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ATOR SG OI Ce PAA ob re Cn RN IW Cone dpm oath Obl ia SE Pe ew co etd a RO TY OL VOL. XXV, No. 25. OO eet mn ef ESTABLISHED 1878. CLEVELAND-- JUNE 19, 1902 -- CHICAGO. $2.00 Per Year. Single. Copy ioc. LAKE CARRIERS’ ASSOCIATION. WATER COMPETITION AS AFFECTING WHEAT Yo: consider and take action upon all general questions relating to the navigation and carrying business of the Great Lakes, maintain necessary shipping offices and in general to protect the common interests of Lake Car-, riers, and to improve the character of the service rendered to the public. PRESIDENT. Wo. LIVINGSTONE, Detroit. IST VICE-PRESIDENT.. J. C. GixcuRIsT, Cleveland. : SECRETARY. Harvey L. Brown, te Buffalo. Rie TREASURER. ‘5 GEORGE P. McKay, : Cleveland. COUNSEL. Harvey D. GoULDER, Cleveland. EXECUTIVE AND FINANCE COMMITTEE. JAMES CORRIGAN, Chairman, Cleveland. st) COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION. Gisson -L. DouGLas, Chairman, Buffalo. COMMITTEE ON AIDS TO NAVIGATION. GEORGE P. McKay, Chairman, Cleveland. MEAN LAKE LEVELS. The gauge records of the United States Lake Survey show the following mean stages of water for May, above mean sea level: Lake Superior, 601.78 feet; Lakes Hu- ron and Michigan, 579.71 feet; and Lake Erie, 571.95 feet. These stages show Lake Superior to have been 0.17 foot lower than during same month last year, and 0.04 foot lower than in May, 1895; Lakes Huron and Michigan were 0.70 foot lower than during same month last year, and at same elevation that they were in May, 1895; Lake Erie was 0.55 foot higher than during same, month last year, and 0.38 foot higher than during May, 1895. ———$—$—$— $a THE HARTER ACT. The attention cf the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion has been called to a defect in the statute known as the Harter Act (27 Stat. I., 445), which is designed to prohibit the insertion .in bills of lading ‘of clauses exempt- ing ocean carriers from liability for loss or damage due to “negligence, fault, or failure in proper loading, stow- age, custody, care, or proper delivery’ of property car- ried between the United States and foreign ports, The act contains in section 3 an exception that neither the vessel nor its owner shall be held responsible for damage or loss resulting from “faults or errors in navigation or in the management of said vessel,” if due diligence has been used to make the vessel seaworthy and properly manned, equipped and supplied. Faults or errors in nav- igation may be covered usually by insurance, but. negli- gence due to mismanagement of the vessel while in port, which results in-damage to the cargo, is not understood to be a subject of insurance, and the shippers have now no protection against losses from that cause under such ex- ception as to errors.of management in section 3 of the Harter Act. This exception was construed by an Eng- lish court in 1895 in the case of The Glenochil, where it was held that such exception is not confined to the man- agement of the vessel during navigation, but that it also covers the time while the cargo remains on board’ the “-wessel-in port and undelivered. The result is that_ the “vety purpose of the act—to prevent the carriers from exempting themselves from their common law liability— is défeated when damage to cargo occurs through negli- “gent management while the vessel is not being navigated. The Commission understands that it has’ no duties to perform under this act, but as questions somewhat simi- lar also arise under the act to regulate commerce and as both statutes apply to interstate or international com- _merce, it is believed that the defect in the Harter Act resulting from operation of the exception in section 3, as to “management,’ may properly be brought to the notice of Congress, and this has been done in the fifteenth annual report. AND FLOUR RATES. Carriers put forward as a reason for these lower rates on wheat from Chicago to the seaboard the peculiar con- ditions as to water competition which surround these two commodities. The cost of carrying wheat by water from Chicago to Buffalo during the past season has averaged about 1% cents per bushel, and the rate from Buffalo to New York has been about 3% cents per bushel, making a total rate by lake and rail of 5 cents per bushel, or about 8 cents per hundred. Upon this rate the grain is received in the ship’s hold at Chicago and delivered at the ship’s side in New York harbor. ‘The published export rate during most of the past summer has been 13% cents from Chicago to New York. Ordinarily it is not a matter of much consequence whether wheat moves between these two points by water or by rail, and plainly it cannot move to any extent by rail when that rate is 5 cents higher than the water rate. Flour is also shipped by water from Chicago and cor- responding points to the seaboard, but the conditions un- der which it moves are somewhat less favorable to the obtaining of a low rate than those which prevail in case of wheat. Wheat is largely carried by so-called tramp vessels, which take cargoes of grain from some point upon the Great Lakes, like Chicago or Duluth to Buffalo, and carry cargoes of coal in the opposite direction. Flour is not transported by these tramp steamers, since they are not rigged for that service, but is taken altogether by what are known as “line boats;” that is, boats carrying package freight between Buffalo and other lake ports. These vessels also carry grain when they cannot obtain more desirable lading. It results that the actual expense of transporting flour from Chicago to New York by water is greater than the expense of transporting wheat, and that the rates in force for such water transportation are actually consider- ably higher upon flour than upon wheat. If the rail car- rier obtains this business, it must meet, or nearly meet, the water rate; in other words, it can obtain a_ better rate upon flour than upon grain. ‘That this is not an im- aginary condition appears from the fact that during the months of June, July, August and September, 1901, 17,- 595,277 bushels of wheat left Chicago by water