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18 car dumpers pick up ore and coal cars and dump the contents bodily into the hold of the vessel; 5,000 tons of ore can be thus loaded in about three hours; and 100,000 bu. of grain can be loaded into a vessel in aboiit one hour and discharged in three. The ton of coal is now carried from Buf- falo to Duluth for, about the cost of shoveling it into the cellar from the sidewalk. Through shipments «sithout breaking bulk reduce the cost of trans- portation, and notwithstanding the fact that the central portion of tne Middle West is 590 miles nearer to San Fran- cisco and western South American ports via Panama than New York, we are forced to ship. our commod 'ties half way across the continent to the seaboard and then to re-handle them for the benefit of this water haul that is so many miles longer than the one at otir very doors. The great rail- road trunk lines of the country are east and west lines all practically crowding into one congested Atlantic terminal. The great natural avenues of commerce spread a network over the middle west, touching every center of production and offering terminal fa- cilities and distributing stations at a hundred different points. Adequate development of these natural resources will not serve alone to open the way to carry our commodities to a market, but it will in fact bring the market to our very doors. The large volume of shipping on the great lakes, for which figures have been given before, is all handled dur- ing only eight months of the year. For the other four months the northern passage is blocked with ice and this great lake fleet is tied up at the docks idle, its earning power suspended. A development of one of the arteries of the great inland waterways would let this corked-up fleet out of the bottle and extend its usefulness and its earn- ing power through the whole twelve months of the year. Lake shipowners would find the ooasting and South American trade 'a very attractive field and producers all along the 1,625 miles of the trunk line from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico would benefit thereby. Lake shipyards are build'ng larger ves- sels every year and for the reason that they are located right in the heart of the steel industry with rolling mills and plate mills right at hand they can turn out their product much cheaper than the seacoast shipyards can. With a deep waterway to the Gulf these ship yards wll be strong competitors to the sea coast yards; ocean going vessels will be launched in fresh water and perhaps a beneficent government THe Marine Review some of the enormous an- j urn will t biwe nual naval appropriation inland a shall see gunboats and cruisers built and launched on the lakes and floated down the inland highway to patrol the highways of the sea. President Roosevelt in speaking on the general subject of inland water- ways, sa'd: "Where the immediately abutting land is markedly benefited, and this benefit can be definitely lo- calized, I trust that there will be care- ful investigation to see whether some way can be devised by which the im- mediate beneficiaries may pay a portion of the expenses." of Ill nois has already acted in accord with this policy. The Chicago Sani- tary and Ship canal, completed at a cost of over $50,000,000, is the first great link, 36 miles in length, of this waterway and the state is prparing to vote on a constitutional amendment authorizing its legislature to issue $20,000,000 in bonds to complete the second great link from Lockport, Illi- nois, to Utica, Illinois. In May, 1905, the Illinois legislature passed an act entitled; "An Act to provide for the appointment of an Internal Improve- ment Comm"ssion and to make an ap- propriation therefor,' and in February, 1906, the governor of the state ap- pointed such a commission. This com- mission has carefully considered all the questions involved and has reported on a plan of development from Chicago to St. Vous. From Lockport to: Utica, the stretch which it is proposed that the state shall build, the commission recommends a development of five lift locks and four pools, giving deep and wide channels for navigation and pro- viding a potential water power of 173,- GOUT Pere" adeain we have 'an- ticipated the president of the United States; who says: "Still another' fun- damentally important question is that of water power. Its significance to the whole country and especially to the west is just beginning to be under- Stood used water power. of the United States exceeds the annual value of the prod- uct of all our mines. Furthermore, it is calculated that under judicious handling the power of our streams may be made to pay fer all the works required for the comp'ete development and control of all our irland water- ways." The significance of this water power development is fully understood in Illinois, at least, for we understand that the revenues from this power are sufficient to operate and maintain our locks, to pay the interest on our bonds In the case of the _ lakes-to-the-gulf waterway,-the state. It is computed that the. annual value of the available but un- and eventually to ret re the issue, Thus we are making this waterway develop itself without putting one cent of tax on our people. Illinois is preparing to give to the Union a link in the waterway that wll contrite nore than two-thirds 'of the total cost of the project from Chicago to Si. That's practical patriotism. Last fall our president discovered the Father 'of Waters and we hail' him as the "Avant courier" of inland water--- ways development who has blazed the trail for the Middle West. This js the sign which he hung up in the Wil derness of or economic. struggle: "There is a great national project already under way which renders the © improvement of the Mississippi river and its tributaries specially needful, I mean the Panama canal. The dig- ging of that canal will be a benefit to the whole country, but most of all to the states of the Pacific slope and the Gulf; and if the Mississ'ppi is. 'properly .improved,. to the States through it flows." Louis. "JONES STOKERS ON THE BIG DREDGE FRANCIS T. SIMMONS. The Under-Feed Stoker: Co. of America, Marquette building, Chicago, is installing an equipment of eight Jones stokers on the dredge Francis T. Simmons, owned and operated by the board of commissioners for Lin- * coln park, Chicago. Work on the in- stallation, which: provides for. the equipment of two internally-fired, dou- ble-ended boilers of the gunboat type, each having four furnaces 45 in. in diameter by 7 ft. 6 in. in length, is' well under way and will permit plac- ing of the dredge in commission at an early date. Without exception the Francis T. Simmons is. the largest hydraulic dredge ever built and operated in the United States. She was constructed especially for the Lincoln park board of commissioners for the purpose of filling in an area immediately adjoin- ing the park on the north, which, wken completed will double the size of this far-famed park. The dredge was put in service last season and when at work is anchored Opposite the park a short distance out in Lake Michigan, working in depths varying from 10 to 35 ft. This fact of proximity to the park makes the mat- ter of smoke abatement of utmost con- sequence and it is for the purpose of effectually abating the nuisance that Jones stokers were contracted for in- stallation.