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TAE MarRINE. REVIEW 15 in several ship building businesses of late years, is repeated in the reported interchange of capital between the Fair- field Shipbuilding Company, Limited, and Messrs. Cam- mell, Laird & Co., Limited. Another important change is the removal, in the near future, of Messrs. Yarrow & Co.'s ship building and engineering works from the Thames to some outport, through the high cost of labor by trades union tactics, thus producing in London more unem- ployed, as in past years similar procedure drove away the large ship building trade of the Thames, which employed the class now in distress. Our American friends: appear to be still agitating for some artificial support to their shipping, and have under consideration a stbsidy bill, providing benefits for every- body but the honest broker, but it seems scarcely probable that American investors will put further capital into ship- ping, after the unfortunate experience shown by the last report of the American Steamship Combine. The French are considering a new maritime bounty bill, the last law, passed in 1902 for ten years, which created a certain grant, having been exhausted in two years. The French Compagnie Generale Transatlantique are largely extend- ing their operations and showing great enterprise in re- modeling their fleet. Much dissatisfaction exists among ship owners at the rates charged by the Suez Canal Company and the arbi- -- trary rules in measurement of steamers. It is an inter- national question that deserves attention, whether such a highway, having repaid its cost with liberal interest, should continue to be a joint stock 25 per cent profit- ~ earning enterprise, or follow the rule with all highways and become free of toll, subject to provision for expenses of up-keep. The canal was closed for ten days in Sep- tember, in consequence of the sinking of the steamer Chatham, loaded with explosives, which had to be destroyed, causing much loss to ship owners by detention of their steamers. Competition amongst regular lines appears to increase. The lines running to America have, notwithstanding the bad experience of the previous year, had further disagree- ments. The British lines to India have been opposed by a German company, causing rates to be reduced to nomi- nal figures. The two largest German companies engaged in many different trades have been at variance, evidently encroaching on one another's preserves, but it is re- ported have wisely settled their differences. The outward trade of the lines to Brazils, River Plate, India, and the far east, has been very large, but to South Africa and Australia has not provided sufficient car- go for the large tonnage engaged in these trades; indeed, it appears that in these and the frozen meat trades the tonnage considerably exceeds the requirements of' ship- pers. A new trade has arisen in the opening of the Rus- sian coasting trade to foreign tonnage, this having been formerly restricted to Russian ships. Several cargoes have been shipped in British and other steamers, south- ern Russia to Baltic. It may be temporary, but it is to be hoped Russia will realize the advantage of such free trade, and that other countries, America and France, will do likewise, following the example of Great Britain, which has always left her coasting trade open to the ships of all countries. Whatever opinions may predominate on the fiscal ques- tion, it is to be hoped that the new Parliament will remedy the present unreasonable law of taxing our own exports by the duty on coal, which is neither free trade nor pro- tection, but a restriction of trade, which has been proved by the tax of one shilling per ton losing several contracts to our collieries, and consequent employment to steamers. The most important business in chartering was the large number of steamers chartered for the conveyance of coal for the use of the Russian fleet, when in the east, which must have proved very profitable business, with the large amount of demurrage earned by detention of steamers attending the fleet. This business was all un- dertaken by foreign steamers. An exceptionally large number of our steamers have been placed on time charter for regular British and foreign lines, as well as for ordinary voyages from this country, the Continent and Australia, States and West Indies. A retrospect of the past year and the prospect for the future provide a difficult problem for reflection. The Board of Trade returns of exports and imports, and the reports from all manufacturing districts, give positive evidence of a substantial improvement in trade. There must necessarily be a large business to be done in re- placement of the wastage arising from the long Russo- Japanese war, which is estimated to have cost about 400 millions sterling, and whether this trade is of goods manu- factured in Great Britain or other countries, the transit must largely be made in British ships, which comprise half the tonnage of the world. The prospects are good of large shipments of cereals from the United States, which has been a dormant trade for the past four years, and large crops are expected in India and River Plate. Large transit is taking place of materials of various de- scriptions, which business is created by cheap ocean car- riage and the present large carriers, and by merchants being content to deal in large quantities at small profit, instead of, as formerly, small quantities at large profit. All these factors conduce to the long looked for improve- ment in the shipping trade after the long depression that commenced in 1901, and the problem is whether, with the previous over-supply of tonnage, the improved prospects are annihilated by the amount of new tonnage now being built. : It is satisfactory to note that during the late bad times there have not been the extensive failures of ship builders and ship owners that former periods of depres- sion have witnessed. There has not also been laid up idle near the amount of tonnage even that occurred so far back as 1884. This is certainly proof, as freights have been so low, that the increased size enables steamers to be worked at rates at which smaller boats could not-cover their expenses. As an illustration of how freight rates affect the selling price of an article: A soap factory in Cincinnati recently shipped two carloads of soap to a wholesale house in New York. One hundred boxes of this soap were sold to a jobbing house in Pittsburg. The Pittsburg house sold a portion of it to .a jobber in Clarksburg, W. Va. These people, in turn, shipped some of it back to a retail dealer in Wheeling, through which town it had already passed to reach Pittsburg, and more of it to a retail dealer in a small town three miles from a railroad near Fairmount, W. Va. And when the retailer got it, in each case he sold the soap for five cents a cake, which is the price at which it retails in Cincinnati, the point where it is manufactured. Ultimately, some of this soap traveled 1,400 miles and was handled in freight houses and in wagons about eight times before it finally reached the consumer. Lieut. W. J. Wilson, president of the Chicago Nautical School, Masonic Temple, Chicago, Ill, reports that the school has enrolled more pupils this year than any year since the school started. Mr. John McMillan of the steamer Vermillion has been engaged as assistant in the navigation branch of the work and Mr. Frank T. Clark of the steamer Wm. E. Corey in the engineering branch.