The People and the Press Should Help Here is an opportunity for all interested in the success of the American merchant marine to lend their voices and their influence to promote American shipping in foreign trade by getting abroad the "bandwagon" and rooting for Henry Herbermann, his Export Steamship Corporation and the eighteen good American ships it is valiantly striving to establish permanently in American foreign carrying. If the people and the press will recommend to the President, the Postmaster General, and especially to members of Congressboth Senators and Representativesthat this fleet be used for the carriage of United States mails under the Ocean Mail Act, recommended by the Shipping Board and fully discussed in its recently issued annual reports to Congress, success will be assured. The success of this venture means much to those interested in an American merchant marine, and to American taxpayers in general, as it must be apparent to all that, should this service succeed, undoubtedly there would be a greater demand for the purchase of other United States Shipping Board services and ship, the more rapid withdrawal of the Government from the shipping business, and the interesting of private citizens in operating American ships in foreign trade.

Many citizens are interested in American shipping and stand ready to invest their capital in American tonnage, provided they are reasonably assured of an "even break" and profits consistent with the return on any reasonably safe investment.

It is interesting to note that since the Herbermann fleet has been taken

over for direct private operation, Mr. Herberman has found it necessary to acquire from the Shipping Board, under the form of Bareboat Charter, the steamship Storm King, of approximately 8800 deadweight tons, which vessel is now loading at New York for Eastern Mediterran

and is an indication that Mr. Herbermann has, at least to some extent, succeeded in competing with foreign. tonnage and overcoming the prejudice against American flag tonnage which appears to exist, unfortunately, not only with foreign shippers, but with many exporters here in the United States.

Inspection of New Porto Rico
Line Steamer Coamo

Guests to the number of more than twelve hundred were given an opportunity on January 5 of inspecting the new steamship Coamo of the Porto Rico Line. The Coamo sailed on her maiden trip to San Juan, Porto Rico, on Thursday, January 7, and will thereafter be operated in regular service between New York and Porto Rico, leaving each port on alternate Thursdays.

A buffet luncheon was served to the guests at the inspection and music by the ship's orchestra also contributed to the pleasure of the occasion.

The new Coamo was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia, from plans laid down by Mr. Frankline D. Mooney, President of the Porto Rico Line. She is 430 feet in length with a beam of 59 feet 6 inches, and a displacement of approximately 11,000 tons. Captain J. O. Foss, the commodore of the Porto Rico Line fleet, who has had the San Loreno of the same line, will be captain of the new steamer.

As per announcement by John E. Craig, vice-president of the New York & Porto Rico S. S. Co., effective January 1st, 1926, Mr. Robert Wardle was appointed Freight Traffic Manager and Mr. John W. de Bruycker is appointed General Freight Agent of this com

S.S. Blair, alongside quay at Alexandria, Egypt, December, 1925.

Deck cargo of the S.S. Blair, Alexandria to Boston and New York.

fort and welfare. There are those who ignore this, and who profess to desire the removal of the terminal freight business of the B. & O. from Staten Island, and who say they would bid it godspeed if it should. remove to Communipaw, New Jersey, as it is seriously contemplating doing. This would not only be serious to industries on the island depending upon the prompt movement of their outbound and inbound freight, and might cause a two-day loss of time each way, to say nothing of the heavy expense the industries would be put to in electrifying their switching facilities. But these people seem quite unperturbed by such a possibility and do nothing to assure the retention of the terminal freight business here, which alone keeps them on a parity as to transportation facilities with industries located elsewhere within the port.

There is a reason why the development of Staten Island during the past 300-odd years has been the most backward of New York's five boroughs, and it is not altogether due to the lack of more modern connections with the other boroughs for the transportation of passengers and freight than now exist. It is due in part to a spirit of intolerance of industries and business that, quite behind the times, is more pronounced and influential on Staten Island than elsewhere.

There are over a thousand employes of the B. & O. on Staten Island, who have their homes and families here. Many of them will lose their present employment if the freight terminal of the B. & O. were removed to Communipaw, or they would have to move to Communipaw, if the incentive proves strong enough to cause the B. & O. to make the change now, rather than unnecessarily expend eight or ten million dollars for electrical freight installation and equipment, and, if it does prevail, it will be to Staten Island's serious injury-residential, business and industrial. In fact, it would not be surprising to learn at any time that the B. & O. had definitely decided to make the change.

