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

ESTABLISHED 1878. Z g d z é —s VOL. XXII, No. 31. CLEVELAND---AUGUST 3, 1899---CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 5c. Single Copy. LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. To consider and take action upon all genera questions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car- tiers, and improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. FRANK J. FIRTH, Philadelphia. 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT. Capt. THos. WILSON, Cleveland. SECRETARY. CHARLES H. KEEP, Buffalo, TREASURER, GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL. HARVEY D. GOULDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE, JAMES CorRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Grgpson L. Doueras, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, LAKE CARRIERS, ASSOCIATION. A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Lake Car- riers’ Association was held in the offices of Capt. James Cor- rigan, on Tuesday. A communication from Mr. Barter, of the Longshore- men’s Union, asking for an increase of pay in discharging iron ore from untrimmed vessels, was met by the ore dock managers submitting the following proposition which will, no doubt, be acceptable to the men. “There shall be no discrimination in the unloading price against any particular grade of ore because of its physical structure, whether soft ore, crushed or uncrushed hard ore, or bulky silicious ore, but where boats with untrimmed car- goes are offered for unloading and all or parts of cargoes are in bad shape, there shall be extra pay at a rate not to ex- ceed 2% cents per ton for the ore in hatches pronounced to be in bad condition. The hatches for which such extra compensation shall be granted shall be determined by a standing dock committee, to consist of the superintendent or foreman in charge of the dock at which the vessel may arrive, and a representative of the shoveling gangs to be appointed by them, and in case an agreement cannot be reached a third, disinterested party, shall be chosen by the two and his decision shall be final. The tonnage upon which the extra compensation shall be allowed, shall be the tonnage loaded in these hatches pro- nounced to be in bad condition, as shown by the loading records of the vessels. In case of disagreement upon the condition of any particular cargo, there shall be no suspen- sion of work on any vessel besides the one in dispute, and all other work at the dock shall continne unterruptedly while the disputed case is being arbitrated.’’ A letter from Mr. George B. Uhler, National president of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, addressed to Charles H. Keep, Esq., Buffalo, Secretary of the Lake Car- riers’ Association, was presented to the committee. The letter contained a request for an advance of 12% per cent. over the present schedule of wages paid to lake engineers and totake effect August 1st. The matter was taken up at the meeting in connection with a new schedule of wages for the fallmonths. At the opening of the season the wages were advanced over those of last year. The engineers and first mates received a greater advance than the other men, and the members of the committee were in fayor of making no change in their wages. The owners present said that they had heard no complaints and that their engineers have not asked for an advance. Messrs. H. A. Hawgood, J. W. Moore, George P. McKay, and A. R. Rumsey were appointed a committee to fix a schedule of wages from second mates down in the list. An advance if decided upon not to exceed 1o percent. The committee will report Aug. 15, and if a new schedule of wages is adopted it will probably go into effect Sept I. or LAKE LEVELS—THE CHICAGO DRAINAGE CANAL Unless the plans of the sanitary district are thwarted, the big Chicago drainage ditch will be thrown open in about three months and Lake Michigan will be called upon to give up at least 5,000 cubic feet of water every second, or 300,000 cubic feet a minute. What result this will have on the lake level is speculative, but hydraulic calculations and scientific investigations at other exhaust points of the chain of lakes leave no doubt as to the effect. The anomaly may be presented of a rising lake level, with the drainage canal taking 300,000 cubic feet of water from Lake Michigan every minute. Civil Engineer, Lyman E. Cooley, who was the first to in- vestigate the problem involved in the scheme of sanitation and who has made an exhaustive-study of the subject of lake levels, explains the principle in hydraulics which serves as a basis for the present estimates of the effect on the lake level when the sanitary canal is opened. ‘Only those not conversant with the conditions which produce a fall or rise in lake levels are in doubt as to the effect of the opening of the drainage canal,’’ said Lyman E. Cooley. ‘‘ There is at present every assurance, based upon precipitation, barometric conditions and the flow at the other outlets, that the water level of Lake Michigan will be steadily rising with 300,000 cubic feet of water passing ~ through the drainage canal every minute. At the present time we reach our deductions on what I might call an academic basis, or from principles governing applied hydraulics. In other words, we observe the annual changes in lake levels produced by