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24 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. «unchanged and will certainly never be removed as long as the interests of the railroads oblige them to maintain these traffic ar- rangements. ; a "The facts stated above have shown beyond the possibility of doubt that water transportation always has been, is, and pro- bably will be for an indefinite period of time the cheapest form of transportation known to man. As against an average rate of transportation on lake and on ocean in late years equal to from fifty to seventy one-hundredths of a mill per ton mile, the lowest rate regarded by railroads as practicable for a rail rate is 3 mills per ton mile. The Erie canal, as it exists to-day, is not in a con- dition in which it can successfully compete with the railroads and yet it is a fact that during the canal season the railroads are obliged to reduce their rates, raising them again at the close of canal navigation, to be again reduced on the re-opening of the canal. The freight rate on wheat from Buffalo to New York by rail from January 1 to March 31, 1901, and from Nov. 16 to Dec. 1, 1901, was 4%4 cents per bushel, whereas during the period from June 1 to July 31, the rate was 3% cents per bushel; from Aug. 1 to Sept. 30, 334 cents per bushel, and from Oct. 1 to Nov. 15, 4% cents per bushel, the rate by canal during the month of Mcy having been 3.43 cents per bushel; in June, July and August 325 cents per bushel; in September 3.35 cents per bushel; in October 4 cents per bushel and in November 4.12 cents per bushel. The fact is therefore entirely clear to the business man that the Erie canal even in its present decrepit and antiquated con- dition is a regulator of freights and therefore is indispensable as a protector of all the interests that are interested in securing cheap transportation 'The committee on internal trade and im- provements of the Chember of Commerce of the state of New York, in their report dated Feb. 1, 1902, to the chamber make the following statement : ""The cheaper route bétween two points is the criterion which determines the rate of all competing lines. The canal and lake rate is the basis upon which all rail rates east of the Missis- sippi and north of the Ohio are predicted and determined, accord- ing to the testimony of railroad officials themselves. It follows that all persons throughout this state shipping or receiving freight by rzil have their rate regulated and cheapened by the canal, and are therefore, interested in, and profit by its maintenance. It necessarily follows that consumers are equally interested in the maintenance of the canal. Thirty years ago the capacity of a canal boat plying the Erie canal was 220 tons; to-day it is about 240 tons, or 8,000 bus. of wheat. The maximum railroad train capacity thirty years ago was about 300 tons, or 10.000 bus. cf wheat; to-day, with improved roadbed, heavy steel roils, enlarged cars and Mogul engines, the maximum railroad train capacity is 2,700 tons, cr 90,000 bus. of wheat. By increasinz the capacity of our canals commensurate with the improvements in railroad service, it is within the power of the state of New York to retain and perpetuate her supremacy in trade and commerce. 'This remedy is within her own control, and in the judgment of your . committee it is the only remedy at hand.' "The New York commerce commission appointed by Gov. Black in 1898, in their instructive report to the governor, after referring to the encrmous development of the mannfacturine interests of New York, Brooklyn, and Long Island city, using raw material valued et $527,678,152, producing finished articles worth $1,062,667,c94, and employing 468,274 persons, to whom were paid $208,415,418 in 1890, continue as follows: "* Tt is worth while to consider these establishments, with their enormous capital and their nearly half a million of skilled and highly paid mechanics, with reference to their consumption of vast quantities of raw material, a considerable portion of which originctes in the west. It will then be apparent to what an extent these establishments are dependent upon the lowest possible transportation rates. Not only will reduced transporta- tion charges upon the raw products increase the opportunities for -- enlarged manufacturing enterprises, but the greater area within which the finished products of the New York establishments can be profitably disposed of in competition with the products of es- tablishments more favorably situated will additionally stimulate production. It must be chvious, therefore, that to the extent: ex- isting reilroad differentials, adverse to New York, restrict the expansion of our manufacturing enterprises, to that extent com- metce is also restricted.' = Spt the manufacturing interests of New York city will not be the only interests to benefit by a modernized, improved and enlarged canal connecting the great lakes with the Hudson river.' The possibilities of such a canal are immeasurably greater, for, by its agency in furnishing a low. transportation rate for the raw material of iron ore, which is the basis of vast industries and for the conyeyance of the finished product' to tidewater at rates that no railroad in the present state of human knowledge could com. pete with, it will place the great state of New York from Buffalo to the City of New York in a position where it can successfully compete with other states so far pre-eminent in iron and steel production. It needs but a glance to enable the iron and steel manufacturer of New York city to realize the advantage he will gain through the agency of such a canal from Lake Erie to tide-- water on