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ESTABLISHED 1878. Z A é VOL. XXII, No. 6. CLEVELAND---FEBRUARY 8, 1900---CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. 5c. Single Copy LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. To consider and take action upon all general 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. riers, and improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. W. C. FARRINGTON, Buffalo. 1ST VICE-PRESIDENT. Cart. J. G. KEITH, Chicago, SECRETARY. CHARLES H. KEEP, Buffalo. TREASURER. GEORGE P. McKay, Cleveland. COUNSEL. HARVEY D. GoULDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANSE COMMITTEE. ‘ JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. COMMITTEE. ON LEGISLATION. Gisson L. DouGLAs, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION. President J. J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway ad- dregsed the Grain Growers’ Convention, at Fargo, on Fri- _ day, the 26th ult, on the subject of creating new markets for our wheat. Mr. Hill is always an original thinker, and cer- tainly this address opens up a subject that is of the very greatest interest to the Northwest, and that is the enhance- ment of the selling price of wheat, not by artificial means, but a stable and permanent advance. The substance of his remarks along this line were, that it is simply a question of furnishing the transportation at a reasonable price, and we take it that he means that the de- mand will keep ahead of any possible increase of shipping facilities. Incidentally he throws a new light on the ship subsidy bill at Washington. Without a doubt the country as a whole be- ’ lieves that the subsidy bill is designed to help American shipping in general, but Mr. Hill shows how very easy it will be for a score or less of Atlantic greyhounds to absorb — the entire annual appropriation of $9,000,000. contemplated by the bill. Quoting from his remarks on this subject it seems that there is another condition in this bill. They give for ships of fourteen knots speed a bonus on the measurement out and back, a bonus of one cent a ton for each 100 miles. For ships of twenty-one knots they give 23 cents. It is a well established fact the world over that the cheapest carriers are the low speed vessels. Take the Lucania and the Campania, with engines of 30,090 horse-power and a speed of twenty- one knots. Horse-power of 7,500 would drive them fourteen knots—one fourth of the power and two-thirds the speed. It is the last knot that costs the money. A ship with a speed of twenty-one knots, while her measured capacity may be 15,000 tons} couldn’t possibly carry 3,500 tons of your agri- cultural products. And still under that bill she would get an average bonus out and back of about $1,000 a day. Now, if the bonus was paid on outgoing commodities, pro- ducts raised in our country, certified out under a customs certificate and certified into a foreign country under a con- sular certificate, we could afford to pay for what had found a new market. It is unfair to pay for a tonnage we could not use. If this bill passes—and it may be made the business of a party to pass it—I hope not—it will prove the worst delusion and snare ever offered. The money can all be absorbed by The next time I ask _ fifteen or twenty Atlantic greyhounds. you to consider the extension of your markets by providing means to carry your products to market—and I expect to keep at it until something is accomplished—you will say that it has been tried and failed. It will not be tried under the present bill. It will pay on the measurement of the ship. The ship may never carry a pound of your product and yet draw a bonus for its full measured capacity. Of course there still remains in this country a large ele- . ment that cannot get over the fact that because a railroad president is advocating this subject it must be from selfish interests, and consequently none of theirs. Happily, the thought of the country is expanding, and this question of the wheat price is one deserving, in fact demanding, the very best efforts of everyone living in the Mississippi Valley, the merchant as well as the wheat farmer. oe TO IMPROVE THE ERIE CANAL. Gov. Roosevelt, of New York, recommends the expendi- ture of $60,000,000 in improving and enlarging the Erie canal, so as to make it navigable for barges of 1,000 tons. The New York Commerce Commission estimates that if this is done freight can be transported upon the canal for about one-third the cost by rail. It is proposed that New York City, the chief beneficiary, shall pay two-thirds of the cost. Gen. Francis V. Greene, Chairman of the State Committee on Canals, speaking at the New York Board of. Trade banquet, said: ‘‘Since the canals have been in such a con- dition that they could not carry goods at much less than railroad rates ‘the State has begun to lose its commercial supremacy and is steadily losing it. If so, then it is evident that New York’s commercial supremacy is dependent upon a cheap water route to the west. The State, through the canals, should dictate the rates for transportation and not be a supplicant for the favor of any railroad. With freight rates from Buffalo to New York of 50 to 70 cents a ton on different classes of goods as compared with $1.15 to $6 per