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September, 1910 are so uniform that they are oppres- sively monotonous." Every year, hundreds of millions of water in the shape of stocks and bonds is injected into the already diluted rail- road issues with no reason for the addi- tion except to swell fortunes already too much swollen and to give occasion for the further raising of rates. Either the country must go to inland waterways to furnish competition in transportation or the government must own the railroads or must devise some plan of control. Government ownership of railroads is unthinkable. Govern- ment control seems impossible. Freight Savings. The people would save every year in lowered freight rates the entire cost of building all the inland waterways in the country. This is true, though these waterways did no more shipping than is now done on the Mississippi river. Ninety per cent of all the trunk line railroads of the nation cross Indiana. Should the Michigan and Erie canal be constructed to a 14-ft. canal at a cost ef $50,000,000 and should $25,000,000 be expended in the enlargement of the Miami and Erie canal, a saving in freight quadrupling these two sums would be saved every year. The trunk line railroads crossing Indiana carry 150,000,000 tons of heavy and bulky freight annually. A saving of $2 per ton on this would be $300,000,000. This would be the result if these waterways were no busier than are the other navigable rivers of the country. The saving to the people, however, brought about by these canals, will be much greater, because they will be very busy waterways. It is objected that the railroads cannot stand this lowering of rates and_ this competition. No one should lose sleep on this account. Railroads will always do the passenger, the express, the mail and the merchandise business. Germany owns her own railroads, and yet she finds it profitable, not only to her rail- roads, but to her people .as well, to canalize every stream and build canals wherever possible. In this where corporations own the railroads, it is necessary for the people to have some means of curbing their power. There is no way except through com- Petition. Give the people highways free from corporate control and they need no longer fear the grip of the railroads at their throat. There is no doubt about the temper of the people on this question. They are determined to have inland water- Ways, and they will get them. These Waterways will form a net work all over this country. Every riversand stream Ger BES country, "TAE. MARINE. REVIEW possible will be canalized and canals will be built wherever possible. This vast net work of inland waterways will all be for barges: When this time comes, trunk line barge canals leading to the sea will be needed. There are but two trunk line inland barge waterways possible from the mid- dle west to salt water within the borders of our own land; the one by the Missis- sippi river to the Gulf of Mexico; the other through the Mohawk Valley to the Atlantic. By the one it is 1,625 miles to the jetties in the Gulf of Mexico, and by it 3,500 miles by water from Chicago to New York; by the other it is only 1,000 miles from Chicago to New York. The ultimate markets of the iniddle west are east, not south, and so they will continue to be. Into this trunk line barge canal leading to the east, all the inland barge canals of the middle west will come with products from the west, the southwest and the great northwest, to float out to the sea. It will furnish the cheapest transporta- tion that can possibly be had. Wheat will be carried by this trunk line barge canal from Chicago to New York for less than 1 cent a bushel. When the Erie canal is completed for large barges, the lowest possible cost for taking a bushel of wheat from Chicago to New York by the great lakes and the Erie canal will be twice that sum. The cost for a bushel fo wheat from Chicago to Buffalo by the lakes is 1% cent per bushel. To this must be added the toll at Buffalo for unloading and_ loading, and the transportation 520 miles through the Erie canal. Promises Heavy Traffic. In the future economy of transporta- tion, no waterway will be of greater importance to the 'nation than will the Michigan and Erie canal. The great trunk line barge canal, leading from the middle west to the Atlantic, of which the Michigan and Erie will be an indis- pensable part, will be the busiest water- way in the world. There are 10,000 vessels of all kinds on the River Rhine, and it is today the busiest waterway in the world. When our inland waterways are made, the busiest waterway will be in this country. Unless this canal is made, the trans- portation of our great lakes destined for export will go through the Can- adian waters, not through ours. The Welland canal is to be enlarged and the Georgian Bay canal will be con- structed. Our great lakes will be the feeders for these Canadian canals. di we would save' our own commerce for ourselves, we must build inland water- ways, but more especially must we cou:l- struct the trunk line barge canals. 371 Our petty jealousies and the present seeming advantages of one locality over the other must give way to a broader view that takes in the whole people, those inland as well as those on the big waters. Those engaged in business that has to do with present transportation conditions should note the changes that are sure to come and unselfishly wel- come the greatest good for all. White Star Liners Olympic and Titanic The work on the Olympic is now so well advanced that not only is it possi- ble to appreciate the graceful lines of the hull, but also to observe in the de- velopment of the internal work of the vessel that interesting transition from the plans to the actual structure that is at once the delight and the reward of the constructor. All the hydraulic riveting is now completed, and various portions of the superstructure are in evi- dence. While the steel workers have yet much to do, they have made such progress that the woodworkers and others are to get ahead with their work in every direction, and the erection of the staterooms on the various decks is proceeding rapidly, as also is the fitters' and plumbers' work throughout the ship. The work on the Titanic is also pro- ceeding very rapidly, and relative prog- 'ress has been made with the construc- tion of the machinery for both vessels. A vessel with a rudder weighing 100 tons, beams 92 ft. long, and steel plates 36 ft. long, may be naturally expected to afford some interesting details with regard to the machinery, and it may be mentioned that each engine crank shaft weighs 118 tons; bed plate, 195 tons; each column, 21 tons; and the heaviest cylinder with liner, 50 tons; wing pro- peller, 38 tons--these being finished weights. The castings for the turbine cylinder weighed 163 tons, and for the propeller, which is of solid bronze, 22 tons. Linnard Retires Naval Constructor J. H. Linnard, for years senior officer in the bureau of construction and repair, United States navy, was placed on the retired list, Aug. 18, at his own request. He en- tered the naval service in 1877. The following gem is from a London evening paper, of Aug. 12, in connec- tion with the Terra Nova: "She was drawing a little water when she left Cardiff, but, as any sailor knows, a day or two at sea would swell her timbers and cure the leak."