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THE MARINE RECORD _ Imports and exports’ foreach month and the valuation of each product or commodity is also given. In seeking an - appropriation from the federal government it would be ~ well if all the principal lake ports could show in so plain, pointed and inclusive a manner the value and volume of their commerce and the work of Major Sears is to be high- ly commended, although carried out in compliance with an act of Congress approved Feb. 21, 1891. Hitherto there has been a general lax manner in arriving at figures relative to the total commerce of the lakes and it would no doubt be to the ultimate advantage of the waterways of ‘the Duluth act was made compulsory at all ports. te i -Mr. Burrell is now all in shape to commence river ser- © -vice at Detroit and will transact any business entrusted to him: He?iwill report vessel passages, deliver orders, carry + passengers or parcels to or from passing vessels and gen- erally try to-merit the good will of masters, owners, en- - gineers and in fact, all of the sailing fraternity with whom “he may be brought into. contact. _. Among the new advertisements appearing in this issue -of the Record may be found that of Messrs. Pauling & Harnischfeger, Milwaukee. This well and favorably- known firm have just completed successful and important improvements in their steam steering gear and now place on the market a powerful, compact, combined steam and hand steering engine, which is sure to meet with _ favor from vesselmen. - _ We have received this week No. 1, Vol. 1, of a 40-page _New York monthly titled “Marine Engineering,” devoted “to vessel construction, propulsion and allied interests is- sued by the Marine Publishing Co., World Building, New York. There is no doubt a large field of usefulness and _patronage for the new journal and the contents of the first issue warrants us in saying that “Marine Engineer- ing” 1s- worthy of the best support of advertisers and sub- scribers. The Record welcomes the.new journal to its exchange table and hopes that favorable financial breezes may waft it along to the shores of prosperity in all that the world implies. : ooo MERCANTILE MARINE SERVICE. A-meeting of representatives of the shipping interests _was held at Washington on Wednesday in the room of the senate committee on commerce. Among those present “were'C. A. Griscom, W. P. Clyde, T.. W. Hyde, A. R. Smith, C. H. Cramp, Samuel S. Sewall, H. P. Booth, E. Bliss, Aaron Vanderbilt, D. C. Mink, F. J. Firth, C. “H. Keep, ex-Senator G. F. Edmunds and Senators Frye, Elkins, Hanna and Perkins. The meeting was held for the purpose of promoting legislation in the interests of the United States mercantile marine. — -. Several addresses were made during the day by those in attendance, one of the most important being that of C. H. Cramp, the shipbuilder. Mr. Cramp said the enot- ‘mous revenuerepresented by the freight and passenger tolls on our commerce and travel is constantly drained out of this country into British, German and French pockets, while the vast industrial increment represnted by the necessary ship building inures almost wholly to Great Britain. He held this to be the principal cause of the existing financial condition of the United States and said that until means were taken to keep a part of the $300,- 000,000 annually absorbed by foreign ship owners no good times could come. English officials abroad, he said, from “ministers and consuls down, industriously reproduce in the newspapers of Japan, China, Chili, Argentine and Brazil the misstatements of the English press about Amer- ican vessels. In conclusion he suggested the following new classification for bounties to American shipping: Not less than 10,000 tons and twenty-two knots, $6 per mile; not less than 8,000 tons and twenty knots, $5 per mile; not less than 6,000 tons and eighteen knots, $4; not Jess than 5,000 tons and sixteen knots, $3 per mile. All - other iron or steel steamers not less than fourteen knots, $1.50 per mile. - Ex-Senator Edmunds, who was present as legal adviser, took a prominent part inthe proceedings of the day, his opinion being called for at various times. He was asked, nc ng other things, if the discriminating duties proposed the Elkins bill would not be in violation of treaties with y foreign powers, and replied that they would be. He , however, that the treaties could be abrogated by law, by the passage of a joint resolution, giving a year’s notice to the government with which the treaties had been made. After a general discussion a committee was appointed to consider the various questions and to unite, if possible, upon a policy to recommend to the government as a remedy for the existing situation. OO A FAIR WARNING. In connection with the recent legislation for seamen, collectors of customs have been sent a circular from the secretary of the treasury drawing their attention to the fact that “Every master or other officer of an American vessel within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States, who, without justifiable cause, beats, wounds or imprisons any of the crew of such vessel or withholds from them suitable food and nourishment, or inflicts upon them any cruel and inhuman punishment, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment not more than five years, or by both.” NO HOSPITAL FOR THE ‘‘SOO’’. It appears that the project to build a marine hospital at Sault Ste. Marie with the $68,000 held by the state of Michigan and derived from tolls on the old “Soo” canal, has gone a glimmering. A bill asking for the amount to be turned over to the federal government for the above purpose was introduced in the state legislature and was a few days ago turned down in the Senate. It is now proposed to place this sum to the credit of the general state fund as it has been determined that the federal gov- ernment has no interest or claim in any portion of the old tolls collected previous to the canal being made free. oOo or A LARGE CARGO. The Hamburg-American cargo steamship Pennsylvania, which arrived at New York Sunday, brought 13,200 tons of cargo. She drew 29 feet of water crossing the bar, probably as heavy a draught as ever entered the port. The Pennsylvania has a miscellaneous cargo, including 60,000 bags of sugar. S$ ).s $ OO Se DEEP SEA SOUNDINGS. A very ingenious and simple contrivance is used to ‘bring to the surface samples of sea water taken from great depths, and unmixed with water from the other