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10 MARINE REVIHW. DEVOTED TO THE LAKE MARINE AND KINDRED INTERESTS. Chicago Office, Western Union Building, 110 LaSalle Street. Published every Thursday at No. 516 Perry-Payne Building, Cleveland, O. SUBSCRIPTION--$2.00 per year in advance. Convenient binders sent, post paid, 75 cents. Advertising rates on application. The books of the United States treasury department contain the names of 3,600 vessels, measuring 1,154,870.38 tons 1n the lake trade. In classification of this fleet the lakes have more steamboats of 1,000 to 2,500 tons than the combined ownership of this class of vessels in all other sections of the country. The number of vessels of 1,000 to 2,500 tons on the lakes on June 30, 1891, was 310 and their aggregate gross Loe ey Ona 787.58; in all other parts of the country the number of this class 0 is sels was, on the same date, 213 and their gross tonnage 319,750.84. e classification of the entire lake fleet is as follows: Class. Number. Tonnage. Steamieessel Sire ceen setectce ses snasevieem cst tn 1,592 756)751-53 Sailing: vessels......é.scscscecee csneeeseesnreoeeees 1,243 325,131.0 Gamaleloaatceeas errr eet ceed acceboscccelner sles 703, 72,515 42 BAL BOS..0:0sccceescrcersencersgecesseercsscnesorscsseene 62 20,472.37 MNGi ar oreo Sete cs no dk wala Giclo nC ot otic 3,600 1,154,870.38 Tonnage built on the lakes during the past five years, according to the reports of the United States commissioner of navigation, 1s as follows: No. of boats. Net Tonnage. MG Oi eraee eet n nate erences te ene cant atasict nia 152 56,488.32 TS SNe eects ceate chee semidcieticaiesesacie 222 IOI, 102.87 NOOO rien slates tale vaderesaeincescace mene 225 107,080.30 MO QOP ever at cht ster rose assis ats lesinfice on nies c10 = 218 108,515.00 MOO ee eee tosecniec tsartsseiaesreeene sr acmics: 204 111,856.45 eR Obaleeatsctecdenciate as acccosiSsoes 1,021 485,042.94 St. Mary's Falls and Suez canal traffic: Number of boats through St. Mary's Falls canal in 1890, 228 days of navigation, 10,557; tonnage, net registered, 8,454,435. Number of boats through Suez canal during 1890, full year, 3,389; tonnage, net registered, 6,890,014. -- Number of boats through St. Mary's Falls canal in 1891, 225 days of navigation, 10,191; ton- nage, net registered, 8,400,685. Number of boats through Suez canal dur- ing 1891, full year, 4,207; tonnage, net registered, 8,698,777. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. THE waterways convention held last week at Washington, will not accomplish the end for which it was called. This is evidently the conclusion of even the most ardent supporters of the project for a canal through American territory from the lakes to the seaboard, and now that it is clearly evident that an appro- priation can. not be secured from the present congress for the proposed survey, it may as well be said that some bad mistakes were made in connection with the Washington gathering. Secre- tary Thompson and the members of the Duluth Chamber of Commerce, who called the convention, acted very hastily and without a full understanding with the active managers of lake business. In the first place it was certain, as the REvIEW has repeatedly stated, that most ofthe best friends of this project on the lakes were of the opinion that there was great danger of failure in a convention at this time, especially on account of the present congress, as well as the incoming administration, being pledged to retrenchment. On the other hand the Duluth ad- vocates of the convention, who can hardly be blamed for their anxiety, understood the delay that would follow the appointment of a commission of engineers to take up a survey if an appropria- tion for that purpose could be secured, and they were unduly hasty in bringing about the meeting. Furthermore, the date of the meeting as fixed at Duluth, conflicted with the annual meeting of the Lake Carriers' Association, a body representative of all active lake shipping interests, and the members of the asso- ciation could not go to Washington. As a result the convention was not fully representative of the lakes, and its demands upon the Democratic committee on rules for a hearing in the house met with the strongest kind of opposition on account of the effort being made by certain influential congressmen on the side of the party in power to even cut down appropriations on river and harbor work already authorized. 'Thus the effort to secure a survey for the canal has failed for the present. It is not a dead issue, however, as the railway managers and citizens of Buffalo, who ridicule it as a ship-canal dream, will find before many more ee ennai seasons of growing commerce on the lakes have passed. Canada is still far from being in possession of a 14-foot waterway from Lake Superior to the seaboard, and admitting that the Dominion canals were completed they wouid detract little from American lake commerce, as sucha draft and proportionate size of locks are entirely inadequate. 'The great American lake ship canal is not dead. It is simply awaiting further demonstration of the great usefulness of the lakes as highways of commerce for the entire nation. NEWSPAPERS in New York and on the Pacific coast, and even a few publications in lake cities, are claiming that a recent decision of Judge Brown of Chicago, in the case of the Seamen's Union against Capt. William H. Landgraf of the schooner Ida Keith, reverses previous rulings of the treasury department and is in conflict with the understanding of lake vessel owners and masters regarding their rights under the alien contract labor law. This isnot true. On the contrary, Judge Brown's decision sup- ports all previous rulings regarding the operation of this law on the lakes. Last June, Capt. Landgraf sailed to Port Huron with six men aboard. At that place he discharged two of his crew and then sailed across the river to Sarnia, a Canadian port. There he discharged the rest of them because the mén refused to put out short handed. In their places he shipped alien sailors. _ Judge Brown held, and so instructed the jury, that congress did not intend, in the contract labor law, to prohibit the employment of alien sailors for service on American vessels plying the great lakes. He also overruled the contention of the prosecution that the master of the Ida Keith was not properly engaged in inter- national commerce. It is of course understood that alien officers can not be employed on American vessels and that alien sailors can not be brought to American ports under contract for their Services. : IN AWARDING the contracts for the battle ship Iowa and ar- mored cruiser Brooklyn to the William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Company of Philadelphia, Secretary Tracy did that which was plainly his duty under the law. The bids of the Cramps on both vessels were very much below those of the Union Iron Works of San Francisco and on this account there was no other course for the secretary to pursue, as the two con- cerns are equally responsible. Everybody interested in ship building in this country would undoubtedly be highly pleased to see the contract for one of these ships sublet to the Union Iron Works. It was the serious questions involved and not a dispo- sition unfavorable to the Pacific coast works that caused public sentiment to lean towards the lowest bidders. ONE of the best indications that this country will soon assert itself in the building of steel vessels is the wonderful reduction in prices during the past few years on merchant vessels as well as vessels of war. This reduction in the general cost of ships has been brought about mainly by low prices for ship building material, although it is, of course, due in part to other causes. In the building of naval vessels, where superior quality of material is required, the reduced cost is especially remarkable. Secretary Tracy reports that the prices at which the Cramps are to build the battle-ship Iowa and armored cruiser Brooklyn are 10 to 12 per cent. lower than the cost of any ship heretofore built for the new navy. Ir is understood that on each pay day at the works of the American Steel Barge Company, West Superior, the pay roll is presented to the big land company operating in that place, and a check is given to Capt. McDougall for ro per cent. of the whole amount. 'This seems like a very large bonus to contribute to any enterprise, but the employment of 800 to 1000 men in a single works is an important factor in the advancement of the place, and such enterprise is certainly not beyond the undertak- ings of either of the progressive cities at the head of the lakes,