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

216 THE MARINE REVIEW DEVOTED TO MARINE ENGINEERING, SHIP BUILDING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES Published Monthly by The Penton Publishing Company Penton Building, Cleveland. : - - - - - - Room 510, 201 Devonshire St° egicaco - - - - - - 1521-23 Lutton Blag' CINCINNATI - - - - - 503 Mercantile Library Bldg. NEW YORK __ - - - - - - 503-4 West Street Bldg. PITTSBURGH - - - - - - 2148-49 Oliver Bldg. PHILADELPHIA - - - - - - 611 Bulletin Bldg. Hibbs Bldg. BRR CHEM. ENG : : : . : : Prince Chambers BIRMINGHAM, ENG. - - - . iS Subscription, $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. The Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade with THE MARINE REVIEW through the regular chanr els 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 1918, by Penton Publishing Company) --- on a -- enna me June, 1913 i] The Straits of Panama Philippe Bunau-Varilla, the French engineer of the Panama canal following De Lesseps, in an interesting interview in London recently declared the hope that the Panama canal would eventually be made a sea- level canal. "In view of the recent land-slides," said he, "I favor more than ever sea level rather than lock dam con- struction. Figures show that the landslides have greatly increased as the work has progressed, but I do not think that this will delay the opening for more than a few days, as the machinery can clear the way, but if the canal were at sea level, the action of the two, oceans would speedily dissolve a slide without exception. My hope is that with the machinery on the ground the work will be continued after the open- ing, so that the canal will gradually be made sea level and thus become the Panama Straits. If not, the canal will be outgrown in a dozen years, for the ton- nage of shipping will so increase that the water sup- ply now provided cannot possibly be sufficient." The distinguished French engineer has greater hopes for the commercial growth of the canal than the ordinary statistician. Gatun Lake contains a suffi- cient amount of water to provide for 58 lockages a day during the dry season. Obviously during the rainy season there will be water to spare for any number of lockages. All present calculations as to the commercial use of the canal do not contemplate as high as 58 lockages a day for many, many years. ' THE MARINE REVIEW June, 1913 Strange Notions Some men get very strange notions in their heads and among this class is Congressman Steenerson, of Minnesota, who has now introduced a bill in con- gress to. prevent, according to his own words, "a monopoly in coastwise ship traffic'. The purpose of his bill is to permit vessels of foreign register to engage in American coastwise traffic between ports on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboard of the United States through the Panama canal. They would have exactly the same privileges as ships of American register with the exception that they would pay tolls. The present Panama canal exempts American shipping from the payment of tolls. The tolls as at present assessed work out at about 75 cents per ton of freight, which would be more than absorbed in the lower. cost of operation under the foreign flag. The Steenerson bill might as well be termed a bill to turn over the coastwise traffic of the United States to the foreign steamship agents. They would do a mighty big business in bringing part cargoes from Europe to the Atlantic seaboard and then filling up with freight destined for Pacific ports. The 4 rican Merchant Marine There is much confusion in the public mind over the extent of the American merchant marine. The merchant' marine that flies the American flag is the second largest in the world. It is considerably larger than the merchant marine of Germany, which is third, but of course, it is infinitely smaller than the British merchant marine, which is first. The total enrollment of American tonnage is about 7,000,000, as against 38,000,000 for Great Britain. It must be un- derstood, however, that the great preponderance of British tonnage is steam, which is reckoned potentially as 2) times that of a sailing ship. There are a great many sailing ships yet under American register. We are noting these facts in order that people may understand that the American merchant marine is a considerable industry after all. Unfortunately it is almost wholly confined to coastwise shipping. Foreign ships are by congressional enactment forbid- den to enter coastwise or port to port trade of the United States. That trade is exclusively reserved to ships built in American ship yards. It is only when the foreign trade is considered that the American shipping exhibits a lamentable weakness. Every na- tion is normally and justly entitled to 50 per cent of its Oversea carrying trade. The United States has only about 8 per cent of it, the balance of 92 per cent being carried in ships of foreign register. The chief reason for this weakness in the foreign field is the cost of construction and operation. The American ship has to earn money upon an added cash investment and has, moreover, to pay a higher wage scale and to maintain a higher standard of living.