces except along the chain of lakes. Shipments are so enormous, aggregating last year 34,000,000 tons, that the railways could not possibly handle the traffic were they so disposed. The result is that if the traffic is not handled by ships, it is not handled at all. The continued interruption of. this stream of ore for any length of time would paralyze the industries of the United States. Iron is the base of our indus- trial prosperity. As civilization advances the uses of iron increase. It enters into nearly every form of industrial effort. One can scarcely perform a single act in ordinary business life without the use of iron. 19 It so completely permeates the affairs of mankind that they are practically iron bound. Anything, there- fore, that arrests the free use of iron stops the wheels of a thousand industries. The great lakes are Amer- ica's theatre whereon is played the greatest commer- cial drama ever written. The states bordering upon the great lakes are the real workshops of this coun- try. These workshops are dependent upon the con- stant flow of traffic on the lakes. The longshoremen's strike, therefore, did not merely affect the men aboard ship and the men on the docks, but the railways, fur- naces, the rolling mills, the foundries, and the hun-. dred and one separate and independent enterprises whose only point in common is that they use iron, It is not necessary here to discuss or to condemn the causes which led to the strike. It is sufficient 'that they are removed and that labor has made the most advantageous contract with capital that has been known in years on the lakes. The longshoremen get the same wages they received last year with the added advantage that they work ten hours instead of eleven. Their contract, moreover, is for two years. Working two shifts a day of ten hours each, it is expected that 'with the aid of the ever-developing automatic ma- chines, the wonderful ore trade of the lakes can be 'handled in the less than seven months remaining. To do it, however, docks, ships, railways and machines will have to work with shuttlecock regularity. If anyone wants to see marvelous things performed, great courage and skill displayed in the handling of heavy moving parts and automatic machinery brought to its highest pitch, let him visit the docks, both upper and lower, on the great lakes during the balance of this season. AVERAGE ORE RATE. About the most valuable figures that the Martne REvIEW annually compiles concerning lake commerce are those which show the average rate at which all ore, both wild and con- tract, was moved from the head of Lake Superior. These figures are obtained directly from the ore shippers. The rate at which all ore was moved from the head of the lakes last year was 75.068 cents. Following is the average ore rate from the head of the lakes for ten years past: Average rate Year, . ; Cents, (O08 75.00 LOOA voc lend pi inchs eee 72.54 ee ee ee Oe 84.01 eer er ee 77.49 Moth | re ee Ope hae ee 79.99 Ne re 120.7 TRG he 79.4 (ROR gas es oes 59.0 $ROP a en ee 63.8 TSO6 a se ee 97.7 [HOF bo ees Soh eu ee 85.9 Mr. W. B. Castle, Cleveland agent for the Wolvin line, has resigned to become associated with the firm of James > Pickands & Co., at Marquette. The Wolvin boats, in- cluding the Acme Steamship Co., the Provident Steamship Co. and the Peavey Steamship Co., will hereafter be 'handled by Pickands, Mather & Co., of Cleveland.