changes in precipitation, the exhaust from the watersheds of the Great Lakes, the wind and barometric conditions. ‘* We have learned what the flow of water is per minute through the St. Clair and Niagara rivers at various times. By way of simplifying the propositions we must regard the chain of lakes as one great body of water and Lake Michigan a name used only for geographical distinction. Investigations are going on under the direction of the United States Engineering Corps to determine the discharge through St. Clair river at Detroit, Niagara river and other points. In the investigations so far made the mean discharge of the St. Clair river was found to be 225,000 cubic feet a second, and the discharge at the Niagara river 265,000 cubic feet a second. ‘“Now, the law creating the sanitary district of Chicago requires that the ultimate flow into the drainage canal shall be 600,000 cubic feet per minute. The plans of the sanitary district anticipate such an ultimate flow. But for present purposes there will be 300,000 cubic feet of water flowing through the canala minute. The law requires that for every increase of I00,000 inhabitants within the district there shall be provided an additional flow of 30,000 cubic feet a minute in excess of the 300,000 cubic feet based upon a population of 1,500,000. The maximum of water cannot be sent through without extensive improvements by the general government to receive that amount of water in the Illinois and Michigan canal. ‘Ror the purpose of considering the extremists’ views we shall calculate the maximum amount of water of 600,000 cu- bic feet a minute is sent through the canal. The lakes, like streams, are subject to constant changesin levels, They rise and fall according to seasons, waterfalls, droughts, and snowfalls and precipitation. The range of these fluctuations is much greater on lakes because of the great water surfaces, allowing a greater effect from evaporation, wind, etc. What- ever effects the water supply of one lake affects also in a de- gree the supply of others. Calculating, therefore, upon the basis of a discharge of 225,000 cubic feet of water a second through the St. Clair river and 265,000 cubic feet through the Niagara river, the flow of 10,000 cubic of water a second or 600,000 cubic feet a minute through the Chicago drainage canal would produce the effect of diminishing the flow through the St. Clair river 44 per cent and through the Ni- agara river 33{ percent. In other words, the lake level is reduced between two and four inches. ‘‘The effect this decrease may have upon lake navigation or lake levels is insignificant; it is understood that the mean annual fluctuations between the high water of late spring and early summer and the low water of late autumn and win- ter for Lake Michigan amounts to 1.34, and variesin the other lakes over one to two feet. ‘The outflow of water lowering the level technically three or four or six inches would not be noticed by the navigator. When it is understood that the Detroit river has been deep- ened from 13 to 21 feet, the St. Clair flats from 9% to 16 feet and St. Mary’s river from 9%.to 16 feet, and that the Niagara has been cut down to 21 feet, the insignificance of taking 300,000 or twice that number of cubic feet of water a minute is readily appreciated. All these changes in outlet conditions necessarily affected lake levels. or NEW YORK CANALS. The New York State canal system during the current sea- son shows a marked increase in the total tonnage carried as compared with the statistics of the same period of 1898. The increase presages the seasbn to be one of the most suc- cessful in the State waterway traffic in a long period of years, If the increase in traffic continues until the close of naviga- tion the total amount will have reached about 4,000,000 tons, which figure has not been attained since 1892 and 1893, when the general prosperity attending the World’s Fair period was prevalent. The canal system has been in operation about three months, and during that period 1,406,811 tons have been carried in comparison with 1,107,617 during the same period of 1898, an increase of 298,194 tons. If this increase continues for the remaining four months of navigation its total will be about 600,000 tons. The total tonnage of the canals for 1898 was 3,360,063 and with an increase of 600,000 tons would make the total amount this year in the neighborhood of 4,000,000 tons. The canals opened on April 22 this year and on May 8 in 1898, so that there are actually two weeks more of navigation this year than last. From April 22 to May 1this year 63,113 tons were carried and from May 1 to May 8 about the same number of tons, but even with these advantages of the present season over that of 1898 there is an increase of over 170,000 tons. The increased traffic is due in the main to the betterment of the business conditions which has resulted in larger ship- ments from the West. A disagreement among some of the grain elevator operators at Buffalo and the exclusion of sey- eral from the pool is said to be another condition having an influence on the increase. The betterment has notin any way been the result of the canal improvement work. That can exert no influence until it is completed. Oe OE Seamen’s Wages—Rights of Assignees.—The assignee of a seaman’s claim for wages has no lien. The Clara A. Mc- Intyre, 94 Fed. Rep. (U. S.) 552.