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oul | MARINE REVIEW : 27 TO REVISE LAW RELATING TO MARINE BOILERS. The boiler manufacturers have determined to make a vigo- rous effort to secure the passage of a bill authorizing the creation of a cominission to revise the laws relating to the construction, installation and inspection of marine boilers. This bill was origi- nally drafted by the American Boiler Manufacturers' Association and was introduced in the last congress, but owing to the late- -ness of the session was not passed by either house, although fa- vorably reported by the senate committee on commerce. With a view to securing favorable action at the present session the subject was brought to the attention of the house committee on merchant marine and fisheries last week. Mr. E. D. Meier, presi- dent of the Heine Safety Boiler Co. of New York, and chairman of the American Boiler Manufacturers' Association, and William H. Fletcher of the W. & A. Fletcher Co. of Hoboken, N. J., ap- peared before the committee. Mr. Meier's statement was in part: "This legislation is earnestly desired by a great many boiler manufacturers, but many other classes would be benefited to a most important degree by its enactment. The legislation which bears on the subject of the inspection of vessels, and especially of boilers and steam machinery, is very antiquated. A great many of the laws were passed twenty-five and even thirty years ago, and they do not fit present conditions. Today we are carrying much higher: steam pressures on land as well as on water, and entirely new devices, new designs and new machinery are in use, so that the operation of these antiquated laws has become very irksome. These considerations bear chiefly on the construction of boilers and engines, and therefore the American Association of Boiler Manufacturers, which extends over.the whole United States and embraces some members in Canada, has taken this matter up. The manufacturers of steel plate for boilers and ves- sels, the builders of engines and ships the owners of ships and the insurance men are all vitally interested and are with us in this movement. After very careful consideration, which has now extended over a period of two years, we come before you to state our conviction that there is no way of properly adjusting this matter except by appointing a special commission to hear the views of all who are interested and to harmonize them in the form of a mutually satisfactory measure. There are at least seven definite interests that we could mention, all of which will be heard by the commission, and we do not hesitate to say that. the decision that might be reached by an exnert commission on any technical point will be satisfactory to all concerned. "The methods which prevail under the present law. are caus- ing greater hardship each year. The board of supervising in- spectors meet once a year in Washington. Any one who has felt the burden of some ill-considered rule can come before them, and if he can make a good demonstration of his point the inspec- tors will usually pass a rule for his relief. Now, some of the men who compose the board of supervising inspectors have knowledge of hulls, some are old steamboat captains, but generally very few of them are engineers or experts in boilers. The result is that it frequently happens that regulations adopted at the Janu- ary meeting of the board, while relieving certain interests, im- pose hardships on others, but after the meeting has adjourned there is no redress for a whole year, and the situation is therefore most unsatisfactory to all concerned. I have found the inspectors willing to take a reasonable view of all questions, but they are hampered by the law and by their system, and they have no au- thority to make such a comprehensive revision of the regulations as would be satisfactory to all interests, even if they possessed the necessary technical skill. "The laws and regulations governing the manufacture and inspection of boilers are of the most importance to American ves- sels engaged in the foreign trade, and if we are to have our flag on all seas, as we hope to have it, our methods of inspection must compare favorably with those of the great maritime nations; oth- erwise the owners of American vessels will find that they cannot secure charters in the leading ports of the world. We hope that this commission will include representatives of the commercial, manufacturing, maritime and military interests. The technical questions concerning the manufacture of plate, rivets, boilers, en- gines and the construction of ships should be understood in a tech- nical sense by one or more members of the commission, but it is of the highest importance that the navy and revenue marine ser- vice should be represented on the commission, for in case of a for- eign war we must look to the merchant marine for auxiliary cruis- ers and they must always be constructed and fitted out in such a manner that they can be used with little or no change, so that a naval officer going abroad will be accustomed to conditions. which he finds prevailing on these vessels, especially with reference to their motive power. "Aside from the beneficial effect of the work of an expert commission in revising these laws relating to marine boilers, an important advantage would accrue to steam users throughout the country. We already have ample evidence of this in the fact that since the rules for the manufacture. and inspection of boilers were first adopted in this country, forty years ago, the cities and towns along the navigable waters have adopted ordinances based on these rules and steam users in all parts of the country are to a very great extent controlled by local regulations based more or less upon the federal laws. If the government through an ex- pert commission would consider this subject carefully and frame an up-to-date statute, the whole country would quickly follow and the plans, specifications and regulations of the federal government would be in use everywhere. Pes "Some time