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1901.) MARINE REVIEW. 23 tions forcibly present the question: Can ae any policy be more unwise and wasteful than to dredge a navigable channel in the Potomac river at great cost and at the same time formulate plans to obstruct the center and best part of this dredged chan- nel by large swing bridges, piers and pro- tections? Would this not clearly be a vio- lation of a great trust? = o 27 os > < 3901ua avoutiva THE QUESTION OF DELAY IN PORT. Buffalo, Dec. 11.--Spite of the many other difficulties that beset the lake trade in these rushing business times it seems to be agreed that the most perplexing problem of them all is the constant slowing F up of the ports in the matter of handling. This of course means a continuation of the lake fleet as a necessary part of the carry- ing trade, but unless something is done there must be smaller profits or higher freights, possibly considerable of both. SWING BRIDGES. OPENED. Uy S:. S. LENG Said a fleet manager to me a few days ago: "We are going to demand at least a dol- ee eT ee. re, eee, sree er SX \ N lar on ore for next season. We must have RHR OV | Hk M ee NG BRIDGE OPEN. \ it to make money out of the business. You I a \ \ have no idea of the way our boats are x ' be 'hung up' in port these days. I have been i : : / figuring on season's earnings lately and I , ' Feu ae have found that we have made less out of _ POTOMAC RIVER c 80-cent ore this season than we did along Re oe oN . : : back when we had to take 60 cents. The ~ a. & reason is that we have to lie in port so Tete . os long. We manage to make about an even two trips a month with our tows, but just about half that time is spent in port. It is awfully expensive to do business in that way." The fact'is that the volume of the lake trade is so great that the port facilities have been left behind. Handlers say that the difficulty is not so much on account of scant stationary handling apparatus as it is storage room and cars, both of which are not only inadequate but fast becoming more so. It will be seen from this that ' there is no possibility of relief through all- rail service, for to carry everything all the way in cars would make them scarcer than they are. It appears to have been the Pennsylvania system that was worst handi- capped the present season. Other roads were more or less blocked, but the Penn- sylvania was demoralized. The spectacle of package-freight liners tying up in Octo- ber for want of anywhere to unload is something very distressing. Only the Bal- timore & Ohio connection at Fairport was equal to the demand for cars, and the bulk of business there was of course too small \ Meteee EY to afford much general relief. Buffalo did much better than Erie with flour, but was not able to come up to re- quirement, as one railroad after another ran short of cars. This port is still at its best in the line of mere handling, though, and can take out a cargo, whether of grain - or flour, as speedily as ever, and the coal is loaded with all the usual despatch. There has not been much waiting here with ore cargoes, as this port is steadily increasing its facilities in that line. It is a trifle dis- tressing, ,however, to see the big grain cargoes drop inside the outer breakwater and come to anchor these later days, for want of even a stopping place inside, but that is now a minor matter, for the fleet is here to stay, anyhow. They say that some of the car and loco- motive builders could work at full capacity for two years on present orders. With every prospect of a full year in every line of business before us, and with no expecta- tion of a strike in steel to afford other in- dustries relief, expensive as it may be to business generally, the outlook is not re- assuring. Excessive prosperity is making us lopsided. But for that strike last sum- mer there would have been trouble much ah. sooner than there was. This fast-growing aoe eka tue Spee S oceh an d Fig. 2, upper view.--Shows how middle of dredged channel of the Potomac river would be obstructed if two adjacent 'center- ; pier swing bridges were built. : not likely to be any better so. long as the . = . a labor unions are in control. It is decidedly Fig. 8, lower view.--Shows clear unobstructed channel and the ease of navigating the largest merchant or naval vessels ta the advantage of the men What there is 'i through two adjacent bascule or vertically-moving bridges. ' f a much more perplexing problem to deal N N N N N N \ N m_«dU MMM "3901Ng asaiug "3901ug LL POTOMAC ' RIVER. "350lug AYMHSIH 2 a= Sm ™O > o with. The slow handling will make it necessary to increase the shore didn't sleep any more than he had to till they were loaded again and on operating force very materially. Here is an instance of what an inter- | their way down. In this way they all returned inside of insurance limits. ested hustler can do in that line. A Buffalo lumber firm had two tows to | Without the extra aid they would have failed. Still hustling will, not load at Menominee late last month. One tow took coal up for Chicago conquer impossibilities. What is to be done about it? and the other for Racine. A member of the firm followed them and JOHN CHAMBERLIN.