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194 THE MARINE REVIEW _ DEVOTED TO MARINE ENGINEERING, SHIP BUILDING AND ALLIED INDUSTRIES Published Monthly by The Penton Publishing Company Penton Building, Cleveland. CAGO - - - « - 1521-23 Lutton Blag. - 503 Mercantile Library Bldg. NEW YORK - - - - - * 503-4 West Street Bldg. PITTSBURGH - . - ays - 2148-49 Oliver Bldg. D.C. - - 501 Metropolitan Bank Bldg BIRMINGHAM, ENG. - - - - - Prince Chamber. Subscription, $2 delivered free anywhere in the world. Single copies, 20 cents. Back numbers over three months, 50 cents. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on or before the first of each month. \ ' The Cleveland News Co. will supply the trade with THE MARINE REVIEW through the regular channels of the American News Co. European Agents, The International News Company, Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C., England. Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as Second Class Matter. (Copyright 1914, by Penton Publishing Company) May, 1914 Lack of Preparedness Rear Admiral W. W. Kimball, United States Navy, retired, issued a statement through the Navy League that is full of common sense. He points out the present position of the United States on the eve of the opening of the Panama canal with relation to its merchant marine, indicating the great sums of money that are constantly being earned by foreign vessels which carry the products of Amer- ican industry. He takes as his text the situation which existed at Seattle during the Boer war, when the foreign trade of that city was completely demoralized through the withdrawal of foreign vessels for war purposes. "Were a general European war to withdraw the vessels of Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy, the trade of the whole nation not only would suffer as did Seattle," he said, "but would be entirely with- out transportation facilities at any price. When the American business men awake they will give us a commerce of our own based upon an American mer- chant marine. They will change us from a lopsided, tribute-bearing community to a great symmetrical, in- dependent nation, a maritime nation owning and con- trolling its maritime affairs that will teach us, the great American super-intelligent people, what the general run of British Tutons and Latins in Europe already know, namely, that no nation with a seaboard can be a real nation without a commerce--without sea power. The awakened business man of national business sense will grasp the patent fact that a real commerce will financially benefit the farmers in THE MARINE REVIEW present moment. May, 1914 Kansas more than the fishermen in Gloucester." That last sentence puts the whole situation in a nutshell. If the farmers in Kansas could only get that into their heads this country would have a self- contained merchant marine. The trouble is that Kansas is so far from the sea- board that the people lack the imagination to compre- hend that ships are necessary to their continued pros- perity. Our products over consumption must be sent abroad or industry will stagnate in this country, but Kansas, and we mean by Kansas all of the interior states, have not been able to grasp that fact as yet. If the United States occupied its present position, con- tained its fine wealth of mineral resources and was no bigger than England, it would have a whale of an American merchant marine, because every citizen would realize the vital necessity of having one. The necessity is just as vital today, but a considerable part of the inhabitants are blinded by our physical bigness. The time is coming when this lack of preparedness on our part will result in great national humiliation. Dullness in Lake Trade Lake trade has never been duller than it is at the The lassitude which began to effect the iron business shortly after midsummer last year was not appreciably felt on the lakes during last sea- son, the movement of freight being the heaviest on record and at fair prices. It was inevitable, however, that the slack.-would have to be taken up and certainly is being taken up hand over fist. It is about the only thing that is being taken up. While navigation has been open practically since April 20, few vessels are moving. 'There is no ore in sight and the movement during May will undoubtedly be light. Leading ship- pers will not be in the market for tonnage during May and the ore movement will accordingly not be well under way until June. There will be a wide difference between the amount of ore brought down by July 1, and the amount that was brought down for the corresponding period last. year. Vessels that are holding storage coal are reluctant to deliver it, as there are no down cargoes available. For that reason coal tonnage is scarce, even though the number of cargoes offering are few. Various predictions place the ore movement at from 10,000,000 to 12,500,000 tons less than that of last year. If the general move- ment of vessels is deferred, however, until well into June, this subtraction will be practically absorbed and the season from that time on should be a good one for the vessel owner, as there would be moved in the time remaining about as much freight as was moved in the corresponding period last year. About $400,000,000 is what the Panama canal has practically cost the American people. Our whole oversea merchant marine on the Pacific coast consists of six vessels, namely, the Manchuria, Korea, Siberia, China, and Mongolia, of the Pacific mail fleet, and the Minnesota, of the Great Northern Line.