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oad ESTABLISHED 1878. VOL. XXII, No. 9. CLEVELAND---MARCH 2, 1899---CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 5c. Single Copy. THE U. S. MERCHANT MARINE. We have now employed in our foreign trade 294,064 tons of steamers and 443,645 tons of sailing vessels, of a value of $26,276,964 and $14,480,593 respectively, or a total of $40,- 757,557. In 1898 these were the vessels that carried 9.3 per cent. of our imports and exports. In 1892 Capt. William W. Bates, who had shortly before retired from the office of United States Commissioner of Navigation, published an exhaustive work on ‘‘American Marine,’’ which is devoted almost altogether to the rise and decline of our shipping in the foreign trade. He calculates the tonnage required for the carriage of our foreign commerce in 1891, and arrives at the following: “An estimate of our shipping necessities for the present year may be fixed at 1,200,000 tons of sail, and 3,000,000 of steam. To increase the shipping we now have in the foreign trade to this amount would require an outlay of $300,000,000. Under due protection, with this preparation made, we might command a business of $2,000,000,000, a vanishing fraction of which is now barely possible of at- tainment.’’ In that year 30 per cent. of the entries at our ports were sail vessels, while to-day only 20 per cent. is of sail. More- over, the tonnage our foreign commerce employs has in- creased by one-third since 1891. Itisconceded that a steam vessel is able to carry, in a year, three times as much asa sail vessel of identical sizé. If, therefore, we add but Ioo,- ooo tons to the sail vessel estimate to meet the ,increased need since Capt. Bates wrote, we shall probably concede at least all of that type, and more, that is likely to be built; and if we reduce the remaining 300,000 tons of sail to make up the one-third of increase since 1891 to 100,000 tons of steam—the equivalent of 300,000 tons of sail—and add one- third to the steam tonnage estimated by Capt. Bates, our shipping necessities to-day would be as follows: Tons. Sailvessels4. 6 es es EO I, 300,000 LCA VESSEIS Se prc rite tiy tafe ee tee oats 4, 100,000 PROTA ice a Fea eS ee, tees ie 5,400,000 Deducting from the above the tonnage under our flag in the foreign trade we would require the following additional tonnage, if American ships wholly superseded all foreign ships in our foreign trade: MALL VESRC Sctuic senate sytem i coreg 856,355 SUCA VEGSCISA eee aes file wales oie a > 3,805,936 ROCA ys ee Se ee hare ee eas 4,662,291 Asa matter of fact, existing American shipyards could not construct that tonnage within 20 years, at which time our shipping ;necessities would probably have again doubled. But there is nothing, except the demand for ships, to pre- vent enormous increases in our shipbuilding facilities. The census report of the average value of the steam and sail vessels engaged in carrying passengers and freight, above referred to as the basis for our computations and com- parisons, places the value of our steam vessels on the Atlan- tic and Gulf at a fraction less than $76 per ton, and sail ves- sels in that trade at a fraction under $31 a ton. The values on the Pacific coast are much higher, but these we exclude from our coniparisons in order to be conservative. We also have assumed, for comparison purposes, and to be fair, that there has been a reduction of about 12 per cent. in the cost of vessels, wherefore we place the probable cost of new steam tonnage at $67 and of sail at $27 per ton. To supply the additional tonnage that would be necessary to carry all of our foreign commerce under our own flag would involve the following expenditures in American shipyards: 856,355 tons of sail vessels at $27 perton....... $22,121,585 | 3,805,936 tons of steam vessels at $67 per ton. ...254,997,712 4,662,291 tons of sail and steam vessels......... $277, 119,307 American labor would, from the mine and forest to the finished ship, and through all the processes to which the raw material would be subjected, receive about 95 per cent. of that vast sum, if the ships our foreign commerce employs were built in the United States. But that sum we are now paying to foreign shipowners who, in turn, expend it in the employment of aliens in foreign shipyards and on board foreign ships. ee a eS ea SUBMARINE BOATS. P. Walter D?Alton, who engineered the last of the Nor- denfelt submarine boat, and served in her in 1886 and 1887 until she was lost, condemns without qualification all sub- marine boats in a letter to the London Engineer of Feb. 3. He tells us that the designing and building of submarine boats seems to be a sort of madness with one country after another, the only cure for which appears to be the actual running of the boats so designed and constructed; and then for a season the world is clear of talk of these impossibili- ties until the next country takes the fit, when the same enthusiasm is displayed, the same nonsense talked, the same mistakes made, and finally the same relegation to the scrap heap of the object of all the hopes and enthusiasm. The submarine boat, with its crankiness, it absence of bouyancy, its danger—to its friends—is impossible as an engine of war, and, as Lord Charles Beresford said: ‘‘is quite useless as a fighting machine, owing to the necessary absence of morale amongst a crew which would be in a blue funk of it all the time.’. But the Nordenfelt, as a partly-submerged vessel, showing a wonderfully small target, and steaming as she could, in that condition at the rate of I9 knots, was a very ugly enemy to face.” The success of the Nordenfelt, according to Mr. D’Alton, demonstrated ‘‘the absolute impossibility of any and every submarine boat.’