ton, now prevailing on the railroads, the enlarged canal will carry at least 20,000,000 tons of freight of all classes and at a saving of fully $18,000,000 per annum. iol JAPANESE SHIPBUILDING. A Japanese shipbuilding firm has just turned out a 12,000- ton steel, twin-screw steamer, the Awa Maru, which, accord-| ing to the United S:ates Consul Harris, at Nagasaki who reports the fact to the state department, is equal in every respect, including cabin accomodations, to the best class of Atlantic steamships. Material has been ordered for two other steamers of the same kind for the same line, and two are under construction for another line. The shipbuilding industry in Japan appears to be flourishing, with every like- lihood of it continuing so. d OO OOS THE SHIPPING BILL ENDORSED. The New York Chamber of Commerce, after a sharp debate, resolved: “That this chamber, after consideration of the subject, do heartily approve the objects sought to be accomplished by bill H. R. 64 (the Hanna Payne ship subsidy bill.)”’ The opponents of the measure were very bitter, but were defeated by a substantial majority. — DO SOO OS - AN INTERNATIONAL MARINE CONFERENCE. There is a bill before the U. S. Senate appropriating the sum of $25,000 to be expended under the direction of the President, with a view of having the ninth annual of the International Congress of Navigation which will be held in 1goI, convened at Washington, D.C. This year’s conven- tion will be held in Paris. _the currents of Arctic waters north of Bering Strait. CASKS TO ASCERTAIN ARCTIC GURRENT DRIFTS. ea The Geographical Society of Philadelphia expects to con- tinue this year the work of setting wooden casks adrift on the ice north of this continent to demonstrate, if possible, The project was suggested by Admiral Melville, Chief Engineer, U.S. N., and this society began to carry it out last year. Mr. Henry G. Bryant, president of the society, has a paper in its Bulletin telling of the preliminary work, ville’s idea that if oaken casks were set afloat on the ice in the waters north of Alaska they would come out in the — course of four or five years somewhere between Spitzbergen and Greenland and thus demonstrate the correctness of the - theory of the north-east drift of those waters, already for- ” tified by the experience of the Jeannette and Fram expedi- tions. The society had a considerable number of heavy oaken casks made, in each of which a bottle w4s placed containing a blank form on which the finder is to record the date and locality where the cask is recovered and return the paper to Philadelphia. The casks were to be placed on heavy floeice, forif launchedin the open sea they would be too much at the mercy of winds aud waves, while if de- posited on heavy ice they would probably be carried on the more correct drift. Neither were they'to be placed on the — ice adjacent to the Point Barrow district in Alaska, where purely local currents, running east and west, exist. — Last summer the United States revenue cutter Bear carried 20 casks north and others were distributed among the steam whaling companies, having vessels in that region. Most of the casks, it was expected, would be put adrift during August and September last. The intention to repeat the experiment on the same scale this year will, itis thought, enhance the probability of definite results. Rear Admiral Melville firmly believes that the’ fugitive casks well justify the hopes with which the society has undertaken this ex- periment. ‘‘Thereis no doubt,’’ he says, ‘‘that the casks will come out somewhere. Siberian driftwood has been found ou the north-eastern shores of Bennett Island, on the northeast point of Novaia Zemlia, on the east coast of Franz Josef Land, on the east shore of Spitzbergen and _ possibly in the drift on the east side of Greenland. A strong current is known to exist at certain seasons of the year to the south- ward and westward between the northern end of Novaia Zemlia and the southern side.of Franz Josef Land and be- tween the southern side of Spitzbergen and Bear Island— dropping the stones from the polar pack which form the shoal of 300 fathoms between the above islands. We may look for the casks on.any of these shores or in the above mentioned drifts, and also for the possibility of demonstrating a drift to the eastward or the northward and eastward, and finally coming out by the way of Smith Sound, Kennedy Channel and Baffin Bay, as well as by the slow drift through the North American archipelago to the coast of Labrador. —_—<—$—$<—<$—$— <<< eae er A LIFE-RAFT CRUISER. H. Wrench Nash has patented in London what is known as the Victoria life-saving apparatus. It consists of a col- lapsible canvas-covered cylinder, 7 feet long, which may be expanded by means of screws working:on the bamboo rods at the side. At either end is an air-tight metal compartment, which serves to keep the apparatus afloat. In the center is a water-tight compartment of Indiarubber. Obviously, there is scarcely a possibility of the craftswamping in the event of a storm or heavy weather, Paddles are fastened to the cylinder and may be detached for use. Concentrated foods of all kinds, fresh water and spirits may be stored away in safety in the water-tight compart- ments inserted in the metal ends. It was Mel- |