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upon the canal will regulate the rates on the railroad and will keep the railroad rates at such a low figure that those railroads which have to climb mountains in order to reach the Atlantic will perhaps not seek so large a portion of this particular carry- ing trade, but will leave the excess which cannot be carried by the canal to be carried by the railroads traversing New York state on a low-grade line. "It is not alone in the carrying of breadstuffs and other low-grade freight that an adequate waterway, with its cheap transportation, will benefit the state; it will carry lumber from the west to the east; it will carry ores from the eastern part of our own state; to the great steel plant now reaching completion on the edge of your own city, and will in turn carry eastward, at rates with which no route in Pennsylvania can compete, the finished product of these great works; it will carry coal from the east and from the west to the prosperous and constantly grow- Ing cities along the interior and bordering upon the canal; and, finally, there is reason to believe that it will carry the lake ores to some point on the Hudson river sufficiently far from the ocean to be safe from attack and provided with a depth of water which the Delaware cannot rival; and at this point will possibly grow up the greatest ship building center of the world. "The foregoing are through freights and low-grade freights, but with a waterway on which a single vessel propelled by steam can carry 1,000 tons and a united fleet can carry 5,700 tons, which is larger than the average ocean freight steamer, it will be possi- ble to develop a local business in high-grade freights at figures with which the railroads cannot compete, and combined with a certainty in time of delivery equal to that of any freight train. "Cheap power and cheap transportation are the two prime factors in the cost of manufacture, and, with such advantages as you possess, it requires no prophet to tell that within the next generation here will be a great center of manufactures, possibly, and quite probably, the greatest in the United States. Between these two cities of New York and Buffalo--one with a certain present and the other with an assured future--there is a country of great fertility, possessing at certain points remarkable local ad- 'vantages for manufactures which, while less important than those at the two ends of the line, are still greater than exist in any other state. The citizens of the state are foolish indeed if they do not reap the full measure of the advantages of the state in which they live and which, by reason of fortunate geo- graphical situation and topographical conformation, are not rivalled by those of any. other state. These advantages have brought to our commonwealth its present pre-eminence, but for the last twenty years they have not been fully realized by reason of the neglect of its water transportation line. The enlargement of the canal in the. manner now proposed will restore to this transportation line the relative advantage which it formerly pos- sessed. "In brief, then, the advantages to be obtained from the en- largement of the canal are, first to restore to this state the rela- tive proportions it formerly enjoyed in certain lines of trade and transportation, and, secondly, permanently to fix and build up within the limits of the state manufactures on an unprecedented scale of magnitude. "The state of New York has been wonderfully endowed by nature; but these endowments will avail nothing if the citizens of the state remain supremely indifferent, believing that every- thing must come their way. 'The state has rivals on all sides whose competition must be actively met: On the north Canada, with comparatively insignificant resources, -has constructed a waterway far superior to our own and, although handicapped by. an icy outlet during so large a portion of the year, it will. continue to divert the trade from our borders unless we take steps to prevent it. Far off to the south the gulf ports are being con- stantly improved and they have a short rail haul from a section of the grain fields; they are striving to divert a portion and an ever-increasing portion of the trade in that direction. Along the coast of the middle states and New England there are other good harbors, on the shores of which the cost of real estate 1s but a fraction of what it is in New York, and where the railroads are seeking to divert the traffic by the artificial means of differ- ential rates. All of this competition is keen, active and alert, and New York has seen the relative proportion of its trade in certain lines diminished to less than one-third of what it form- erly was. In the matter of railroad rates New York has no ad- vantage over other ports, and the same causes which in the past have produced the differentials against New York will operate to produce them in the future. It is only by means of the canal and its enlargement that New York can regain what it has lost, because New York alone can have an adequate waterway across its length from the lakes to the ocean. The mountains and hills forbid this in other states. : "New York is already great and prosperous; but its great- ness and prosperity are small in comparison with what is easily within its grasp if it utilizes to the utmost the advantages with which nature has endowed it: To the west, around and beyond the great lakes, are products of agriculture, of animals, of mines and of forests in almost inexhaustible quantities; to the east, beyond the ocean are the teeming millions of Europe; within the state is cheap and practically unlimited power. It only needs cheap transportation: to build up within our borders the great highway of trade between the western states and Europe; an 1903] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD, . to fe this state the most favored spot in all the world for as- sembling the raw materials and converting them into manufac- tured products. This chea i b 'ni t . p transportation can be furnished b the enlargement of the Erie canal? : DULUTH MARINE ITEVIS--MINING MATTERS. Duluth, Minn., May 20.