? Shesteamed 14 miles under water in a series of long dives; she remained totally submerged in deep water, with nine men on hoard, for six hours, and she went under thirty times in each of the two years. Ten knots an hour in deep water was found to be the safe limit of pru- dence. TE GUESSING THE AGE OF NIAGARA. Some interesting speculations concerning the age of the Niagara gorge are reported by Nature. This was the sub- ject of a paper by Prof. G. Frederick Wright, read at the Boston meeting of the American association. The late Dr. James Hall early noted the significant fact that ‘‘the outlet of the chasm below Niagara Falls is scarcely wider than else- where along its course.” This is important evidence of the late date of its origin and it has been used in support of the short estimates which have been made concerning the length of time separating us from the glacial period. A close ex- amination made by Prof. Wright last summer greatly strengthens the force of the argument, since he found that the disintegrating forces tending to enlarge the outlines and give it a V-shape are, more rapid than has been supposed. As the result of his investigation he concludes that a con- servative estimate of the rate of disintegration for the 70 feet of Niagara shales supporting the Niagara limestone would be one inch a year, with a probable rate of two inches a year. But at the lowest estimate no more than 12,000 years would be required for the enlargement of the upper part of the mouth of the gorge, 1,000 feeton each side, which is very largely in excess of the actual amount of enlargement. Some of the recent estimates, therefore, which would make the gorge from 30,000 to 40,000 years old, are regarded as extravagant. According to Prof. Wright the age of the gorge cannot be much more than 10,000 years, and is prob- ably considerably less. THE HANNA-PAYNE BILL. Following are resolutions of the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce in reference to the Hanna-Payne Bill to revive the merchant marine of the United States. ‘Whereas, About go per cent. of the imports and exports of the United States are carried in foreign ships which annually receive from the people of the United States a sum estimated at $200,000,000, which is taken out of the country in gold or its equivalent and contributes to the employment of aliens abroad, while at the same time depriving our own people of the employment that sum would constantly give if it were retained in the United States ; and ogee mate “Whereas, While it is an indisputable fact American natu- ral resources, capacity and enterprise cannot be excelled by those of the people of any other country, in the face of this fact our foreign commerce conducted by our own shipping has declined from 80 per cent. in 1846 and 66 per cent. in 1860 to II per cent. in 1897; and, ‘‘Whereas, The President of the United States and the Secretary of the Treasury have strongly recommended legis- lation to restore to American ships a fair share of our foreign carrying, tothe end that the money so expended may be retained in the United States, giving employment upon our farms, our mines, our forests, in our factories, our shipyards and on board the ships, to our own people; therefore be it Resolved, that the Senators and Representatives of Wis- consin in Congress are respectfully requested™tovactively support such carefully considered legislation as may be deemed necessary to give effect to the recommendations of the President and Secretary of the Treasury in this ‘respect, and for the more adequate defense of the nation under the new conditions that confront it.’’ oo oO STEEL PRODUCTION. . The bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Association says that 6,609,017 gross tons of Bessemer steel ingots were produced in the United States during 1898, an increase of more than 20 per cent. over 1897. Pennsylvania’s share was 3,402,254; Ohio, 1,489,115; Illinois, 1,105,040, and other states, 612,608. The production of all kinds of Bessemer steel rails by the producers of Bessemer steel ingots in 1898 was 1,955,427 gross tons, against a similar production in 1897 of 1,614,399 tons and 1,102,892 tons in 1896. The maximum production of Bessemer steel rails by the producers of Bessemer steel ingots was reached in 1887, when 2,044,819 tons were made. Of these Pennsylvania produced 1,052,771 gross tons, and other states, 902,656. EASTERN FREIGHTS. Messrs. Funch, Edye & Co., New York, report the east- ern freight situation as follows: Our freight market for steamships, and the conditions underlying it, have not changed since our last report; we continue to live in hopes of a better enquiry for grain and cotton, but as yet cannot cite any indications as pointing that way. A fair demand for steam for case oil cargoes to the Far East continues on terms of last charters reported, but, on the other hand, time charterers of large tonnage are withdrawing from the market, and owners’ offer of 6s. 6d. does not lead to business. Luckily the amount of disen- gaged tonnage offering on our neighboring markets is not heavy, The same state of affairs is prevailing in the Gulf ports, but, unfortunately, toa still more acute degree than in the north. Our market for sailers offers very few points of interest, the situation remaining entirely unchanged. . The demand for case oil tonnage to the east continues, but rates show no further improvement, in consequence of the,general decline in steam freights, which’induced steamers ‘to offer for this trade. In other lines there is nothing new, whatsoever.