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) bs y LES Clearing Houses Formed By Lake Interests to Insure Maximum Efficiency of Vessels and of Ore and Coal Carrying Railroads— How HE men charged with the task | of moving the immense tonnage of iron ore and coal which the industries in the territory tributary to the Great Lakes will require in the next 11 months, are attacking the problem in a way that seems sure to win success. Through central clear- ing houses, means are being found to minimize delays and thus to obtain the maximum efficiency from the ves- sels and railroads which serve the Great Lakes trade. This movement, which at first embraced only the coal trade, has been extended to include the iron ore traffic. The men actively interested in the plans are confident that at least 5,000,000 tons more of iron ore and coal will be moved this season than would have been possible without the assistance of these clear- ing houses. The plan was first taken up in May when a committee of shippers and vessel owners, working in conjunction with Francis S. Peabody,.chairman of the committee on coal production of the council of national defense, took the preliminary steps in organizing what has since become known as the Lake Erie Bituminous Coal Exchange. The lake committee included George D. Cameron of Pickands, Mather & Co., William Collins of M. A. Hanna & Co., H. P. McCue of the Pittsburgh Goal -Co,; E. A. Uhrig: of the Mil- waukee-Western Fuel Co., and R. F. MacVeigh of the Island Creek Coal Co. When the shippers’ committee took up the subject with the repre- sentatives of the coal-carrying rail- roads, the latter adopted the plan without hesitation. F. C. Baird, Pitts- burgh, freight traffic manager of the Bessemer & Lake Erie railroad was appointed commissioner and placed in charge of handling the coal move- ment at Lake Erie ports between Erie and Toledo. Mr. Baird opened offices at Cleveland and since June 1 he has been actively directing the coal move- ment on the lakes. How the Coal Plan Works Under normal conditions, each indi- vidual shipper has been sending his coal to a Lake Erie port where he would gradually accumulate enough for a complete shipload. As a result, the cars were tied up and, owing to the numerous grades of .coal handled, much switching was necessary. Under the new arrangement, coal owned by different producers is handled through . chairman, Plans Are Being Carried Out the central clearing house and is dis- patched up the lakes as quickly as the steamers are available. This plan, of course, greatly reduces the number of grades of coal handled and enables the coal-carrying railroads to obtain the greatest possible amount of serv- ice out of their cars. The saving which the plan will effect in the time that freight cars are held is estimated to be equivalent to adding 52,000 cars to the freight equipment. In a gen- eral way, it is estimated that the plan now being worked effects a saving of 114 daysinthe time each car carrying coal to a Lake Erie port is held in that port. Ship Only Ore Required The plan for a central clearing house for handling the coal trade was only fairly under way when similar measures were taken in regard to the iron ore traffic. A meeting of the Lake Superior Iron Ore association was -held in’ Cleveland on May 24 upon the suggestion of C. D. Dyer, of the Shenango Furnace Co., Pitts- burgh, chairman of the lake shippers’ committee. As a result of the meet- ing, the association decided to ask consumers of Lake Superior iron ore in all sections of the country to make out reports showing: The amount of -ore necessary: to meet actual require- ments from May 1, 1917, to June 1, 1918; the amount of ore held at fur- naces or on docks on May 1, 1917; the amount of ore to be shipped by lake in 1917; the tonnage of ore to be shipped by rail and the amount to be stored on Lake Erie docks. In the meantime, the committee on iron ore, pig iron and lake transporta- tion of the American Iron and Steel institute, headed by H. G. Dalton, and including Frank B. Richards, Harry Coulby, C. D. Dyer, W. T. Shepard, G. H. Woodward, Leonard Peckitt, Frank Billings and Amasa S. Mather, has worked out a plan for handling the ore movement through a central clearing house. Messrs. Dalton and Coulby were elected as a subcommittee on the lake ore movement and were directed to appoint three, other members. These members arene. W. Oglebay, Frank Billings and Matthew Andrews. This committee has plan for a clearing house committee. At a meeting held in the office. of Mr. Coulby, chairman of the sub- committee, representatives were pres- 245 drawn up a ent from the different ore offices who had particular charge of handling ore. Those present agreed that a plan of a clearing house committee, of which each one of them should be a mem- ber, was one which would do much to relieve the ore situation. It was decided that this committee should hold regular meetings daily or oftener, if necessary, to clear their ships. Each man would bring in a list of the ships that he was loading or had enroute for shipment to furnaces,* giving the date that his ship would be down to unload and the disposition of the ore. “By planning ahead and exchanging information,” says Mr.. Coulby in a report, “this would obviate a number of shippers loading ore for any one consignee on the same day and would make a more even distribution of the shipments of ore among the different consignees. It would prevent bunch- ing of boats at any one dock for direct shipment to one consignee and to facilitate the movement, they would, no doubt, at times find it necessary to exchange boat tonnage with each other in cases where boats got bunched and possibly at times load their ships with split cargoes of ore. It was also thought necessary that there should be a man on this clearing house com- mittee who was thoroughly posted on the railroad situation and who would have charge of keeping the committee advised at all times of the car supply and the unloading of ore at all the fur- naces each day, as well as the amount of ore that was enroute.” 56,000,000 Tons Needed At a meeting which was held June 12. it was decided that Mr.. Baird should be given this place on the clearing house committtee. The long delay in opening the sea- son caused by the heavy ice en- countered during April and May, makes the need for such direction more imperative. It is the general opinion around the lakes that a move- ment of 55,000,000 -to 56,000,000 tons of iron ore will be sufficient to supply blast furnaces until June 1, 1918. Last year the lake fleet moved 64,734,198 gross tons. Up to June 1, this year, the movement is only 3,612,847 gross tons behind last year’s record. The May movement, as shown in the table on page 242, proved a surprise and with the season now in full- swing, the fleet is expected to be able to approximate closely last year’s record.