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use of our inland waterways for the shipment of general products is noted in the recent completion of the Pennsylvania railroad commercial dock No. 1 in the Cuyahoga river, Cleveland. The dock has facilities for transfer- ring freight from a large manufactur- ing area in Ohio and Pennsylvania to steamers, and for receiving shipments from other Great Lakes ports en- route to cities in Ohio and adjacent states. A number of manufacturers of steel products have made inquiries as to capacity and rates. The dock was built to supply a service for freight to and from the Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Wheeling, Canton, Mas- sillon and Cleveland districts. Another commercial dock at Cleve- land so far this year has handled 18,000 tons of steel products. It re- ceived four cargoes of steel billets from Duluth for shipment to a tube mill in Pennsylvania, and four cargoes of strip steel from Buffalo for a Cleveland stamping company. A few days ago it unloaded 2500 tons of sulphur for a Cleveland chemical manufacturer, from barges that brought the cargo from New Jersey, through the New York barge canal. The difficulty in the way of large shipments of general merchandise be- tween Great Lakes and Atlantic ocean ports is due to the fact that the draft of water in the barge canal is limited to 9 feet, making it impossible to operate larger types of vessels eco- nomically, and it is unprofitable to use the smaller craft. Access for ocean ships by way of the St. Law- rence through the Welland canal is greatly hampered by a limiting draft of 14 feet. Passenger boats plying between Cleveland, Buffalo, Toledo, Chicago and ‘nme considerable FB ese of o: evidence of increasing General Commerce on Great Lakes Broadening More Dock Facilities Being Provided for Industrial Freight—18,000 Tons of Billets and Strip in Recent Shipments By A. J. Hain merchandise including light steel prod- ucts, but theirs is an overnight, ex- press service and the rates are high- er than those of package or bulk freighters. The total amount of iron ore, coal, grain and limestone handled on the Great Lakes in a normal year is about 110,000,000 tons. Loading and un- loading facilities are ample. Records of tonnages are kept at shipping and receiving ports, and are available each month. Complete records are not com- piled showing shipments of iron and steel and other metal products, au- tomobiles, machinery and equipment, and general merchandise. No. Freight worth millions of dollars is moving every year on the Great Lakes, without any tangible, co- ordinated compilations. Appeals have been made to chambers of commerce, port officials and transportation com- panies to organized some means for preparing data that would be of com- mercial value, but results have been unsatisfactory. Various associations representing the coal, iron ore, grain and _ lime- stone trades know each day prac- tically how the movement of those ma- terials is progressing. Other freight business is growing to such propor- tions that reliable information will be required soon. Those who desire to improve port and dock facilities must know what is needed, and what they may expect. It is said certain manufacturers do not want information regarding ship- ments “broadcast.” They take the view it is all right to record the movement of bulk freight such as coal, ore and grain, but beyond that, do not narrow the field. A large steel producer is shipping certain products by way of the Great Lakes to destina- 18 Adequate Records Kept in Canada; to name tions far up the material, tonnage and destinations would give too much information to competitors. This question has been threshed out before chambers of com- merce committees and the reply from those seeking the information has been that general classifications could be made which would give tonnage figures, without disclosing customer information. The debate has been en- tirely between those who might put capital in dock and vessel facilities, and organizations representing busi- ness and civic interests. This is one of the few services in transportation that have not been carefully analyzed from the tonnage standpoint. It costs less to ship a ton of bulk freight from the head of the lakes to a lower lake port than it does to send it from overland to Pittsburgh. In the movement of gen- eral merchandise betwen cities on the Great Lakes, the railroads naturally have sought to get the _ business rather than have it go to ships. They have provided good facilities, cars and quick service, 12 months in the year. Except where it has not con- flicted with their railroad business, their policy certainly has not been one to promote lake commerce. This has contributed to public indifference, an indifference that is amazing when costs are compared. It makes capital hesitate; and it makes the establish- ment of a new commercial dock seem like an event. Formerly railroad companies owned and operated freight boats on the Great Lakes, but the decision in the Panama canal case separated the two branches of the service. There have keen no complaints of inadequacy of vessel and dock facilities for coal, iron ore and grain, but general mer- chandise has been allowed to shift for itself; nothing like the system-