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

10 THE MARINE RECORD. May 16, Igor. - me Eee “ESTABLISHED 1878, Published Every Thursday by | THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Incorporated, C. fe RUSKIN, 6) 2hs.00¢) ‘ : Manager. CAPT. JOHN SWAINSON, - - cos Editors CLEVELAND, CHICAGO, Western Reserve Building. Royal Insurance Building. SUBSCRIPTION. One Copy, one year, postage paid, - - $2.00 One Copy, one year, to foreign countries, - e $3.00 Invariably in advance. ADVERTISING. Rates given on.application. All communications should be addressed to the Cleveland office, THE MARINE RECORD PUBLISHING CO., Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, O. Entered at Cleveland Postoffice as second-class mail matter. No attention is paid to anonymous communications, but the wishes of contributors as to the use of their names will be scrupulously regarded. CLEVELAND, O., MAY 16, 1901. How will the discovery of the North Pole affect the Mon- roe doctrine ? ———— i Se THE recorded speed of the world is that of the steam tur- bine propelled craft Viper, under the British flag. This vessel on her trial trip steamed at the rate of 43 miles per hour. tay i OS a A CANADIAN owned tug boat took the initiative in drown- ing women this season through the craft foundering. It is sad to record that a Duluth owned passenger steamer very early repeated the regretable experience. OO oO Oe ‘The thanks of the RECORD are due to Capt. D. D. Gail- lard, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., in charge of the conser- vancy and improvement of rivers and harbors at the head of the lakes, for blue print copies of commercial data relating to Duluth and Superior. OO Oe THE Pittsburg Steamship Co. (United States Steel Corpor- ation) owing a fleet of over one hundred vessels, more than half of which are steamers, came to an agreement with the lake engineers’ union on Monday. It is expected that the éntire fleet will be in service previous to June 1. Oo ao ea ANENT the wisdom of building the large wooden schooners now so much in evidence on the eastern coast, the word has traveled west to the lakes that one of the five or six stickers has been dividing up an 80 per cent. dividend after each pas- sage. This, if true, (and we learn it from a relative of one of the owners) is surely a hallelujah deposit for investors, : oO oo Ir ts quite possible that industrial data sent in confidence to the Bureau of Statistics may in some measure leak out so as to furnish information when the senders least desire. If there is any probability of such being the case the depart- ment chief could not do less than safeguard the business in- terests of citizens to the best of his ability. CERTAIN days ought to’ be specified and set aside each week during the winter months for examining candidates for licenses for pilots andengineers. The present unsettled and disorganized style at all ports where local inspectors are em- ployed, is to leave the dates optional and the candidate never knows on what day he can arrange a date to be examined as to his competency to hold a license in any grade. While the present dictatorial sort of policy may suit the wishes, will or whims of local inspectors, it is in all exceedingly an- noying to the candidate living at a distance from the local inspector’s office, especially when it happens, as in some ‘cases, that the inspector will not name any immediate date when he will examine a candidate. RIVER AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. As a general statement, it may be accepted that, the better the facilities offered to shipping at any harbor, the greater will be the prosperity of the port, and all that the sentence implies. Without a good, clear draft of water, towing, loading and discharging appliances, as well asa favorable labor element, an otherwise excellent location will be side- ‘tracked, or, having these facililies only to a meager extent, a present flourishing port will find itself forsaken as regards waterborne traffic, and we have an ample number of prece- dents to bear us out in this assertion, even on the lakes, but more markedly so in the older channels of trade. Without the most liberal expenditures and advanced modern equipment for the purposes outlined in the forego- ing, no port can be found to accommodate its full, fair and complete share of traffic, and this is true at the time imme- diate, not that the port was a good, safe one, offering every facility, etc., a decade ago, but it must be so today, and be regularly kept in advancement of its actual and even special necessities, ifit isto hold its place as an entrepot of the country’s commerce. While it is generally understood that the federal govern- ment makes appropriations for the conservancy and im- provement of the approaches to lake and coast ports in the interests of the entire citizenship of the country, there should be no vague, clouded impression relative to the onus resting with the municipality in the works which should be undertaken for the direct benefit of the local community. This condition may be stated more concisely in saying that a Kansas farmer may righteously be levied on to pay a frac- tional tax for the improvement which carries his produce to the consumer, but his funds cannot be intrenched upon to clean out the sewers of a large city, whether situated on the sea coast or the lakes. i ‘No maritime power can ever make a more judicious ex- penditure than that voted for the up-keep of her gates of commerce, and, it may be said, that we furnished buta sorry burlesque in the final handling of the late River and: Harbor Bill in the closing hours of the last Congress. There is a possibility that wrong features may be injected into the reconstructed measures to. be brought before the next Congress. Log-rolling has been the bete noire of the bill'at all times, undue and unjust: influences at work have sometimes been made apparent, nearly. always suspicioned, andin ‘a manner felt rather than exposed. This horrible condition of legislation it is now proposed to continue, as a committee of one ‘has visited all of the principal lake ports, urging commercial bodies to get together in making a grand raid upon the treasury. In -other-words, the plan is to patronize the various interests, so that one section will not feel that it is being neglected for, another, and thus with a clear understanding to send to Washington representatives of the influential commercial organizations when the next river and harbor appropriation bill is being considered, who