ago there was a ruling in regard to steam pipes and steam connections, the rule being so drawn that the con- struction was actually larger than the boiler, and thus what was. intended to be an element of safety was an element of danger. Not long ago a first-class boiler manufacturer, whose name stands high in the trade, built a boiler in Buffalo, It was inspected and pronounced in every way up to the highest standard; but the local inspector in the Alaska district; who was far from being an expert, would not pass it. It frequently happens that a blue print is rejected in one district after having been accepted in an- other. Not long ago a boiler plate tested and stamped by the in- spector in the Pittsburgh district was sent down to Mobile for a boiler originally built in Pittsburgh, but the local inspector at Mo- bile would not accept it without a special test made in his own district. Of course with a harmonious set of laws on the subject such an incident could not occur." Mr. Fletcher followed Mr. Meier, indorsing what he said, and, referring to his own experience, declared that his firm fre- quently refused to build boilers according to specifications ap- proved by supervising inspectors, for the reason that such boilers would not be safe. He desired it understood that the blame in such a case should not attach to the inspector but to the law, which he felt obliged to follow in spite of his knowledge that it was not appropriate to modern conditions. 'The bill was ap- proved by the committee and Representative Grosvenor presented it to the house. : ROOT'S SECOND LETTER TO FRYE. Secretary Root of the war department has written a second letter to Senator Frye in opposition to his bill to limit the trade between the United States and the Philippines in so far as it concerns government supplies to American ships. It is the de- partment's contention that while they have been fairly successful in getting vessels from the Pacific coast at reasonable rates they have been totally unsuccessful in getting them from the At- lantic coast. The full text of Secretary Root's letter to the sen- ator is as follows: "I am sorry you were dissatisfied with my letter about the bill limiting the transportation of government stores to American vessels. I very much desire that the business should be done by American vessels, and I have been for several years trying in various ways to get from congress authority to prefer our own ships to foreign ships. It has seemed to me that the simplest and best way was to give our shipsa preference. Two years ago I tried to get authority to give them a preference of 10 per cent. and the bill was beaten in the house. I said in my letter to you that I would be in favor of increasing the percentage to 25 or 30 per cent. I would be perfectly willing to see you go farther than that and extend the limit of the preference to 50 or even 100 per cent., if necessary, but I do not think that there ought to be an abso- lute prohibition imposed upon the officers of the government when it is not imposed upon any of the rest of the business community. I have no objection to the business of the government being sub- jected, in common with the business of the citizens of the United States generally, to the operation of a general policy such as em- bodied in the navigation laws regarding our coastwise trade. Such laws, wisely, I think, make all American business. tributary to American shipping, and the result is, naturally and necessarily, to induce an adequate supply of shipping to do the business. But a statute which limits government freightage alone, separate and apart from the business of the community at large, to American shipping, under a hard and fast rule which prohibits to the. managers of the government business the same facilities and op- portunities which are afforded to the rest of the community, will not be adequate to attract American ships and lead them to en- gage in the business of which the government freight forms a small part. There is not enough government business to justify any stich expectations. The result of such a special provision would, therefore, naturally be either that the government must pay whatever the casual American vessel chooses to ask, or must operate its own transports on the Atlantic, at great loss, or must . ship all of its stores by way of the Pacific, imposing upon the ma- terial going from the Atlantic coast the very heavy railway charges across the continent. The result of such provisions, tying the hands of the government officers, is not merely to cause greater expense in specific cases, but it is to dishearten the officers and lead them to feel that it is useless to try to conduct business economically. While I think that the best way to accomplish what the American ship owners and ship builders desire, and what I desire equally with them and with you, is to authorize the preference, stated in terms of a percentage, I do not mean to say that this is the only way. I think you could accomplish substan- tially the same thing by the present bill by adding at the end of section 2 a clause something like the following: "'That any head of a department may suspend the opera- tion of section 1 in regard to any particular contract for the transportation of such articles whenever, after due public adver- tisement, no bids for the transportation of the articles specified therein, in a vessel of the United States, shall have been re- ceived at rates which shall be deemed to be reasonable, in view of the policy of the government to promote the employment of ves- sels of the United States for public purposes.' "Section 2 as it now stands apparently contemplates the gen- eral suspension of section 1, under circumstances of special ex- igency such as to justify appeal to the president for the protection of the: interests of the government. I should think it. would hardly justify going to the president in matters of detail, such as are constantly arising in letting contracts for transportation of comparatively small quantities of stores."