--Port Arthur docks showed a busy ee the other day, when more ships were in port than the town ad ever seen. In the fleet were the Turret Crown, Ogalbay, Rosemount, Melrose, Quebec, Miles, Venus, Iroquois and Ad-: vance, all loading grain from the Canadian Northern and King 'elevators, and the Manitoba, Empire, Bradshaw and America with freight and passengers. This was at Port Arthur alone, while at Fort William were as many more taking wheat from the Canadian Pacific elevators. From the two towns shipments of wheat for the vessels then in port were about 1,450,000. _ The Northern vacific road is about to begin the very exten-~ sive improvements at its Duluth terminals that have been refer- red to in this correspondence. 'The docks are all to be filled solid, the 2,200 car yard at Rice's Point is to be trebled in size, a mile and a half of frontage on the west side of the point to be covered by warehouses and docks, and all the space between the city and the Consolidated company's elevators is to be docked for the reception of heavy freight. The cost of the work is estimated at $1,000,000 and this is in addition to the $500,000 spent last year for the same purpose. It is believed that when this work is done the road will have at Duluth the largest and best-arranged terminal system, land and water, to be found in a single group in the United States. It is not expected that any large tonnage of either wheat or flax will be shipped from the head of the lakes for some time. © The recent sharp drop in freights caused by line boats that were not getting enough flour and wanted wheat to fill out with. Capt. C. L. Potter, United States engineer, who is to have charge of this district, is expected here June 1. Major Beach, who has been here temporarily since Capt. Gaillard's departure for \vashington, has returned to his home. Capt. Potter's chief work for the immediate future will be the construction of the concrete piers for the south harbor entrance, all preliminary work and plans for which have been carefully carried out, with practically all contracts let and operations already begun. The Minnesota Iron Co. (a part of the United States Steel Corporation) has begun drilling on the famous section 30, Ver- million range, and is to put on several drills, it is claimed. The company has a lease of all the interests in what is known as the "Warren 80," aside from the interests it holds in fee. Originally, after the close of years of litigation, it was found to be in pos- session of the fee to thirteen-twenty-fifths, and it then secured leases from the owners of the balance of the property. Most of these owners have since sold to it, so that it now controls in fee nearly the whole tract. This land lies cornering on a part of the tract familiarly known as the section 30 land, and now under lease to the Section 30 Co. The Warren 80 is practically the north half of the southwest quarter, and all the work of the Section 30 Co. is directl north of it. The Section 30 Co. is dril- ling all its holes with a southerly inclination and the Minnesota company is beginning its drilling at a northerly angle. The dip is generally supposed to be to the north at that place. Within a space of about a mile the Oliver Iron Co. (also United States Steel) is sinking the four biggest shafts, all things considered, that it has anywhere in the Lake Superior region. The most westerly of these is the deep incline shaft of the Pio- neer, which is three-compartment and is steel lined throughout. Next to it is a vertical shaft for the Zenith, which is going down rapidly and-is expected to develop a very large ore body. Next east of it is the enormous steel shaft house of the Sibley mine, surmounting a very deep shaft. Still further east is another steel head frame surmounting the great shaft of the Savoy. 'These two shaft houses are about 160 ft. high, all of steel, and are the best in the world. It is proposed to erect somewhat similar shaft houses at the Pioneer and Zenith shafts. Each of them is to be equipped to hoist 500,000 tons a year, each is in rock and each is most substantially built, and all to be equipped correspondingly. The Sibley and Savoy are now equipped with hoisting machinery and the Savoy shaft is in commission. The Pioneer shaft is rest- ing on bottom and a drift is being run to connect it with the rkings. : ' The Cook County Mining & Land Co. has filed articles of incorporation. It is said to have the ownership of 1,600 acres of land, claimed to be mineral bearing, in Cook county, and some stock is being sold here at the rate of 15 per cent. of par. There is some casual exploration for ore in this county, but nothing of consequence is being found as yet, so far as can be learned. Commonwealth, to date the largest battleship afloat, was launched at Govan last week. She is the first vessel of the British navy to have her ten 6-in. guns protected by an extended barbette, instead of by casements. Her other armament con- sist of four 12-in. guns, four 9.2-1n. guns and twenty-four small guns. The new battleship speed is to be 18.5 knots per hour and she will carry a crew of 755 men. Her engines are to develop 18,000 H. P. Mr. Franklin D. Mooney has been appointed general mana- ger of the New York & Porto Rico Steamship Co. in place of Mr. Henry T. Knowlton who died recently.