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\ November, 1914 that. such has ceased. In my opinion, if it had not been for the financial aspect brought on by. various causes, which has slowed down advancement and progress in this country the railroads, at the pres- ent time, would be unable to handle economically, or a least expeditiously, if at all, all the business which would be offering. Unless rail transportation interests are encouraged by being al- lowed to earn attractive returns on their present investment as a surety of further returns on the additional capital needed to keep its Tfacilitres in pace with our growth, they will not be able to handle the normal ex- pansion of our commercial interests in the United States, particularly at their tefminals and ports. building practically The past history of our ports in a general way, to date, has been that private individuals or corporations have been forced to buy their water- front, build their piers. as opportunity offered and finances permitted, on the prospect of securing a profitable busi- ness; in other words, taking the busi- ness risk and it is only recently that, to any extent, municipal authorities have begun to formulate plans, or to expend money in carrying out such plans, or to provide more efficient facilities on the waterfront and, so far as I know, even such action has con- fined itself to buying out going con- cerns, remodeling and re-renting, and there has been no municipal action which involves the creation of port facilities on undeveloped property, or which approaches in any way the busi- ness risk or initiative which has been taken by private individuals or cor- porations. Community of Interest To summarize, I have tried briefly to show the community of interests of water and rail transportation; the business handled, the method of hand- ling required, a rational preference of location based on the business handled, the physical and _ financial requirements under which these inter- ests operate and the influences which affect the rate, that the railroads can- not proceed with the developments of the ports in the future as in the past, that there is a demand for increasing facilities at the cities and their ports to keep pace with the growth of the country, and that municipal develop- ment so far has been inconsequential in proportion to the interests involved. What is the remedy? What can the port authorities do to help the situation?. A city should be devel- oped nie a due relationship to all THE MARINE REVIEW its units, of which the port is only one; waterfront property possesses value and gives returns to the com- munity to the extent that it is prop- erly utilized through intelligent super- vision--ownership will permit of such supervision. Excepting piers for bulk trans-ship- ment, it is my opinion that piers in cities of a certain class should be publicly owned so that the assign- ment of piers to private or corporate interests can be decided on the most efficient basis for the necessities of the city, that a belt line. should con- nect a large part of these piers with the industrial zones which grow up around the city. The problem, however, is not the actual building of the piers or of the belt line, or the money involved, but it is to finda policy to catry out such plans which will not reduce the value of the millions which private and corporate interests have taken in business risks in developing the growth of the city in the past, or, in other words, to punish them for having been a factor in such growth. This is the one great problem of the port authorities of America and the one which should receive your most serious thought, and if you can work out a method of settling this problem with fairness and equity, you will re- ceive the support of all the factors which go to increase the growth of your city. that it would be too lengthy a sub- ject for me to discuss on such an oc- casion. There is one other thought which I would like to express to you from a railroad man's point of view. We often hear and read statements that the railroads of most cities have at- tempted to dominate the waterfront, to limit competition by water carriage, that they oppose the Panama canal, that they fight the improvement of canals or river improvements, and so on. To my mind, this is the expres- sion of a man with paucity of ideas who builds a house of cards to knock down. From the very nature of things any improvement of our trans- portation facilities of any kind what- ever, water, electric lines, trolleys, mo- tors, improvement of our rivers, etc., cannot hebkp but increase inherently the amount of rail transportation. ° It may be that there may have been criticism of the economic aspect of government assistance to water inter- ests that the amount of. business en- couraged did not compensate for the cost but in my opinion any antagon- ism or criticism of any such under- takings per se, does not represent the mental attitude of the men who are It has so many dangles ~& Wrecking Co., 17 413 the brawn, sinew and brains of the railroad interests. The purposes of your association are entitled to support. Any relief of congestion in the cities which the port authorities can bring about should be welcomed and assisted in any way possible, and I wish you a full, -measure of success. Personal Price, "Alburn -& >Dabust, 712-724 Rockefeller building, have . recently extended their admiralty department to include all branches of admiralty and maritime law. Mr. Daoust is in charge of this department. Paul P. Whitham has resigned as chief engineer of the Port Commis- sion of Seattle and will enter private practice as consulting engineer with offices at 423-425 New York block, Seattle. Mr. Whitham will specialize in matters relating to harbors, docks, warehouses, industrial buildings, freight handling equipment, railways, terminals, etc. The Union Iron Works, San Fran- cisco, Cal. recently completed a_ steel caisson 113 ft. long and standing 32 ft. above the water, for the Panama canal. It is the largest structure of its kind ever built in this country and cost $335,000. The tug Hercules is now en- route to the canal towing the caisson and is due there late in October. The Canadian Pacific Co. is about to put in commission the steamers Mis- sanabie and Metagama, recently built in Scotland. These vessels are 520 ft. by 64 ft. by 41 ft, and will have accommo- dations for 520 cabin and 1,200 third- class passengers. They will carry a crew of about 300 men each. The Merritt & Chapman Derrick Battery Place, New York, is now engaged in laying a 36-inch submarine pipe line known as the Narrows Siphon across New York bay from the foot of Seventy- ninth: street; Brooklyn, - N.Y. 40 Tompkinsville, Staten Island, N. Y. Passing vessels are requested to slow down and to give this plant as wide a berth as possible. The two tugs building by the Staten Island Shipbuilding Co., Port Richmond, N. Y., for the Panama Canal, are to be named Gorgona and Tavernilla, after two important canal zone settlements which have gone out of existence through the creation of Gatun Lake. The site of Tavernilla now lies under Gatun Lake and Gorgona was formerly a village on the Chagres river,