the Hudson river as compared with the rail route from Pittsburg over the mountains to the seaboard. The very cheap _ transportation on such an improved waterway will be so- much _ in favor of the New York manufacturer that he need fear no [Oct. 2, competition and can outdistance his Pennsylvania rival, whose only advantage will consist in his cheaper supply of coal. which item of advantage, however, will only cmount to a fraction of the lower cost of the New York manufacturer. ; "The example of other countries 1s most instructive in this connection. Mr. S. A. Thompson, in his interesting article, 'The Effect of Waterways Upon Railway Transportation,' in The Engineering Magazine of. July last, quotes United States Consul General Mason in Berlin as follows: "'German statesmanship was among the first to foresee that the time would come when, railways having reached their maxi- mum extension and efficiency, there would remain a vast sur- plus of coarse, raw materials--coal, ores, timber, stone and crude metals--which could be economically carried long distances only by water transportation, and that in a fully developed national system the proper role of railroads would be to carry passen- gers, and the higher class of merchandise manufactured from the raw staples which the waterways had brought to their doors.' "And the well-known French statesman M. de Freycinet, cs follows: : ; "Tt ig conceded that waterways and railways are destined not to supplant but to supplement each other. Between the two there is a natural division of traffic. To the railroad goes the least burdensome traffic. which demands regularity and quick transit; to the waterways gravitate the heavy freights of small value, which can only be transported where freights are low. Waterways, by increasing traffic, are rather the auxiliaries than the competitors of railroads. In procuring for the manufacturer cheap transportation for coal and raw materials, they create freights whose subsequent transportation gives profit to the rail- roads.' ; "Mr. Thompson shows most conclusively that the railroads are benefited by competing waterways. He makes the following statement : : "While the controlling effect of competing waterways on rcilway rates has been generally recognized, another effect, of equal or greater importance, has been almost completely over- looked. For, paradoxical as it seems, waterways are not only the most powerful possible regulators of railway rates, but are also the most powerful pessible promoters of the prosperity of railways with which they compete.' "Mr. Thompson shows by publishing figures of railway earn- ings of Germany and France the growth of traffic on railways re- sulting from the improvement of competing waterways. The interests of the railroads and those of the waterways are, there- fore, clearly not antagonistic, and all transportation interests as well as manufacturing and producing interests of every kind should join in combined effort to secure for the empire state and all the country the incalculable benefits that will flow from the construction of a modern waterway connecting the great lakes with the Hudson river." LAKE FREIGHT PROSPECTS FOR 1903. Duluth, Minn.. Sept. 30--It is currently reported in vessel circles here that officials of the Steel Corporation who have to do with lake transportation matters expect to pay more for ore car- ried another year than has been paid this season. The idea seems to be that there will be more of all commodities another year, and that so early an opening of navigation cannot be looked for; that the opening this year was at least a month ahead of the usual date and that a return to the average must be figured on. This alone would make a difference of 15 per cent. in the capacity of ships. Of course there will be vastly more grain from Chicago, for the corn movement this year has been almost nil and should be enormous another season. That there will be more ore is undoubtedly true if the prosperity of the country re- mains as it is now or suffers no serious set back. There may be more grain from the head of Lake Superior, though good authorities say even now, that there is not enough in the Dakotas and Minnesota to serve mills there and give a reasonable amount for farmers. But there will be a large amount for shipment from Canadian northwestern ports--twice as much as any pre- ceding year without a doubt. 'Then there is the coal movement, which should be at least 1,000,000 tons more than it is liable to be this season. For while there has been a larger movement of bituminous coal than ever before it has been little, if any, in excess of the expansion of industries requiring soft coal, and has not taken the place of anthracite to any appreciable extent. There will be a shortage of bituminous as well as of anthracite next spring. One point of importance comes in here, and that is what may the northwest do in future after having been forced this year to try the experiment of Dakota lignite? All over the prairie region they will use lignite from the mines along the upper Mis- souri this winter, simply because they will have to. 'They have never made a fair experiment with lignite up to this time. It the results are what a great many well informed people think they will be, the future market for anthracite in the northwestern prairie region will be very small and this will have an effect on coal shipments up lakes. Lumber shipments will probably run along about the same next year as they have this. It is reported on good authority that Mr. F. H. Clergue of Sault Ste. Marie will exercise the options he holds for the pur- chase of the various ships he has under contract for ore carry-_