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PIG IRON SITUATION. Possible tariff revision and added un- certainty as to the attitude of many state legislatures concerning railroads -and other corporations are having a de- pressing effect upon the iron market. The demand for lower prices on fin- ished products is based frequently on the anticiption of lower 'tariff rates, and the ability of some consumers to estimate how reductions should be made is in some cases surprising. Cast iron pipe interests have been showing almost the only activity in pig iron. Southern furnace interests are holding firmly to the $13 price. The Carnegie Steel Co. -has made a contract with the Chicago City Railway Co. which will involve the substitution of many thousand street car steel wheels for cast iron wheels. Rail- roads are still ordering some thousands of cars into the construction of which steel underframes enter. A considerable number of contracts of moderate size tor. structural material has , been awarded. There is continued weakness 'in the coke market for prompt shipment, since production is considerably greater than the present demand. Weakness in old material prices is noted, especially in eastern Pennsylvania, Cleveland and Chicago. OPPOSED TO DAHLIA'S SALE. Lieut. Com'dr W. A. Edgar, inspector of the ninth lighthouse district, has stirred up vessel owners by announcing the sale at public auction of the light- house steamer Dahlia on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at Slip A,- Chicago river (Illi- nois Central freight yards, . Chicago). The sale of the Dahlia is not to the liking of vessel owners at all and reso- lutions have been adopted by the Chi- cago Ship Masters' Association as well as by the Chicago lodge of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association urging that the Dahlia be retained on her sta- tion until another tender can be pro- Cured. "Lhe: matter... has ..also> -been brought to the attention of the Lake Carriers' Association. There are two tenders on Lake Michigan, the Sumac and the Dahlia. It is understood to be the intention of the lighthouse estab- lishment not to replace the Dahlia in the ninth district. This circumstance causes vessel owners much apprehension. Ob- viously vessel owners are interested in having the buoys placed as early as possible in the spring and allowed to remain as late as possible in the fall. It now takes the two steamers two weeks each spring to place the buoys. It would be impossible for one steamer to do this work within a month. Last year, for instance, buoys were TAE MarRINE REVIEW set in the Green Bay district on May 2. With one steamer it would be neces- sary to set them in the Straits first and then go over to the Green Bay district and set them from May 15 to May 20. Similarly buoys remained out this year until Dec. 4. It would be necessary to start out not later than Nov. 5 to take them up with one steamer. At all such stages steamers approaching them with the buoys removed would have to wait for daylight and this may mean a delay of getting into port, which would cause a further delay on account of dockage, so that it is easily possible for a vessel to lose three days, which during the close of the season may mean an entire trip. The Lake Carriers' Association has during the last 10 years constantly insisted upon more and better aids to navigation. It has made an_ especial point of having them remain up to the very close of navigation. Obviously this could not be accomplished on Lake Michigan if the Dahlia is sold and not replaced. DRY DOCK WORK AT BUFFALO. Buffalo, N. Y., Jan. 19--One very plain result of the lake trade this past season is shown in the small amount of work to be done in the dry docks this winter. Buffalo, with its four docks, has usually had all it could do in fixing up injured vessels from fall till spring and sometimes not getting through in time for them to begin the next sea- son, but now with nearly 200 lake ves- sels laid up here, all sizes included, there is very little todo, and an old dry dock man says that he does not be- lieve there will be 50 per cent of the usual amount of work of that kind to do anywhere on the lakes. The reason for this is that the move- ment of vessels was comparatively light last season and there was all the time needed and some to spare all through the season if any of them needed re- pairs, so that the usual state of things at the close of navigation, with many vessels repaired of injuries in a tem- porary manner or perhaps not at. all, showing leaks and other troubles, did not occur. Almost every vessel was pretty fully repaired at the close of navigation, unless it had been recently injured, and the great haste often found desirable all the season through was not needed last season, so there was no get- ting out of repairs on account of the rush. The great need of better dry docks is apparent everywhere, for the steel bottom is usually breached: and new plates have to be put in and that is about the whole of it when repairs have to be made. The terms spar making, sail making, calking, and a good many others are fast disappearing from the speech of marine men. It is all steel plates and riveting. : Buffalo has been slow in getting into line for dry dock work and with one dock several years ago increased to 400 -- ft. long, supposed to be the limit at that .time, it is found that there are © from 35 to 40 vessels laid up here that cannot get into that dock at all, espe- cially as the old plan of building the dry dock at right angles to the adja- cent harbor was still adhered to. Ags Buffalo creek is only a little over 200 ft. wide at the dry docks, quite a con- siderable space is lost on that account, all of which shows that unless some effort is made to modernize these works they will have to be laid on the shelf so far as a great part of the most mod- ern part of the fleet is concerned. The new Buffalo dry dock, which is to take the place of two old ones, will not only be 615 ft. long, but will be placed slantwise alongside of Buffalo creek, which will make it possible to use the full length. The work on the dock, which was supposed to require a year at least when it was begun last fall, is progressing very satisfactorily, with prospect of being completed by midsummer. Already some of the ex- cavation is done and the permanent shell of the dock 4s going: in. An idea of the work to be done on the new dock is shown by the fact that after all the excavated earth had beea disposed of in the vicinity that is needed there will be 33,000 cubic yards to throw into the lake. This alone requires con- siderable work, for the scows go several miles up from the harbor entrance to find a dumping ground. Some lake men are wondering why this great dock 'is to be built of wood, when cement secms to be the favorite building material, but that is a matter for the owners to set- tle, as the usefulness of the dock would be much the same either way. That other lake ports are awake to the need of larger docks is shown by the report that the Toledo Ship Build- ing Co. is preparing to put a 600-ft concrete dock in place of the old Craig dock there, when it will have two of maximum 50 far as can 73 learned the operations here and at To- ledo about cover the large enterprises of that sort. There is considerable talk about the size of the lake vessels and it appears that a Buffalo vessel owner about hit the mark several years ago when he said that he did not expect to see any craft running over 600 ft. in length and 15,000 tons capacity. There size.