depths which it has passed through in reeling in. It con- sists of a cylinder with a valve opening upward at each end, the two valves being connected with a shaft. These valves open as the cylinder goes down, allowing the water to flow through it. On the top of the cylinder is a small propeller attached to a threaded shaft, and when the cyl- inder is drawn up this propeller revolves, screwing down ‘the shaft, which in turn screws down onto the valves, sealing them hermetically, with the sample of water which was inside of the cylinder when the upward motion began. Some of the most interesting problems of deep sea investi- gation have been worked out from the water taken in this way. _ A QUEER PROCEEDING. Two Canadian sailors named John and Harvey Coomes, of St. Catharines, were stopped at Windsor by Inspector McGlogan on Saturday and ordered back to Canada, while on their way to Buffalo. John has been sailing out of Buffalo for sixteen years and Harvey for ten years. oo or ovwXhr LAKE FREIGHTS. There is nothing yet doing in iron ore charters, but it is expected that a few days will develop business. Coal is inclined to be brisk, but at very low figures, the steamer Norwalk, Capt. E. F. Mattison, is loading, Cleveland to Racine, at 40 cents, and another large steamer for She- bogan the rate quoted being only 25 cents, there are also considerable offers for coal to the head of the lakes, but the opening rate is so low, 20 cents, that few owners care about chartering without being fixed for a down cargo. The first steamer is reported as leaving Chicago Thurs- day. In grain charters difficulty was found this week in getting 1% cents and the outlook is not bright for ob- taining fair figures at the early resumption of navigation. The steamer Aragon has been chartered, Toledo to Buf- falo, 90,000 bushels wheat at 1% cents, an Oswego char- ter for 2% cents on corn and Kingston 2% cents. UNITED STATES SHIPPING. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5. — “Great Britain,” he said; ‘would do everything short of — going to war to prevent the passage of this bill.” Regarding commercial treaties with other nations, Mr. Elkins said: Jn entering into the treaties providing for maritime reciprocity the United States abandoned dis- criminating duties, which was the greatest protection American shipping ever enjoyed, and under which it pros- pered as it never has since. The true intent and meati- ing of these treaties was that, as between the contracting powers, carrying should be free and reciprocal, and in ef- fect put upon an equal footing. The United States has observed the spirit of these treaties and has rendered but little or no aid or assistance to take the place of the pro- tection enjoyed under diseriminating duties. Other na- tions, especially Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy, have not observed the spirit of the treaties, but increased their subsidies and mail pay to ships and adopted other — forms of aid to build up and protect their shipping. He presented a lengthy argument to show that subsidies would not accomplish the object sought. Great Britain could ap- — propriate $2 for every $1 appropriated by the United States. We paid in mail subsidies now $800,000 a year to the American Line. England has paid in subsidies over $300,000,000 sincé 1800, and from 1858:to 1890 her ships re- ceived $8,628,530 from the United States for carrying the mails. a sh ae The United States pays $500,000 every day, or nearly $3 per capita per annum, to foreign shipowners for carrying what its people sell and buy. This enormous sum, or most of it, should be saved to the people and the country, and would be, under a proper policy of aid to shipping. Free ships, he said, would not accomplish the desired re- sult, but add another source of revenue to England, and English ships would still do the carrying of our foreign . commerce. If we had 100 of-the finest steamers afloat we could not run them in competition with foreign ships. The conditions are not the same. Free ships would ruin our domestic coastwise shipping. Foreign shipbuilding would mean foreign shipowning. The free ship policy. has been a failure in France, Germany, Austria and Italy. In case of war our shipping would be swept from the seas, as we would have no navy. A merchant marine is essential to a navy. ; Mr. Elkins quoted from consular reports to show that American vessels seldom appear in foreign ports, where great amounts of goods are shipped yearly to the United States. From 1886 to 1896 but 15 American vessels passed through the Suez Canal, and 4 of these were war ships and yachts. He quoted statistics showing the millions of tons of goods that were carried to America, but only a small percentage in American ships. We expended $400,000 a year to maintain a consular service, presumably in the in- terest of building up American trade abroad, and yet these officers could do nothing if there were no American ships and all carrying was done in foreign vessels. OO oe oh LAKE MARINE INSURANCE. It is reported that among the companies in the syndi- cate formed to reduce rates on the American lakes is a leading London mutual marine assurance company, which has been “primed” up to take a very large percentage of the business procured by the brokers who hold the reins on the box-seat of the combination coach. It seems strange that at a time when English underwriters are en- deavoring to put up rates a London company shouid go into a scheme which can have no other result than that of demoralizing rates on lake hulls. A peculiarly odd thing is that the combination should have succeeded in getting the London company in question to put the new venture in a position to successfully compete against the company’s own New York agents.—Fairplay, London. a err The firm of Randolph & Clowes, Waterbury, Conn., have just completed and shipped, the largest seamless drawn, copper tubes ever made in the United States, The dimensions of them are 24 inches inside diameter, % inch in thickness and 12 feet long. These tubes, made to the order of the Black & Clawson Co., Hamilton, O., are ab- solutely seamless, made from pure Lake Superior copper, cold drawn, of one piece of metal and will be used as steam cylinders in connection with a new evaporating machine which the Hamilton firm are now building. The dimen- sions of these copper tubes: are: well worth noting in con- nection with the fact that they are absolutely seamless and made from pure Lake Superior copper.