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nection with the purchase of supplies and general busi- ness administration. His knowledge of and enthusiasm for a real American merchant marine are well known. He knows its commercial aspects and its value and rela- tion to the country’s national defense. In March, 1924, the President appointed a committee to study merchant marine affairs consisting of Secretary Mellon, Secre- tary Weeks, Secretary Wilbur, Secretary Hoover, T. V. O’Connor, chairman of the shipping board, and Leigh C. Palmer, then president of the Fleet corporation. Gen- eral Dalton worked with this committee and demon- strated his ability in merchant marine problems. At the time of the appointment of General Dalton as president he was said to have had the support and approval of American shipping interests. “The struggle by every nation to maintain its proper place on the high seas is as old as the nations them- selves,” said General Dalton, discussing the question with the writer, “and the influence of the nations today may be measured by the exact proportion in which they have been defeated in this struggle. - “T feel that the people of America will meet the pres- ent issue fully and at the same time fairly, and that _as directors. we shall create an American merchant marine under the American flag, designed and built in American shipyards, manned and operated by American seamen, that will complete that final link in our great national trans- portation system and that will give us that commanding place on the high seas and our proper share in the world trade to which we, as a great people and a great nation, are justly entitled.” As the management of the Merchant Fleet Corp. is subject to the approval of the shipping board it was decided at a recent meeting to bring about a closer re- lationship between the two bodies by the formal election of Chairman T. V. O’Connor of the board as president and chairman of the Fleet corporation, with the commissioners General Dalton at the same time resigning as president, was appointed vice president and general manager directly responsible to Mr. O’Connor as chairman and the shipping board commissioners as a board of di- rectors of the Merchant Fleet Corp. : This technical change in organization in no way af- fects the scope or authority of General Dalton in the con- duct of the affairs of the Merchant Fleet Corp. and met- with his full approval. River Transportation Aids Industry TRIKINGLY confirmatory _ evi- S dence that the Ohio and Missis- sippi rivers are destined within a few years to become most efficient and exceedingly busy arteries for trade into the interior as well as the southern seaboard of the United States was given the Ohio Valley Improvement association at Hunting- ton, W. Va., on Oct. 4 and 5. The 200 or more delegates from cities and towns: in six states along the’ Ohio river. personally inspected at the Huntington wharf a tow of nine barges, three of them covered barges of the Inland Waterways Corp. car- By J. F. Froggett rying damageable steel products, which were on their way down the rivers towed by the towboat WARREN ELSEY. The barges held 7000 tons of vari- ous steel products manufactured by the Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., Pitts- burgh, and had started from~ that city a few days previously. The car- go included hundreds of tons of great steel beams for bridge and building material, tons of concrete reinforcing bars, wire, nails, rivets, etc. All the way down the rivers to New Orleans barges with certain products will be dropped at various cities such as Louisville, Ky., Memphis, Tenn. and DISTRIBUTING PITTSBURGH STEEL BY WATER TO POINTS ON THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS 72 MARINE REVIEW—November, 1927 so on down finally to New Orleans. When President Calvin Coolidge leaves Pittsburgh on a day in the autumn next year to open formally to inland waterway commerce the rejuvenated Ohio river, he having ac- cepted the invitation of the Ohio Val- ley association to be its guest on this memorable trip, he will find only two locks and dams of the _ total 50 built by the government remain to be completed. And they will be ready for use in the summer of 1929. In fact, the government dredge HARRIS at this time is engaged in dredging a channel through the Mound City, Ill. bar which will form the connecting link between the last dam No. 53 on the Ohio river near Cairo, Ill. and deep water in the Mississippi river. Completion of the entire Ohio river lock and dam project, which has been under way by the federal government for a quarter of a century at a cost that will exceed $100,000,000, will have been accomplished within two years, declared Col. C. W. Kutz, United States corps of engineers in charge of the Ohio river work. De- tailed report was made to the con- vention by Colonel Kutz, showing that in 1928 two more dams and _ locks will be thrown open, and the remain- ing two in the following year. Each of these dams and_ locks cost the government © around $4,000,000, the combined. power dam-lock at Louis- ville now in course of completion, costing about $7,500,000.