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December, 1914 timony. He said that the up and down lanes are too extended to suffer any notable pollution. Taking up the sub- ject of water ballast as a practical navi- gator he stated that it was essential that a modern vessel of 10,000 tons, if she was light, should have ballast. In a great many cases they can discharge ballast outside well beyond any possi- ble point of contamination of the water- works intakes, but he added that some of the vessels must actually carry their water ballast into port in order to get under the machines. He estimated, how- ever, that about two-thirds of the ves- sels do not require ballast of any kind as they usually go up loaded with coal. In a stroug wind it 1s absolutely neces- sary for safety and to make the ship manageable that ballast be taken on be- fore leaving port, but it does not follow that this ballast is carried to the point of destination. Sometimes vessels leave with ballast and then if weather condi- tions are favorable, pump it out in open water as they can make better time without it. They may fill again in the open lake if weather conditions make it prudent to do so. Regarding drinking water he said that his ships' tanks were filled from areas that had been proved to be pure by the board of health. His testimony was very simple, direct and convincing. A. A. Wright stated that even if the vessels treated their sewage before dis- charging it overboard, it would have no appreciable effect upon the purity of lake water, as the great sources of con- tamination are elsewhere. He felt, how- ever, that if the municipalities treated their sewage before discharging it into open water, it would unquestion- ably be the duty of vessel owners to also sterilize their sewage. There' were, however, in his estimation, practical obstacles in the way of doing so and he thought the commission should have its experts experiment with the problem. For instance, on the lakes there is a certain period of time in which the ves- sels have to operate when the weather is anywhere from zero to 25 degrees below zero, and that any tank in the forepeak would undoubtedly burst un- der such conditions. He did not regard the physical obstacles, however, as in- superable, but he did think that the gov- ernment should submit a system of steril- ization that would be satisfactory to it. He added that he would be willing to let the experts of the commission have three or more of his boats to try any experiment out on. "Tt is you who are the offenders," said Mr. Powell, "why should the gov- ernment experiment?" "Nowhere," replied Mr. Wright, "is freight carried as cheaply as it is on the Great Lakes and the whole country THE MARINE REVIEW gets the benefit of it. We cannot afford to experiment with things that may not meet with the approval .of the goy- ernment." A. W. Thomson of Cleveland closed the testimony. He said that if the evi- dence submitted by the government was analyzed it would be found that the pollution caused by the vessel itself was practically nil, as the tendency of nature was to rectify it before it could get to any possible source of human consumption. President Livingstone of the Lake Carriers' Association gave a dinner at the Detroit Club on Tuesday evening to the members of the International Joint Commission and to the representatives of the Lake Carriers' Association and Dominion Marine Association present. Covers were laid for 12 and the oc- casion was one of extreme enjoyment. All of the members of the commission are men who have distinguished them- selves in other walks of life. Mr. Glenn, who was formerly the governor of North Carolina, is a story teller of rare quality, while Mr. Powell has achieved for himself an enviable reputa- tion in the Chatauquas. It can well be imagined that the evening was one out of the ordinary. Waterway from Chicago to Illinois | River Governor Dunne of Illinois has re- ceived a report from the board of en- gineers appointed to define a practical waterway from Chicago to the Illinois river at LaSalle, Ill. Three routes are recommended in the report, one to cost $6,132,000, another $2,944,000, and the third $3,075,000. The last is recom- mended. The project that is favored involves the following engineering work: Deep- ening of the Illinois river from LaSalle to Starved Rock; construction of a lock and dam in the [Illinois river at Starved Rock; construction of a con- necting channel and lock between the Illinois river and the Illinois and Michi- gan Canal at Walbridge Creek below Marseilles; construction of a crib dam in the Illinois river just above Mar- seilles and a connecting channel and lock between the Illinois and Michigan canal and the [Illinois river at that point; construction of a connecting channel and lock between the Illinois river and the Illinois and Michigan canal at a point just below Dresden; deepening of the bed of the [Illinois and Michigan canal and the construc- tion of new locks from Dresden to the southern terminus of the drainage canal at Joliet and construction of a new lock at the sanitary district power house at Lockport. The project provides for a navigable 'consideration. 475 depth of 8 feet, and for the utilization of the Illinois river as a waterway for. 45 miles of the total distance of 65 miles from Joliet to LaSalle. This route was selected as lending itself to future progressive development. The engineers who made the report are: Lyman E. Cooley, consulting engineer of the board; E. J. Kelley, assistant chief engineer of the sanitary district of Chicago; Walter A. Shaw, member of the Illinois Public Utilities Commission, and LeRoy K. Sherman, member of the Illinois River and Lakes Commission. River Pollution Hinging on the outcome of a fed- eral suit against the Sanitary District of Chicago, which if successful would restrict the amount of water taken from Lake Michigan, is the expendi- ture of more than $500,000 for sewers * or disposal plants to care for the sewage of Maywood, Melrose Park, River Forest and Forest Park. These are all high-class residence towns, having a combined population of 25,- 000, but the Des Plaines river, into which their sewers drain, is entirely too small a stream to care for the sewage produced. George M. Wisner, chief engineer of the sanitary district, recently trans- mitted a report prepared by Langdon Pearse and his assistants, in which the conclusion is reached that the river is a nuisance from the Riverside dam to a point above Maywood and at times .along the entire stretch. To relieve the nuisance four schemes were considered. The flow may be increased by storage or by pumping water from Lake Michigan into the upper portion, both too costly for Interceptors leading untreated sewage to the main drain- age canal, or a complete treatment at one or two plants are the other sug- gested solutions. Treatment is con- sidered essential in case the flow is limited to 10,000 section-feet. In order that the work may be prose- cuted at the earliest opportunity de- tailed studies for both schemes will be carried to the point of making con- tract drawings. Bids for armor plate for the three. battleships to be built this year were opened by the Navy department re- cently. The companies bidding were the Carnegie Steel Co., the Midvale Steel Co., and Bethlehem Steel Co. and the Carbon Steel Co. Following were the bids on the four classes of armor plate: Carnegie Steel Co., A-1, $440; A-2, $504; B, $471; C, $548. Midvale Steel Co., A-1, $436; A-2, $486; B, $466; C, $376. Bethlehem Steel Co., A-1, $435; A-2, $499; B, $466; C, $395. Carbon Steel Co., C, $431.20. :