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20 MARINE REVIEW. MARINE REVIEW Devoted to the Merchant Marine, the Navy, Ship Building, and Kindred Interests. Published every Thursday at No. 418-19 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohio, by THE MARINE REviEW PUBLISHING Co. SusscRiPTION—$3.00 per year in advance; foreign, including postage, $4.50, or 19 shillings. Single copies 10 cents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. To All Old Sailing Masters on the Great Lakes. The Marine Review is desirous of obtaining the experiences of old sailing masters on the lakes and the histories of the old vessels which they sailed, together with photographs or pictures of them and their craft. These old sailing masters and their vessels are a part of the history of the great lakes which is fast becoming obliterated by the revolution in lake transporta- tion. This history is of a perishable nature because it exists largely in the memories of men who have spent the greater part of their lives on the lakes. [If it is not preserved now it never will be preserved. The Marine Review therefore begs old captains and mates and vessel owners to write a brief ac- count of their lives, their experiences on the lakes and the histories of the vessels upon which they sailed. The Review will both publish and pay for the matter. Never mind spelling, punctu- ation and diction; the Review will furnish those; just relate the facts. The Review hopes that every old sailing master will take this as an appeal to him personally and jot down during his winter evenings a rough sketch of his life. For instance, but little is known about Lake Superior navigation prior to the opening of the Sault Ste. Marie canal. Who knows about it? Has anyone any pictures of the vessels afloat on Lake Superior at that time. If so, send them to the Review to be photographed and they will be promptly returned in good condition. By the same token, does anyone know of the first steamboat line that ran between Detroit and the Sault? The confidence with which Senators Hanna and Frye approach the subject of the shipping bill in public interviews inspires one with the hope that it may yet be passed during the present session of congress. They may have a clearer view of conditions than laymen, but assuredly to the layman there is nothing in the external view of things to justify the pre- diction that the bill will pass. The great element of danger lies in the fact that there are only thirty-one legislative days left to the session and that many bills, which it is imperative must be passed before the session comes to a close, have not yet even been reached. Added to this limita- tion of time is the undoubted fact that filibustering will be resorted to by the opponents of the bill, a circumstance which cannot be prevented, in the senate at least. The singular thing is that the opponents of the bill admit that something should be done to strengthen the merchant marine, and yet they have no substitute to propose, unless Senator Vest’s free ship bill may be regarded as a substitute. Upon this point Senator Al- drich, who was at one time regarded as opposed to the bill, says: “There is some difference of opinion as to what should be done, but, as I understand it, there is no difference whatever, at least among Repub- licans, as to the necessity of doing something. I do not see anybody who is opposing this measure offering anything better. -It is like a tariff bill. We hear of a great outcry against such bills, but we never get any substi- tutes except those offered by free traders and ‘Democrats, which would be utterly ruinous to the country. The only substitute that I know of to the existing bill is the free ship bill offered by Mr..Vest. There is the same difference between the bill offered by the senate committee on commerce and the free ship bill offered by Mr. Vest that there is between the Repub- lican tariff bills and the Democratic free trade bills. We have got to the pass when something must be done, not only to preserve what littie ship- ping we have in the foreign trade, but to increase it. The bill in the senate may perhaps be amended to advantage. I cannot tell fully as to that, but we need some bill, and this one is the best bill on the subject that has been brought before congress.” The measure as reported by the committee on commerce has been strengthened by two amendments made during the week, one of which extends the benefits of the bill to ships engaged both in the foreign and coastwise trade, such as those of the Panama railroad line, subsidy being granted to the extent that the cargo is foreign. Another amendment {January 24, permits a majority of the owners of a steamship to sign contracts with the secretary of the treasury, instead of requiring all the owners to sign; and in lieu of a bond the secretary is authorized to retain 25 per cent. of earned compensation as security for the performance of the contract. Senator Frye is devoting considerable time to perfecting the bill and to weighing suggestions for amendment which are proposed by those who have studied the subject. He thinks the bill today is as nearly perfect as any measure can be which has not received the advantage of a practical test. The obstacles now in the path of the bill are parliamentary, a condi- tion which has obtained since the bill was displaced from the position of “unfinished business.” It must contest for the right of way with the army reorganization bill, the legislative appropriation bill, the war revenue reduction bill, the great river and harbor bill, the Nicaraguan canal bill, and ten other appropriation bills, the failure of any one of which will entail an extra session of congress. Altogether the evidence in the case does not lead to as cheerful a conclusion as the sponsors of the bill would have one believe. EDUCATION OF THE JUDGMENT. NEED OF 1T IN DEALING WITH TECHNICAL MATTERS—CHARACTERISTIC PAPER ¥ROM THE GENERAL MANAGER OF THE UNION IRON WORKS, BY GEO. W DICKEY.