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November, 1909 : omy to charter. American ships. at $7 per ton as against foreign ones for $3.50, To navy moves the about 170,000 tons of coal. make 30 cargoes of 5,660 tons each, an begin with the department annually to Pacific coast This would average somewhat high, and each ship would make three round voyages per year. It would therefore require ten ships to handle this coal. Let us now assume that these ships are to be built for the trade and that they will cost This is the sum that the navy department $60 per ton of carrying capacity. is now paying for the 12-knot colliers building for it. Ten ships would there- fore cost $3,396,000. These twin-screw government colliers will carry a crew of 60 men, but in ordinary commercial practice and with single screw machin- ery a crew of 40 men would be sufficient, including Their average rate of pay, officers, based upon wages now paid in the merchant service, would be about $60 a month. Of the construction cost of $3,396,000 about $1,867,000 represents material and $1,529,000 ship yard labor. Of the material account fully 50 per cent represents labor. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the creation of this fleet would put the following sums in circulation in one year: Profit on material, 10 per cent, $186,780; ship yard wages, $1,529,000; material labor, 50 per cent, $933,900; wages, crews, $288,- 000; profits on supplies (20 per cent of subsistence 400 men at 50 cents a day), $14,600; supplies labor, 50 per cent (labor. | $36,500 ; maintenance (repairs, etc.), 8 per cent of total value, $271,680; total, $3,260,460. Now there is no possibility of evad- It is exactly what producing supplies), ing this showing. would occur were this American fleet created. In carrying the coal in for- eign bottoms at $3.50 per ton as against - $7 asked by American ships, the navy department has saved $595,000, but it has curtailed American business, almost entirely labor, to the extent of $2,665,- 460. Thus the country saves less than $600,000 per year by the action of the navy department and loses for one year $2,665,000 to the country at large, and in addition pays nearly $600,000 for the upkeep of foreign ships. -- Nor is this all. When the effort was made to extend the coastwise laws to enforced here, Louis, TAE Marine. REVIEW embrace the Philippines the supplies for the army and navy were exempted from its provision. Even had the coast- wise laws been extended these supplies would continue to go abroad in foreign The army is just as bad as the navy when it comes: to ships, as they are now doing. rendering real assistance to the merchant marine. Why in the name of heaven can't their supplies be carried in American ships when it is so clearly to the interest of the whole It would not be losing money to the country. It country to have them do so? would be making money. But the end is not yet. The govern- ment is transporting hundreds of thous- ands. of tons of all manner of freight to the canal zone, which is American territory by right of purchase, but the coastwise laws, which should be rigidly are suspended and the stuff is being dumped on the Isthmus from foreign bottoms. Consider for a moment what colossal folly this is. If this trade were reserved for American ships it would create. at once a fleet sufficiently capacious to care for all coal requirements of the navy and forever put -a. stop 0 41s endless chatter that it cannot get American ships when it wants them. It would stimulate in- dustry marvelously and would pour into circulation continually fart more money than can possibly be saved by employing foreign ships. It is utterly absurd to maintain a fiscal policy which enables our factories to manufacture the products for the canal zone but prevents our ships from carry- ing them there. The blessings of pro~ tection should be horizontal. INLAND RIVER NAVIGATION. The inland river navigation of the United States may be said to have lain dormant ever since the railway was developed as a freight carrier, the no- table example being the mighty Mis- sissippi and its great tributaries. In this network of waterways there un- doubtedly great potentiality of service. interest is lies public Especial 'therefore lent to a corporation recently" organized 'by prominent men if: cot. the prime mover being W. K; Kavanaugh of St. Louis, president 455 of the Lakes to the Gulf Deep Water- ways Association, for the utilization of the Mississippi and its tributaries without waiting for the creation of the deep channels which have been so long advocated. This company is called the Mississippi Valley Transportation Co. Apparently the company intends to make a real effort to develop fully the present resources of the river upon the most modern lines. There is no in- tention to return to the old steamboat methods of the ante-bellum days, but rather to substitute fleets of barges and tow boats adapted to the varying con- ditions of the river, for instance, bar- ges capable of carrying 1,000 tons on 4 ft. of water on the upper Mississippi, 4,000 8 ft. draught on the lower Mississippi; and = of loadiiig tons on also light steel barges capable of carry- ing 800 tons on 3 ft. of water out of Pittsburg during the low water season; snag-proof armor clads for the wheat of the upper Missouri and other barges for the lock channels of the Cumber- The tow boats are to have sufficient power to move land and Tennessee. a fleet of barges carrying 20,000 tons down stream and from 6,000 to 8,000 tons up stream. These will connect with coast steamers at New Orleans to care for the trade of the West Indies, Central America and Mexico. Loading and unloading will be by means of the most modern machinery. The United States government has already expended over $200,000,000 in The Mississippi Valley Transportation Co. river and harbor improvements. is going on the theory that the quick- est way to secure deeper channels is to those that Doubtless the present channels ample for a very large commerce. The Mississippi has from four to five feet of water in the channel at low water from St. Paul to St. Louis. The Missouri has 45 ft. from Kansas City to St. Louis. The Ohio has, ex- cept at extreme low stages, an equal depth from Pittsburg to Cairo, and even in a drought, about 3 ft. The Mississippi from St Louis to Cairo has usually 8 ft.. and always 5 ft. and from Cairo to New Orleans never less than 9 ft. For 120 days of the year ves- employ actually -- exist. are