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VOL. XXXV. CLEVELAND, FEBRUARY 14, 1907. No. 7 ERIE CANAL TRADE. Buffalo, Feb. 13--Canal boatmen express much expectation of another paying season in the grain and other trades, as they find that the railroads are so little able to take care of the freight that naturally goes to them that they are not the competitors that they used to be. Both the grain and lumber trade here and at Tonawanda found the canal fleet much too small for their needs last season, so that it is with much satisfaction that they are able to report the prospect of a larger fleet for next season. It appears business was so good last. season that it attracted to the main line a number of boats from the Northern canal in the Lake Champlain district and it is now stated that the grain trade from here can count on about 100 boats from there next season. This, with 400 to 500 boats fit for grain owned on the main line, will make a very respectable fleet and one that will do much towards handling | the fall lake cargoes, so many of which were cut off last season by the notice given out by the roads declining to take grain for a long time that was not contracted through from its west- ern shipping point. As it was there 'were whole weeks that the canal car- ried more grain than was credited to the roads, the canal always moving its cargoes promptly and the roads oftener than otherwise in crowded times merely getting credit one week for what it actually takes out some weeks later. But there need be no odious com- parisons between the two classes of carriers, There is ample business for both and this is so apparent now to all that it is officially stated that there is no organized opposition to the en- largement of the canal. Boatmen say that the work of building the barge canal is in good hands and they be- lieve it will be ready quite as soon that. as the new fleet is ready for it. This, however, does not mean that it will be ready right away. In fact nobody is yet ready to say how many years the work will take. But the speculation as to what it will mean to traffic is eager and con- fident. That it. will save the lake grain trade and give a new impetus to the manufactured iron trade and 'also carry not a little ore is believed. A city lumberman predicts that he will some day be sending these 1,000-ton canal barges many hundred miles up and down the coast, both with and after cargoes. He will go to Norfolk, Va., for lumber and the out-trip will enable shippers to use the barges for manufactured products of the lake dis- trict. . All that is needed to attract the barges up and down the coast from New York is a paying cargo. Op- ponents of the canal enlargement used to say, as if they had settled the ques- tion, that the present canal was cap- able of carrying many -times what it was catrying, which was true, but to carry freight at a profit, that was the only question of capacity that was worth discussing. As soon as that was "no longer possible the canal was prac- tically dead. But conditions have changed so rapidly in late years and in the direction opposite to the change that was once taking place that old 'calculations are all upset and the canal is once more a factor in traffic just as it 4s. ; That the new fleet can traverse the coast and also cover lake Erie at least if it chooses is shown by the state- "ment of a canal boatman made in a late conversation on the subject. He said that he once took two steam canal boats down the coast as far as New- berne, N. C., and carried cargoes in them. The barges will be much more capable of making such trips. Again it is predicted that the Pana- ma canal will make it possible to ship lumber from California and Washing- ton to New York and at least as far as here by barge canal, with one trans- fer at New. York .and - that # - will cost less than it does to ship lumber here all-rail from. the Pacific « coast. There will certainly be need of the lumber by the time the Panama canal is finished. The lumber supply by lake is going to run down very fast from this time on, There is much speculation as to the sort of fleet likely to be put on the enlarged canal, though it is pretty generally agreed that the individnal boatmen will no longer be much of a factor there. The railroads or the heavy shippers or both will put fleets on and the shippers and the public will welcome them. The day of small interests in close connection with such large opportunities amd large demands has gone forever. It would not be possible to recall the individual boat- -man to any great extent if it were de- sired, for he is mostly dead. The pub- lic is sorry that he could not wait to see the completion of the work he helped begin, but he well knew that he was not needed further. Such is the way of things. The great problem now is not how to cripple large inter- ests, but to so control them that they do not become a menace to each othe: and to civilization and individual ef- fort. ca JouHn W, CHAMBERLIN. The third turbine steamer to be _ built in this country, the Harvard, was launched recently by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building & Engine Co., Chester, Pa. She is a sister ship of the Vale, launched late last year, being for the Metropolitan Steamship Co. The Harvard is 407 ft. long, 63. ft. beam and 16 ft. draught. W. & A. Fletcher Co., Hoboken, will equip her with turbine engines.