will pull together and secure the passage of a bill. All of which embodies log-rolling, pure and simple. . Appropria- tions not to be asked for on their respective merits, but to the extent that one influence can bolster up another. This feature. we consider wrong in its inception, carrying the ear- marks of dishonesty in its methods, and abominably repre- hensible in its execution. It has been said that the whole system, as at present in operation, ought to be changed, and it has been suggested that there ought to be a permanent body of engineers to take charge of all the rivers and harbors of the United States, and to go over every part of the country and make elaborate sur- -veys and estimates of all river and harbor improvements. Such a body of engineers would not be, in the nature of things, subject to local influences, and its findings would; therefore, be undoubtedly impartial. This change in’ the system would largely take from the Representatives in Con: -gress the onus and responsibility of urging improvements for their special localities. This asa suggestion, is far beyond sending a’ No. 2 Coxey army to Washington loaded down with ‘‘inflooence,’’ national, state, local or of a lucrative nature. , a The much talked of sixty million dollar appropriation re- quired to carry out the provisions of the last river and har- bor bill, was, after all, less than half of the amount that the French Minister of Public Works asks for towards the im- provement of inland navigation in France, and yet only a moiety of the sixty million dollars was wanted for strictly inland navigation in the United States. In the entirety, voting a sutn for special improvements in river and harbor work, is.a problem to solve; and in simple justice to the country, it ought to be solved in the right way once for all. STEAM LIFEBOATS. ° Lying at her moorings inside the Rock light, at the mouth of the River Mersey, and ready fora summons to board anything showing signals of distress in Liverpool Bay, ig decked-over, double-ended, steam life-boat has been lying, for lot,hese many years, as a pronounced success in her line : of work. Perm clei iicocma gerne The form of her upper works resembles the well-known ~ whaleback models in miniature, minus the turrets, some- — what cigar-shaped, the forward turtle deck joining her bustle — amidships, thus completing afore and aft turtle-back, in-— dented here and there with dead-lights and ventilators. Such being an old story, we have marveled much at the score and one experiments and trials made regarding a simi- _ larly propelled craft, invented, if you please, at Marquette, Mich. Official expeditions brought forth long-winded re- ports touching upon the innovation as a kitten would play with a mouse and as though suspicious of destroying the © charm of a fad, or a hobby to ride, by either condemning or adopting for service use anything in the line of a life-saving labor killer. It is to be hoped that within the next few expeditionary official trial tests the sages of the life-saving service may be able to determine that it is possible for a self-righting, _ decked-over,naphtha launch to prope! herself through a mile ~ or two of surf without the aid of a tow line from a local tug of questionable seaworthiness, or, as the mileage will not be so great to the Pan-American lagoon asit is to the south shore of Lake Superior, the merits and demerits of the in- vention (?) can be amply demonstrated throughout the summer months in Mirror lake, Buffalo. Rowing a boat with oars is an ancient application of power and an ever-present, economical one, too, the addi- tion of a few cloths of canvas is a commendable substitute when occasion permits, anything further will apparentlly di- rectly lessen the appropriated funds financial, at the same time, a decked-over, self-righting and bailing craft pro- pelled otherwise than by oars or sails is by no means impos- sible of devising when required. OO oe orl SAILING RULES ON THE LAKES AND RIVERS. As regard the steering and sailing rules in force on the lakes, it is a question if the private promoters of these laws are not overstepping the bounds of prudence. There is, in the first place, the International ‘Rules of the Road,’ strictly observed by Canadians in their half, or the northern part of the lake centers, and now over-ridden by the new lake code (the White law) adopted by act of Congress for American traffic between Duluth and Montreal. Then again comes in the special laws ordered by the Secretary of the Treasury regulating the piloting and conduct of vessels as regards speed, meeting and passing vessels, etc., in the De- troit, St. Clair and St. Mary’s rivers, all of which are inter- national waterways, while the Treasury Department rules for their navigation are still unrecognized by the Canadian government. The present safety of navigation, or immunity from dan- gerous casualties, apparently rests in the fact that Canada, at the present time as in the past, owns but a moiety of the tonnage. engaged in traversing the lakes, so that the rules for sailing and steering, being observed by a large majority of the floating property, averts serious conflicts arising in carrying on the commerce of the lake as practiced, under- stood and legally enforced between the three sets of rules, or as it might be stated, the original or unchanged Canadian or international rules, the so called White law, recently en- acted by act of Congress for the guidance of American ves- sels, and the later code, duly authorized and in force, for the navigation or piloting of the rivers specified in the fore- going. Of course, each and every interest will at all times en- deavor to avoid trouble, by giving way, even to the total abandonment of all or any of the rules, to avoid immediate danger, at the same time, and as between Canadian and American traffic, the more uniform the rules for steering and sailing are made, especially in international waterways, the greater degree of safety will undoubtedly prevail. , We believe that we are not alone in our opinion in stating that any more additional rules and regulations should not be > forced upon those who are responsible for the safe conduct of vessels engaged in the inter-lake trade. Moreover, while nothing can be urged again8t the adoption of any special rules thought necessary in traversing: Canadian or American canals, or the usual harbor laws and local regulations enact- ed. by a municipal government, the laws governing the con- duct of vessels in open waters should be made as uniform as possible.