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-* government in 18° the chamber of commerce will inthe near future formulate some plan that may be enacted into law that will again restore to our country's flag the carrying trade on the ocean of the greater bulk of the products of our farms and articles manufactured by our people. "The geographical location of San Francisco with the safe and broad entrance from the sea to our harbor, opening into the most beautiful bay in the world, with sufficient room and safe anchorage for the combined ton- nage of every ship on the seven. seas, makes our city all that New York is or ever can be to the Atlantic sea- board." Representative Julius Kahn, who followed Senator Perkins, indorsed ship subsidies. The California del- egation, he said, had made an ef- fort at the last session of congress to have a subsidy bill passed, and the effort would be repeated at the com- ing session, with success this time, he hoped. "The two great Cunarders just built, the Lusitania and the Maure- tania,' he said, "are object lessons. Each of these mammoth vessels cost $15,000,000, and I am told that their entire cost was paid, not by the Cu- nard Company, but by the British government. The Cunard Company will return the money to the British annual installments extending over twenty years. Mean- while, in case of war, England would have the use Of these largest and swiftest steamships afloat--a fact the importance of which is obvious. must do something similar. We must make it possible for builders of ships to know that they will have a fair 'return on their investments. We must place American bottoms again in all .the seas of the world." A protest has been lodged with Sec- retary of the Navy Metcalf against the laying off of the men employed at the League Island navy yard, who will not be needed when the repairs to the big battleships are completed and the fleet leaves for its long cruise to the Pacific. In this connection Mr. Met- calf called attention to the fact that in his annual report he has recom- mended the. construction of four col- liers at government yards and if con- gress approves of this program there will be sufficient work to keep the men now employed at the government yards busy. However, if this building program is not adopted, about 6,000 men employed in the navy yards along the Atlantic coast will be thrown out of employment. We Tae Marine REVIEW DELAY IN TRANSIT OF EXPORTS. BY WALTER J. BALLARD, Under the caption of "Delay in Tran- sit,' Major Carson, chief of the Bureau of Manufactures, has this to say in his 1907 report: "One, of --the, .obsta- cles to the enlargement of the ex- port trade of the United States is the uncertainty of transit between the place of production and the seaboard. The absence of a well-defined system for the prompt delivery to steamships of merchandise destined to foreign markets is doubtless due to the irregu- larity and relatively small volume of such trade in certain lines. Merchants in the Orient especially complain that approxi- mately accurate calculation cannot be made as to when goods ordered in the United States will be delivered at Hong- kong, Shanghai, or other points of des- tination in the far east, and in conse- quence orders go to European houses that should come to those of the United Statés. With a view to better this con- dition the attention of representatives of leading trunk railway lines was invited, and it is understood plans are now being considered by traffic managers of railway and ocean steamship companies to bring about the desired results. The question is mainly to secure reliable and more rapid transit by rail for merchandise des- tined to overseas ports and does not necessarily involve rates. The exact time for departure of steamships from Atlantic and Pacific ports is fixed months in advance, and it should be possible for intending shippers to arrange with rail- Way companies for delivery on a certain vessel on a fixed day. There is less dif- ficulty at Atlantic than at Pacific ports in securing prompt service, owing to the volume of business that offers at the former, but even at Atlantic ports freight from western points is frequently de- layed in delivery to steamships because of slow and irregular transit, detention at terminal points, and sometimes of in- difference of steamship managers, which causes would be removed by co-operation in plans perfected by the parties con-: cerned. What is needed is a system by which carloads of merchandise consigned to foreign countries when started shall be kept moving continuously toward destination, which should not be difficult of accomplishment with several through competing trunk lines between the At- lantic and Pacific oceans. With such a system freight originating at points east of the Missouri river, consigned to the Orient or Australia could be deliv- ered on board ship at one of the Pacific ports for a specified steamship, thus en- abling the shipper to inform the con- signee that his goods would reach him on a designated day. ~cost $2,700,000. "Sufficient freight for the far east now originates in the section east of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to war- rant an effort being made in the direc- tion indicated, and by co-operation of shippers and carries this freight could be consolidated at one or more points, started forward, and kept moving con- tinuously until it reaches a Pacific port and is delivered to the vessel ready to receive it. In perfecting and success- fully maintaining a system intended to insure speedy transit and delivery for the exports of the country, commercial organizations can render powerful as- sistance." The point herein is important and time- ly raised. MISSISSIPPI JETTIES COM- PLETED. One of the greatest channel-mak- ing undertakings in the history of American river improvement has been brought almost to completion recently, when the jetties at the mouth of the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi river were finished. These jetties, after some dredging 'between them is com- pleted, will give the south one of the deepest harbors in the world by open- ing to the access of the largest steamships afloat the 100 and 200-ft. depths of the lower Mississippi river. The new jetties were begun four years ago. They are nearly parallel walls, one about three and the other about four miles long, lying over half a mile apart and built in the shoal water at the juncture of the pass with the Gulf of Mexico. The swift cur- rent which they have produced, aided 'by dredging, even before their com- pletion, has caused a tremendous scour and has already made 50 to 85 ft. of water in some places where at the beginning of the work the depth was 'but little over a man's head. Probably few walls ever have been constructed under greater difficulties than were these jetties. They have Every material tering into their construction has been brought from distances of 100 to 500 miles. The jetties have no founda- tion, but rely for stability upon their extremely 'broad bases, being from 100 to 150 ft. wide at the bottom. The capping is a sea wall 4% ft. high, and is the only portion of the jetties not submerged. (ig The only changes likely to occur in the jetties is their gradual sinking un- til in time the concrete capping en- tirely disappears. This 'sinking al- ready has occurred to the jetties at South Pass.