The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

446 to the grain trade of the port would be most effectively dealt with. The plant will be located on the river front, a few hundred yards from the cotton warehouse; all of the buildings will be of reinforced con- crete except the galleries, which will be structural steel. The entire plant, therefore, will be fireproof and the insurance rate will be only about one- tenth the average rate now in effect at the other elevators of the port. The working house will be entirely of reinforced steel and will consist of 47 bins with a combined capacity of 175,000 bushels. On the south side of the working house will be the re- ceiving legs with four shipping legs on the north side, each of the legs having a capacity of from 20,000 to 25,000 bushels per hour. The ele- vator legs, conveyors, cleaning and clipping machines will be driven by electric motors, each piece of machin- ery being independent of any other. The storage annex will consist of 60 circular tanks and 45 The capacity of the tanks is 12,100 bushels each and of the interstices 2,690 bushels each, so that the total capacity of the storage annex is 847,- 000 bushels, which, together with the 175,000 bushels capacity of the work- ing house, gives a total storage ca- pacity of the elevator of 1,022,000 bushels. Proposed Canal As a further port development it has been decided to construct a navi- gation canal across New Orleans con- necting the Mississippi river with Lake Pontchartrain. The particular advantages of this canal are as follows: It will permit commerce to move freely between the river and the Mississippi sound, and it will bring to New Orleans coal and iron from the Alabama fields at the very lowest possible cost of trans- portation. It will permit the com- merce to be generated by the com- pleted intercoastal canal to be as- sembled and interchanged in New Or- leans at any sort of terminal facilities such commerce may require. It will give a fixed level water for timber basins, ship yards and all. industrial plants. It will supply, through lateral extensions as provided for by law, frontage for private, as well as public enterprise to develop in any way that need may arise. It will develop an opportunity for produce markets and produce boats plying to and from farm-side throughout the fertile area of Louisiana. A factory or warehouse located: on the banks of this canal, which it is hoped to begin building in the near future, will enjoy, not only direct and THE MARINE REVIEW easy access to all boats, barges and ships, but quick and economic access to all railroads over the rails of the public belt railroad. This means that the industry so located will be in a most independent position insofar as the routing of raw material and fin- ished product are concerned. The warehouses and other facilities on the river front are and will always be open to any shipper on equal terms. Similarly the banks of the industrial canal will be open to development to all industries and enterprises alike. The business of the port of New Orleans, commencing with the decade in which its modern equipment was interstices. ~ Port Development General port development in the- United States’ has been stimulated by: 1—The demonstrated economies resulting from European port and harbor develob- ments, which must in com- petition be established 1m the United States. 2—The construction of harbor facilities im advance of trade. 3.—Competition between trunie line railroad systems neces- sitating individually - owned terminals. 4—An increase in ocean trans- portation due to the open- ing of the Panama canal. 5.—The invention, improvement and use of freight-handling and transportation machin- - ery, _If a port is to maintain its posi- - tion it must keep pace with com- petitive ports which, under modern conditions, means its complete de- velopment. erected, showed an increase of 65.8 per cent for the period 1901 to 1910, over the previous decade. New Orleans is a two-way port, the import and export tonnage being practically equal, the import move- ment being 46 per cent and the ex- port movement 54 per cent of the total. This is an important advantage as the balanced movement insures the best possible freight rates in both di- rections. The value of the commodi- ties entering and leaving the port averages about $1,000,000 per day. All the great ports are what may be. termed. “import ports’. In the United States, at least, a port’s first object should be to increase its im- ports. The cardinal :-principle — of transportation organizations is to ob- tain for their equipment a load in - December, 1915 both directions. This applies to both steamship lines and railroads. A port that has the imports will automatical- ly obtain railroad service and the exports. Any system of charges or rates of a port should relieve imports as much as practicable of transportation and transshipment costs and should par- ticularly cater to steamship lines and independent ships, and, especially to import carriers. lf care is taken of the imports, the exports, if available i the ‘coutitry, will take care oi themselves. It may also be said that if care is taken of port costs to ships other transportation charges will take care of themselves. River Trafic at Low Ebb Approximately 16,000 miles of navi- gable rivers reach from New Orleans to the Great Lakes, Pittsburgh, Kan- sas City and other points, and, fan- like, the deep sea routes reach out from New Orleans to all the great ports of the world. The Panama canal brings New Orleans closer to Pacific ports than either New York or Liver- pool. The river trade of the port at pres- ent, exclusive of coal, has decreased from the enormous tonnage of the past to about 220,000 tons in 1914. The competition existing between Gulf and Atlantic ports has now ad- justed itself to a railroad basis. Prac- tically no reductions have been made in rail rates since the discontinuance of river transportation; in fact, from 1900 to 1910 there was a general in- crease in gross earnings per ton mile of the railroads of the United States. The Mississippi valley rail rate pre- vailing at present compares with the river rate of about 1900, which would have been reduced, with continued river navigation, about 30 per cent. New Orleans is thus entitled to and should receive, in the future, all the benefits of Mississippi river trans- portation either in reduced rail rates or in actual river service. As stated, extensive. and carefully planned harbor improvement, both in Europe and America, is a most recent development. As _ is generally con- ceded, it frequently costs as much to deliver freight in, bulk or packages within port limits as to transport this same freight a distance equal to. that from New Orleans to Chicago or from Chicago to New York. It is evident that this excessive tax is absolutely unnecessary and the result of past inefficient methods. A modifi- cation of these conditions within port limits may be brought about through the improvement of loading, unload- ing and transportation equipment of (Concluded on page 461.)