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TRAE Marine REVIEW The following statement, which may be regarded in the nature of an annual statement has been submitted to the members of the Merchant Marine League by its officers: To Our Mempers: The officers of the Merchant Marine League are gratified at the result of the past year's efforts. The success which has attended the movement for the re- habilitation of the merchant marine of the United States in the oversea trade has been due to the work of the League and the inherent strength of the cause. The officers of the League refer with pardonable pride to the call of its delegation on President Roosevelt and Speaker Cannon. a few weeks ago, and to the widespread comment that no more notable delegation ever presented a cause in Washington. On that occasion the League was enabled to have thirty members present, each a fepresentative of a leading industry, and prominent in his community. What the league has been doing during the year may be illustrated by the fact that last week our bill for postage alone, in distributing Lterature concerning our. merchant marine, was over $100.00. We have entered upon a far- reaching campaign to apprise the public of the actual con- dition of our merchant marine through the medium of the newspapers of the country. Articles have been sent weekly to over 1,000 newspapers, not especially argumentative in their character, but simply submitting the cold and un- varnished facts. The success of the campaign has been phe- nomenal. At its beginning ninety out of every one hundred clippings were adverse, today not over twenty-five per cent -are adverse, while some of the most powerful newspapers in the country have enlisted in the support of the League. Realizing that such a campaign could not be carried on with- out earnest and minute attention to details, the League ob- tained the services of Mr. Alexander R. Smith, who has made the subject a lifelong study. The League was es- pecially fortunate in securing the services of this gentleman. He has done noble work. The work of the League has been performed in a thoroughly dignified way and placed above politics and partisanship. The League has represented that the restoration of our merchant marine to the oversea trade of the United States is simply a business proposition. It has simply submitted the ques- tion to the business sense of the nation as to whether it is not wise to adopt the very means' which have proved so successful in upbuilding the merchant marine of other countries and which has enabled foreign vessels to seize ninety -per cent of our carrying trade, which has now grown to embrace one-seventh of the entire oversea interchange of the world. Shall we be content to have our oversea trade remain in the hands of our competitors? Such a condition is clearly in- imical to the proper development of our foreign markets, since in the manipulation of transportation facilities abroad a foreign ship will naturally favor the dispatch. of the prod- ucts of its own country. Added to this purely commercial view is the broader ques- tion of patriotism. The Naval Board, over the signature of Admiral Dewey, and the Army Board, over the signature of General Chaffee, have both declared the lack of adequate merchant marine to be a serious menace to the national se- curity abroad. 'This declaration has been supported by Secretary Bonaparte, of the navy department, and Secretary Taft, of the war department, and has met with the unqualified endorsement of the president of the United States. x ~The League is uncertain whether the shipping Dill, which has already passed the Senate, will be passed by the. House,' or even reported out of the House committee at this session, but there is every fair reason to believe that it will pass and become a law either at this session or at the next session of the present Congress. That this. bill. will accomplish every- thing desired, no one has dared to predict, but that it will either do this or at least prove to be a step in the right direction, we believe is beyond dispute. ee The League might have had a great many more members had its officers devoted their attention to increasing its num- ber rather than to the direct work for which it was organ- ized. Appreciating in the fullest degree the influence and support which we have mutually given to each other in this movement, the League deems it necessary to ask your support for another year. Joun A. PENTOoN, Secretary. Harvey D. GouLper, President. © AROUND THE GREAT LAKES. | The steamer Gladstone of the Bradley fleet is reported ashore on Pilot island at Death's Door entrance, Green Bay, one of the most dangerous spots on Lake Michigan. Capt. Joseph Oliver, of Muskegon, has been given the contract for raising the sunken steamer Carrie Ryerson which sank as a result of the collision with the Goodrich liner Georgia. ae The steamer Crescent City, of the Pittsburg Steamship Co.'s fleet which went ashore near Two Harbors in the great storm on Lake Superior last November is now in dry dock at Lorain. Capt. C. A. Anderson, of the steamer Centurion, ré- ports passing through ten miles of shell-ice Monday night about ten miles westward of Grand island on the course from Point Sable to Marquette. The new steamer Ogdensburg, of the Rutland line, built at the Cleveland yard 'of the American Ship Build- ing Co., passed through the locks of the Welland canal on her maiden trip this week. John Churchill, of Buffalo, has been appointed chief engineer of the steamer Lyman C. Smith to succeed George M. Milne who has accepted the position of assis- tant inspector of boilers at Detroit. a The steel steamer Angeline, owned by the Cleveland ' Cliffs Iron Co., ran hard aground during the fog Sunday night just off Point Abino. It Was necessary to lighter about 100 tons of her cargo of ore. Every watchman, wheelman, mate and master on the lakes should read Clarence E. Long's article on "Scientific Lake Navigation' now running in the MARINE REVIEW. This series began in the issue of April 5. To anyone sending in his subscription now all the back numbers will be sent to him free--that is to say his subscription will be entered for one full year from the date of receipt and all the back numbers allowed without charge. At the time of the disaster of April 18, the giant shears which had been in use at the Union Iron Works for years were practically wrecked. The violent shock threw them down with great damage. They fell athwart the steam- ship City of Pueblo cutting that vessel's steel hull almost down to the water line and sinking that craft in very shal- low water. New shears are now in course of construc- tion, which will be of even greater capacity, and of more modern type than the old ones. With the completion of the big shears, and the extensive repairing of damages to the dry dock, the. Union Iron Work's plant will be in as good.-general. operating condition as before the big shakeup: Se ae "ae