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

same articles at. ruling commercial prices. THE NAVY ON THE LAND. "The. American navy on the land employs from 25 to 50 per cent more men than the navy on the sea. Di- rectly and indirectly it pays nearly twice as much in wages. It costs as much to maintain it, before a stroke of work is done, as to maintain the whole fleet at sea. admirals, twice. as three times as work for it, "Now, every dollar taken by the political navy takes a dollar and more from the military navy. The officers of our ships know this perfectly well. And many of them see that unless this conscienceless waste of money is . stopped there will be a great. reaction, and the American peo;le will shut down indiscriminately on naval ap- propriations as a whole. Tie. first principle of reorganization. of our navy must furnish some responsible and capable military body to direct it as a military department. This body should be small, compact, and re- sponsible; the highest honor in the service, and composed of the most vigorous and capable minds it affords. Such a board would demand in the first place a fighting fleet. It would map out the shore stations demanded from a strictly military standpoint. Two-thirds of our navy yards would be abolished. It would secure the de- velopment of the navy yards toward the purposes for which they exist; that is,-as naval bases. "The physical plants of the navy yards should be reformed in accord- ance with their main functions--first, the repairing, and second, the fitting out of ships. The organization should then be fitted to the process; not the process to the organization, as now. And the best mechanical talent the navy possesses should be placed in charge of a unified system of man- ufacture." _ Twice as many many captains, many commanders It is expected to have the work of rebuilding the cruiser New York com- pleted by April 1. done at the Boston navy yard and when completed practically every part except the underwater body will be new. She has new boilers, of the latest water tube type, refrigerating systems, and new drainage and plumbing systems. The New York is to have four of the latest 8-in. rifles mounted in two tur- rets and her broadside battery may be of 5-in. guns instead of the old 4-in. type. Everything possible about the tur- rets and hoists is operated by electricity. The job is being ™ TAE Marine. REVIEW DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS. "The Design and Construction of Ships." By Prof. John Harvard Biles. Vol. 1. 423 pages: 6 by 9 in. with 36 folding plates and 245 illustrations. Price, $7.50 net." Published by J, 7. Lippincott, Philadelphia. Fo: sale by the MARINE REVIEW. This book is the result of many of lecturing in Glasgow Uni- versjty by Prof. Biles. Though Prof. Biles admits that there is little in the book but what has been given at some time to the students, the chapters do not represent any sys- tematic series of lectures. The lec- tures were never written as they were delivered, and new matter has necessarily been added to them. In the compilation of this work Prof. Biles lays no claim to originality. Nor does he attempt to acknowledge the sources of his help, as the science of naval architecture has become too wide to acknowledge all sources even if one were qualified to do so. In the preparation of the work Prof. Biles has been greatly assisted by the firms of Messrs. John Brown & Co. and Denny Bros., who placed at his disposal results of many of their in- vestigations. While the book is pri- marily intended for young students, many practical men will find it of great assistance in their daily work. The book is divided into two volumes. Volume 1, however, is complete in itself and is divided into three parts, Part 1 dealing with areas, volumes and centers of gravity, Part 2 with ship - calculations and Part 3 with strength. years OPPOSE BOUNDARY TREATY. The new international waterways treaty gives promise of fall"ng through altogether as it appears that it is sat- isfactory to neither the Canadians nor the citizens of the states bordering upon the great lakes. Senator Smith, of - Michigan, < has. been given a hearing by the senate com- mittee on foreign relations, at which time he contended that the treaty does not give adequate protection to the water power rights of the St. Mary's River. The fisheries section of the treaty has fared even worse at the hands of those interested in that industry in Canada, who through the provincial governments of Ontario, Quebec, and New. Brunswick, claim that their pro- prietary rights in the fisheries in their respective areas of the international waterways are being sequestrated. The essential point of the treaty is that it throws the waters of both 19 countries open to fishers of either country under license regulations con- trolled by a joint standing commis- sion. Besides the legal objection, the pro- vincial fishery authorities claim that the Dominion government has been completely taken in by the American commissioners, who have thrown open to Canada onlye warers which have long since ceased to have good fishing value, while the Americans are ad- mitted to the Georgian 'Bay, the Grand Manan grounds and other first- class fisheries, where they can fish from bases in American territory and control the American market, while the Canadian fisher is unable to enter the American market without duty. TONNAGE OWNERS WILL OR- GANIZE. Driven. to action by the depression in shipping and feeling the necessity for concerted effort, English shipowners recently held a meeting at Newcastle to take the first steps toward the forma- tion of an international union of ship owners. The conference was attended by owners representing more than $50,- 000,000 worth of tonnage. Runciman presided. Not only is it in- tended to organize a union, or more properly an association, but also to adopt plans for improving the business gen- erally and to make arrangements where- by competition will be less destructive and the supply of tonnage equalized to meet the demand of freight. Before adjourning the meeting left the matter of devising suitable plans in the hands of a committee. The Sailingship Owners' International Union, which met in London last month, to consider conditions has issued an official circular confirming the rumor that- the minimum grain rates from the North Pacific to the United Kingdom: had been suspended from Jan. 1 to May 1, 1909. The minimum rates for ships that commence loading after May 1 remain the same as at the present, 27 shillings, 6 pence. Showing the gloomy prospects of handling sailing ships at a profit, the announcement comes from _ Portland, Ore., that. the owners of the British ship, Leyland Brothers, and the four-masted bark, Donna Francisca, have authorized their Portland agents to sell these ves- sels. Both of these ships arrived at As- toria last March and have been lying idle in the Columbia river since. Charles W. Leavitt & Co. announce their removal after March 20 to the Hudson Terminal building, 30 Church street, New York. Sir Walter ©