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444 continuing to charge the ship also charged steamship agents a rental for the area devoted to their preferential or exclusive use, and which also charged tolls upon the cargo moving to or from ships. This new system went into effect on Nov. 15 and it may be of interest to say that the railroads have agreed to absorb the charge fixed against the goods, thus obviating any change in the trans-, portation costs to the shipper or the consignee. All the economic advantages of a port’s development may be lost by inefficient business management. Ap- pointments to port organizations should be made with the same care as corporate appointments to posi- tions of similar responsibility. There- fore, a civil service law is necessary in administering a public port. Wharves and Sheds The developed river line of the harbor extends . approximately 15 miles, but there are 41.4 miles of river frontage under the control of the commissioners. The river, in this distance, is from one-half to three- fourths of a mile in width and varies in depth from 40 feet to 100 feet at the wharf lines to a maximum depth of 188 feet in mid-stream. This developed harbor has a water area in excess of 11 square miles. Throughout the harbor there is am- ple depth for all requirements of commerce except that during very low water a limited amount of dredg- ing may be requited at certain wharves. There is also ample space for all vessels now using the harbor to lie at anchor in the stream and as the current is uniform in its direc- tion, no swinging on the anchors is encountered nor has any case of a vessel dragging her anchor, except in the recent hurricane, been noted, the effect of storms being slight as com- pared with exposed coast harbors. - Over five miles of fully developed frontage is occupied by about 4,000,000 square feet of wharves, two-thirds of which area is covered by steel sheds. It is a matter of universal experi- ence in any business that complete equipment for the conduct of the business means, other things equal, enormous strides over previous results without adequate equipment. Until recently a port was considered as completely equipped when fur- nished with wharves and_ landings, now all the handling appliances used in industrial businesses, such as cranes, runways and power trucks are found in port operation. In a report on ‘Transportation by Water in the United States’, Herbert Knox Smith, commissioner of cor- porations, department of commerce, THE MARINE REVIEW said: “Two ports only, New Orleans and San. Francisco, are noteworthy for their high degree of public own- ership, control, efficiency and equip- ment. At New Orleans the active water front is. admirably equipped and controlled by a state board; most Annual Traffic Port of New Orleans EXPORTS Cotton) (23.5. ca $106,000,000 Wheat oe eek 12,000,000 TODRCOCO ioe vee cues: 12,000,000 MUM Den ee ee ece ss 10,000,000 IMPORTS COmCO ois a sie ee $33,500,000 Su biegth CRON a neon a se 16,250,000 Sisal eo ee es eee 10,800,000 The foregoing items constitute about two-thirds of the total value, but a list ot the other third includes practically every commodity entering into foreign commerce. being - of the wharves and sheds are open to general traffic, and a municipal board operates ten miles of belt rail- road, giving co-ordination between the waterway, local industries and trunk line railroads.” The. Illinois Céntral railroad, the Texas & Pacific railroad and the New Orleans & Northeastern railroad op- erate nearly two. miles of wharves subject to expropriation by the state. They also operate grain elevators and handle a volume of business equal to about 45 per cent of that over the public wharves. In addition to these facilities, various private corporations . New Orleans Canal The. state legislature, in Novem- ber, 1914, authorized the construe- tion and operation, within the city of New Orleans, of a navigation canal and necessary locks, slips, laterals, basins and appurtenances, connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi river. .The engi- neers of the Board of Port Com- missioners made an industrial and economic survey to bring to light not only the best route to follow, but also all of the benefits to accrue from such facilities as well as fully covering the cost and construction phases. This canal will allow of private ownership of land and pri- vate slips for the location of manu- facturing and shipping plants; will concentrate many facilities and will make possible the fullest develop- ment of local industries. also have facilities for their particular purposes, more especially the Amer- ican Sugar Refining Co., the Gulf Refining Co., the Texas Oil Co. and the Otis Mfg. Co. The Sugar Refining company has ‘terminals. without remuneration and is. December, 1915 provided interesting equipment for handling freight over its docks. This. consists of an overhead telpher sys- tem operating individual cars, an at- tendant being in each car. The sys- tem is so arranged as to load with sugar at the wharves, each car taking . on one ton, depositing this load in the storehouse adjacent to the _ re- finery. The maximum distance trav- eled in a round trip is 2,000 feet, and the speed of the cars is approximately 15 miles per hour. The next important handling system. in use in the harbor of New Orleans are the banana unloaders, Commissioners and transferring bananas ‘from fruit ships. to the public wharves of the port. The capacity of these unloaders is. approximately 2,500 bunches of ba- nanas per hour each. The port has. used, for a4 on rollers actuated through chain gears by electric motors. coffee. Public Belt Railroad The public belt railroad, construct-: ed by the city of New Orleans, in 1908 and 1909, is fullest co-operation between the state and city authorities in developing the ot the. port. commercial’ economies It forms the economic link which binds the switching, storage and transportation tacilities of the port of New Orleans into a single unit, reducing the cost of handling to a minimum and at once simplifying and solving the grave problems of trans- portation found at other ports The railroad commission serves appointed by the city, largely from the business exchanges. While this commission is separate and distinct from the harbor board, it ~works in full harmony with the port authori- ties. The public belt railroad has access to all public wharves and to most of the private industries of the city. It owns its engines and handles. the cars over its own tracks, thus insuring equal treatment to all ship- pers. : In the operation of this ‘public facility, the:-commerce of the city is handled at the lowest possible cost; at present the charge for. switching cars from railroads to docks or in- dustries and return is $2 per car re- gardless of distance. Appreciating an urgent need for cotton and other warehouses, specific legislation in 1913 enabled the board to further the the betterment of some of which are owned by the Board of some by the United Fruit Co.; they are used for long period, the Hanak conveyor, composed. of a duck and rubber belt operated. These have: been employed largely in unloading evidence of the and.