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266 THE MARINE REVIEW DEVOTED TO MARINE ENGINEERING, SHIP BUILDING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES Published Monthly by The Penton Publishing Company Penton Building, Cleveland. CHICAGO ba - - - 1828 Monadock Bike CINCINNATI - - - - - 503 Mercantile Library Bldg: NEW YORK - - - - - - 1115 West Street Bldg- PITTSBURGH | - . - - - - 2148-49 Oliver Bldg. WASHINGTON, D.C. - - -. - - : - Hibbs Bldg. BIRMINGHAM, ENG. - - : - ; - Prince Chambers . Subssription, $2 delivered free anywhere in the world. Single copies, 20 cents. Back numbers over three months, 50 cents. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on or before the first of each month. ee The Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade with ane Mee REVIEW pargeh 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. (Copyright 1912, by Penton Publishing Company) August, 1912 . Panna Canal Bill During the past month congress has devoted con- siderable attention to the Panama canal bill, not stead- ily, but intermittently, as it has been taken up between discussion on various appropriation bills. Great Britain has meanwhile added somewhat to the interest in the situation by sending a note to the state department that the bill in certain of its provisions violates the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. The note apparently is noth- ing more than this, but it has created quite a furore. _ It is unnecessary to recount here the history of the Panama canal. Everyone knows that it was con- structed exclusively by the United States at its own expense and through property acquired by it through purchase. The total cost of the canal will be approxi- mately $400,000,000, and it is the expectation that it will be open to traffic in September of next year. It would appear to the layman as though the United States had a greater right in this ditch than any other nation, but there are many who take an opposite view _and some of the views are, to say the least, surprising. For instance, it is held that the United States govern- ment has not the right to pass American vessels en- gaged exclusively in coastwise commerce through the canal without the payment of tolls. Great Britain takes this view, and it is apparently shared by others on this side of the water. As the coastwise commerce of the United States is reserved exclusively to the American ship, it is not easy to see in what way other nations are concerned in the case of these domestic tolls. That would appear to be a matter exclusively for the United States government to decide... The right to regulate internal commerce would seem to be the fundamental right of each nation, but after read- THE MARINE REVIEW August, 1912 ing all of the speeches delivered in congress with the various interpretations placed upon various phases by scores of speakers, one is inclined to become lost in a kind of fog. There might be some question as to our right to pass American vessels engaged in foreign trade through the canal free if tolls were levied against other vessels engaged in this same trade, but there can obviously be no: question as to our right to remit even those tolls. If Great Britain chooses to pay the tolls on British tonnage using the canal no nation can object. In fact, Spain has already declared its inten- tion of doing this very thing. But our domestic com- merce is a totally different thing. Whether we remit or do not remit the tolls on domestic shipping, the right to do either should be unchallenged. Probably the greatest authority that we have in this country on transportation is Prof. Emory R. Jolinson, who holds the chair of transportation and commerce in the University of Pennsylvania. He was a mem- ber of the Isthmian Canal Commission from 1899 to 1904, and last year made a special report on canal trafic and'tollsat the request of President Taft... He recently prepared an article for the North American Review, in which he has estimated the shipping that would have passed through the canal in 1909-10, had the canal been open at the time. His calculations are given in the accompanying table. Analyzing the fig- ures given in the table, Dr. Johnson says that only 11.4 per cent of the traffic passed from one coast of the United States to the other by Cape Horn, the Isthmus of Panama or the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and that the trade of this country with foreign coun- tries accounted for 32 per cent of the total. The com- merce between Europe and the west coast of South America supplied 38 per cent of the traffic which might have used the canal, and the trade of Great Britain alone with the west coast of South America would have supplied one-sixth of the total traffic through the canal in 1910. As the canal will not be open until 1915, it is necessary to increase these fig- ures by the growth in trade that jis to be anticipated. Dr. Johnson arrives at the conclusion that in 1915 ships with a total net register of 10,900,000 tons should pass through the canal. ESTIMATED SHIPPING THROUGH PANAMA CANAL Total Entrances and Clearances. Kurope, with Western South America............... 3,148,400 Western Central America and Pacific Mexico........ 199,502 Pacific United States, British Columbia and Hawaii 689,718 Pacine United States via Suez Canal.....3........,. 158,900 Oriental countries east of Singapore and Oceania.. 1,174,585 Eastern United States coast, with Western South America, Pacific Mexico and Glawalleoe ce. cc 467,595 Pacific coast of United States, (via Cape Horn). 172,655 Pacific Coast wf United States and Hawaii, (via Aimerican tawallan. 19. (9.8 Co.) <2... i ee eee 363,426 Oriental countries east of Singapore and Oceania.. 1,500,900 Panaitia Staines ta, sees ko ce a oo on 418,490 Eastern Canada, with Alaska, Chile and Australia.. 35,658 PEOUAIE cee iy See Woe Cass ok ee 8,328,029 (1) Not separable into entrances and clearances. In estimating the amount of traffic which will use the new waterway, Dr. Johnson says that there are two important factors outside of actual distance from