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July, 1920 ership are not held by a few other powerful railroad executives when considering a fleet of commerce car: They are not convinced that riers. the government should dispose en- tirely of its merchant fleet. One im- portant railroad executive coufessed that he believed it would be a good policy for the government to con- tinue its ownership of at least a part of the fleet under the plea that it is a naval auxiliary. These ships, he said, should be used in times of peace on the new routes and unprofitable runs in order to develop new chan- nels of foreign trade for America. The development of trade and traffher is an extremely expensive thing and under present economic. conditions private capital is reluctant to take the risks. Development of new trade routes, it was held, is a matter which should concern the whole public and the risks should, therefore, be under- taken. in the name of the whole public: by the government. From interviews had with various railway executives, the outstanding situation appears to be this: te The railroads. have -teo many troubles of 'their own to become in- volved in the merchant marine ques: tion just at present. 2, Under the existing laws of the United States, it makes littie difference to the American railways under what flag the merchant fleet sails. This view would be altered considerably were the railroads permitted and en- couraged to invest in shipping prop- erties. 3. The railroads believe that the coming years will bring a _ greater volume of imports and exports than was ever the case with the United States and, therefore, the physical Problem is before the roads to pro- vide adequate facilities for taking care of this increased traffic. The position assumed by the New York Central lines is typical, A; -H- Smith, president of that road, said: - "Our lines have always been very much interested in not only the export, but the import traffic and have en- deavored, by appointment of men spe- Cializing in this class of traffic, to be of service and help in building up that class of traffic. In addition, as 1S probably known, through our rela- tionship with the American Express ®» we have our own agents at nearly all important cities in the world, hanes a. it is to co-operate with ca . roads in handling this traffic i € of service to the patrons of our Ines, : Maas the Physical side, we have Somat in increasing the port fa- . S at Boston and New York, and are contemplating a very large development for handling the steam- ship traffic at New York. "We also believe that it is neces- sary for this country to co-operate in helping to restore the tonnage lost through the war." Canada Ties Land and Water Railroad men have been watchful of the eflorts made in Canada to divert ocean trafic to Canadian ports. The Canad- ian Pacific railroad has today without doubt one of the greatest international transportation systems in the world. The vast rail system of some 22,000 miles is linked up with a great over- seas merchant fleet which the road owns. The Canadian government, in buying up certain other Canadian lines and in constructing a new merchant fleet, is building an international transportation system to rival the Canadian Pacific. In addition, the Canadians are striving hard to open to ocean navigation the Great Lakes TMM Co has recognized the im- portance of tying up freight car- riers, both of land and sea, in an alli- ance to promote American trade. The remarkable expansion in railroad con- struction in this country came during the time when the strong American commercial fleet was disappearing from the seas. In too many cases, reports that the railroads assisted in hurrying this decline, were true. Modern eco- nomic thought teaches the fallacy of such competition and the accompanying article reveals how the more progres- sive railroad man of today is planning to unite forces with the revived mer- chant marine. MMMM and make accessible the vast midwest- ern -territory: Io combat, # not, to compete with, the Canadian rivals the American roads realize that they must make some desperate efforts. Just what the American railroads will do is a problem just now under | consideration and is a matter which the roads do not desire at present to bring into public discussion. During the past year, however, a beginning has been made which would indicate their trend of thought. The New York Central, as Mr. Smith pointed out, will build a 1000-foot pier in the port of New York at Weehawken. The Lehigh Valley intends to go even further. The Lehigh's project proposes the improvement of 6 miles of wharf- age at Jersey City for ocean ships. A Railroad Waterfront Plan In preparation for this improvement, a channel to the shore line will be dredged which will give a depth of 35 feet at low water. The first unit. is now under construction. This will THE MARINE REVIEW 'New York 377 consist of a dock 3000 feet long and 400 feet wide. It will carry a ware. house, 300 x 800 feet, and two stand-. ard railway tracks will be run along: side the warehouse on the piers and other tracks within the warehouse. The warehouse itself will be double decked so that a ship may load or unload on either deck. On the land side of this pier will be an oper freight space equipped with a 30-ton gantry crane. In addition, the pier will be equipped to unload ore, inas- much as the Bethlehem Steel Corp. in- tends to use this equipment for the transshipment of the ore which wilk be brought from Cuba and Chile. While the ultimate policies of the railroad have not yet been announced, it is understood that the railroad ter- minals will be so managed that any ship may. make use of them. The utility of the properties will be de- pendent, naturally, upon the amount of traffic that will be brought to the road and, therefore, no exclusive use of the piers could be granted any one particular steamship line. Any good railroad man- will tell you, when he is moved to speak frank- ly, that the problem of water trans- portation is inalienably tied up with the problem of land transportation. The railroads have long realized this and have constantly attempted to make profit from it, but have been at times seriously checked in their endeavors. The railroads have been accused of killing inland water trans- portation, yet under railroad owner- ship water traffic on the Great Lakes and off the New England coast reached a high mark. Many roads have long felt that good water lines are an ab- solute necessity to good rail traffic. The New England railroad system built up powerful water lines to New York, Norfolk, Baltimore and other cities along the coast because these water lines insured a feeder traffic which made the rail line prosperous. A group of railroads not able to enter New York on account of prior com- petitors projected a water line from to the Virginia cities, where they could make connections. Railroads Forced to Sell Ships At the time these developments were at their height, the body politic investigated and concluded that the water traffic of the United States was hampered in its growth by the con- trol by railroads. Consequently, an amendment was made to the Panama canal act which forbade any railroad- owned vessel using that waterway, and furthermore commanding the divorc- ing of any water property frem its railroad ownership where the inter- state commerce commission discovered