as against 2,392,019 bushels by rail. «It was also said that during the season of navigation the bulk of the flour at or passing through Chicago and other lake ports was transported by water. The tramp boats above referred to as carrying the bulk of the wheat are in no way controlled by rail carriers. The line beats are, as a rule, directly or indirectly operated in connection with lines of railway, and the flour rates are made by agreement between these different lines in the same way that rail rates are, being, therefore, to an extent in the control of rail carriers. ‘The lines of railway lead- ing from Buffalo to New York make a very low rate upon ex-lake wheat and do not make a correspondingly low rate upon ex-lake flour. ‘To an extent, therefore, rail carriers are responsible for these higher lake-and-rail rates upon flour, but after all has been said, it is evident that in this water competition inheres’a condition which during a considerable portion of the year, if given its natural result, must secure to wheat a somewhat better rate than to the manufactured product. ‘This. applies to all wheat which is in any sense tributary to the Great Jakes, and that is the bulk of the wheat raised in this country. OOOO OS Mr. C. H. Exrts, manager of the New Orleans Uivision of the United Fruit Co., says: “We are successfully using oil as fuel on our steamship Breakwater, »which has made four trips to Central America, and we contemplate converting several more of our steamers during the months of July and August, or as soon as we can spare them from the service. Our experience has been that our saving in the cost of this fuel as compared to ccal, including the amount saved in dispensing with firemen, will reach about 50 per cent. We are burning about four barrels of oil to one ton of coal, and the cost of cur oil, delivered ‘at steamer’s tanks, is 50° cents per barrel. We expect to reduce this quantity by further experiments, and will acquire sufficient knowledge before converting our other steamers to make even a greater saving than we are at present.” THE SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY. A Butierin dealing with the shipbuilding industry in the United States, issued by the Census Bureau, shows that the number of establishments engaged in the building and repairing of vessels, boats, etc., increased from 953 in 1850 to 1,116 in 1900; or 17.1 pér cent., while the cap- ital invested increased from $5,373,139 to $77.362,701, or 1,339.8 per cent. During the same period the ‘average number of wage-earners increased from 12,976 to 46,781. The total value of constructions and repairs increased from $16,937,525 to $74,578,158. Of the latter sum a large part renresents work done for the Navy and War Depart- ments. It appears that during the year ending June 30, 1900, the sum of $8,554,862 was disbursed in the Navy Department to private shipbuilding establishments for construction and repairs, and the sum of $5,493,556 in the War Department, the total being $14,048,438, or 18.8 per cent. of the total value of products reported by private shipyards for the census year. Of the amount disbursed in the War Department $1,201,581 was for “fitting up char- tered transports,” the remainder being expended “for re- fitting and repairs of vessels owned by the War Depart- ment.” a eS ae ; GRAIN RATE TO NEW ORLEANS. _ “The American Elevator and Grain Trade” Chicago, has the following to say anent the Mississippi grain trade to New Orleans: “The whaleback barge grain route to New Orleans from St. Louis, seems to have been a failure, in spite of its bright outlook a season or more ago. At any rate, the telegraph says. that on June 9 the St. Louis Steel Barge Co. closed a deal by which it will convert its steel whaleback grain barges A and B into carriers for crude Texas oil. ‘They will have a capacity of 15,000 gallons each, and will be operated between Beaument, ‘Texas, and lower Mississippi river and Gulf ports. In the light of this failure, with apparently every condition favorable to the river grain route, how very like sophomore hifalutin sounds the statement of the St. Pau! Pioneer-Press, that if the expenditure of $20,000,000 would deepen the chan- nel so that grain barges drawing ten feet of water might make the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans, it would be the most profitable investment ever made by the gov- ernment; that such an improvement of the river would make it possible to ship grain down the river for two and one-half cents per bushel, and by building ‘up the Gulf route furnish a competing route to the sea that would make the toll gathering cities of Chicago and’ New York get down on their knees and beg for business. Now these cities dictate the freight rates, the ‘tolls and everything else, but with the improvement of the river it would be the shippers in the great west who would dictate the terms.’ It must be as annoying to the cabinet transportation theorists that their fine spun theories so persistently work out wrong, as it is discouraging to the friends of. the river as a competing line and arbiter of rates.” oo oo or SPANISH WAR. MEDALS. Tur Navy Deparrment has completed its compilation of the names of the officers and men who are to be decor- ated with the West Indian campaign medal. The list totals, in round numbers, 800 officers and about 6,000 en- listed men. Of this number the engagement at Santiago Bay, in which the greatest number of vessels took part, makes up the largest proportion. Admiral Schley and all the fleet officers and men will get medals, and the family of Admiral Sampson will be given the one in- tended for the deceased Admiral. A great many of these officers and men will: have bars attached to their medals to show that they were also at Manzanillo, Nipe Bay, or other points: selected by the board of awards as. those at which an engagement worthy cf a médal was fought. The meritorious service medal will go-to persons who rendered exceptional service, like Blue, Ward, Hobson and Wainwright. ‘The list of persons to whom this medal will be given is still under consideration by the board of awards.