* Of all teachable things, the education ‘of’ the judgment receives the least attention, while its importance is supreme. I do not know of a single university that has a chair of common sense, and in trying to reason out why this so important endowment is not taught I can think of but one reason, and that is the impossibility of finding a man to fill such a cair. Men in all professions are therefore left to acquire this most important part of their education as they acquire practical experience, and in most cases with as little success. It is an unfortunate condition with us that we are nearing the efd of our work before we realize how important a factor judgment is in all questions of importance that come before us in our every day experience. Self education in the matter of judgment is a life-long mental discipline. One of the most important points in this process is very difficult to deal with, for every time it comes up it involves us in an internal struggle which equally affects our vanity and our ease. This point consists in the tendency to self-deception in regard to the result we wish for. For any one who is not brought daily to the necessity of self-correction in regard to this tendency, it 1s impossible to realize how: all-powerful the tendency is, and how unconsciously we all yield to it. How eager we all are to seek for such evidence as may be in favor of what we want the result to be and to disregard any evidence pointing the other way. We receive as friendly that which agrees with our preconceived notions, and resist and dislike that which opposes them. In fact, the in- clinations we exhibit to receive and to act upon any report or opinion that harmonizes with our preconceived notions can be compared, in degree, only with the incredulity we entertain toward everything that opposes: them. And all this goes on unconsciously, while we honestly believe that our judgment is entirely free and unbiased. It'is my purpose to try, in as simple and direct language as I am able to use, to point out some of the ways in which we fail to exhibit sound judgment in dealing with the en- gineering problems that confront us every day. In my work, how do I suffer from lack of judgment on the part of myself and those connected with me, and how could much of that suffering be avoided, thereby reaching results with less waste of labor and time? This is an inquiry worth making, even if the answer be not quite satisfac- tory. There is fast growing up a system which, if I understand the direc- tion in which it is moving, proposes to dispense with the necessity for the exercise of judgment in dealing with everyday engineering problems. Young men without experience, and who have never had the chance to acquire an educated judgment, are, as a rule, put in charge of very im~- portant work, and a set of instructions is provided for their guidance, which instructions are supposed, if rightly carried out, to obviate the necessity for any exercise of judgment on the part of the person in chaf¢e. Those of us who are carrying out large contracts with the government and with some public companies find it hardly possible to get anything de- cided by sound judgment based on experience. I have often tried to reason from my own experience with young inspectors of work, but that kind of reasoning is not now admissible. Printed instructions are pro- duced, with the intimation that these must be adhered to in every particu- lar, the inspector having no discretion in the matter. I have often traced these printed instructions back to their source, and found the author to be a man whom I would not like to trust with doing the work covered by them. In mechanical engineering and kindred business, such as ship building, the great bulk of the designing is done by the contractor, all working plans being prepared by him. He is also held responsible for the result; yet all his plans must be submitted to a young and, from the very nature of the case, inexperienced inspector, who, however clever he may be in solving theoretical questions relating to the device in question, has never had to make those things himself and to be responsible for their working after being made, and for their costing no more than he said they would cost before he began. Now, the young inspector reads in his book of instructions, generally in a preface, that the object of printing these instructions is for the proper protection of the interests of the gov- ernment. In a decision by the judge advocate of the United States navy I read the other day that the aim and intent of the wording of the speci- fications and contract for the building of a warship were solely-‘to’ protect the interests of the government. Now, my idea has always been that the object of the specifications and contract, when fully carried out, was to produce the best possible warship of the kind specified: that there were two parties to the contract, and that the interests of one needed protection just as much as the other. The language used in the decision mentioned shows how difficult it is for an inspector to use sound judgment, even if he has it at his command. When a plan is presented to him by which you *Read before the Technical Society of the Pacific Coast.