Staten Island's Present Peril

The trouble is that this small clique of objectors to the conduct of the freight business of the B. & O. on Staten Island, have a definite object to attack,

and they are unopposed by the great rank and file of the people there, who, quite unconscious of the danger threatening their progress and further development because of the persistence and rancor of the attacks made on the B. & O., show an amazing degree of indifference. Perfunctorily, the civic organizations stand in favor of the railroad, but they are not aroused as they should be, nor are they showing a spirit of helpfulness to the island's most useful instrumentality and its biggest taxpayer in enabling it to defer the expenditure of the millions of dollars at this time not at all justified by the business in hand or in prospect for

years.

In the great railroad mergers impending there is more than a chance that the B. & O. will acquire possession of the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Reading railroad, placing it in possession of adequate mainland terminal facilities much closer to the densely populated part of Greater New York than it enjoys at Staten Island and ample for years to come for all of its requirements. And at this critical period influential Staten Islanders are striving to force the B. & O. to do something that probably 99 per cent of the people of Staten Island would hold mass meetings and send delegations to Albany to undo. The electrification law should be so amended as to postpone the time when it would be necessary for the B. & O. to expend expend eight or ten million dollars for electrical equipment for the handling of its freight business until that business, now comparatively small and only slowly growing, reaches larger proportions on Staten Island.

The Baltimore & Ohio railroad has done more for convenience if its residents and the promotion of its the development of Staten Island, the comfort and industries, than has any other single instrumentality or aggregation of instrumentalities in Richmond Borough, and it deserves better treatment from its beneficiaries than it is receiving. Perhaps the people of Staten Island will wait until the B. & O. definitely decides to save its millions and conduct its terminal freight business from Communipay, rather than from Staten Island, before realizing that they have killed the goose that lays Staten Island's golden eggs.

As a result of the electrification, it has been possible to reduce the schedule running time of trains five minutes between St. George and South Beach, and ten minutes between St. George and Tottenville. Another important advantage is the elimination of smoke in the tunnel located just outside the St. George terminal. One of the economies effected as a result of the electrification has been a reduction in the number of trainmen required. Power for the operation of trains is obtained through a 600-volt direct-current overrunning third rail system. It is supplied at 33,000 volts, three-phase, 60 cycles from a new generating station of the Staten Island Edison Company at Livingston. Distribution is through five substations having an aggregate capacity of 10,000 kw. Two Westinghouse 1,000-kw. rotary convertors are used in each substation. A system of supervisory control places the operation of the entire power system in the hands of a traffic operator located at St. George.

In connection with the electrification project, it was considered desirable to rebuild almost entirely the track throughout the system, replacing the old 80-lb. rail by 100lb. A. R. A. rail. On all work up to the present 33-ft. rail lengths have been used, but on the North Shore electrification it is a 39-ft. rail. Third rail is of the section that has been used extensively in the past on the rapid transit lines in New York City and weighs 150-lb., per yard. New creosoted wood ties have been installed wherever needed. Old ties found in good conditions were allowed to remain. Extra ties are placed at intervals to support the third rail. Rock ballast will eventually be used on all track, although at present one short section still has gravel ballast. This will be reballasted at once. Multiple unit cars having the same exterior dimensions as those operated on the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit lines are used on Staten Island, which makes possible the operation of the cars through the proposed tunnel under the Narrows and anywhere on the B. M. T. system. The new cars were built by the Standard Car Company. The length over buffers is 67 ft. and width over loor sills is 10 feet. Exterior and interior views of the new cars are shown. Seats are provided for 71 passengers. The seating arrangement differs from that used on the B. M. T. cars in that cross seats are used throughout except at the ends and opposite the center doors. In the latter location, longitudinal seats have been arranged to drop into place on the blind side. In arrangement of doors also the Staten Island cars differ from those used by the B. M. T. Each car has ten doors, one at each end for communication with the adjacent car, one at each end on each side, and two in the middle on each side. All doors are operated by electro-pneumatic door engines, controlled by push buttons located at the center and ends of the cars. Control circuits for these engines are connected to a 32-volt storage battery. To prevent the cars from being opened while the car is in motion, a safety relay is provided which prevents the door engines from acting until the car comes to a stop. Provision is made for the independent operation of the door of the motorman's cab when the end side is at the operating end. Cars are heated electrically by power from the 600volt bus by means of coiltype heaters located under both longitudinal and cross seats. A panel in the motorman's cab controls the heaters, providing for the use of power on all or part of them. The temperature of the car is further regulated by a thermostat.

Lighting is provided by four 600-volt circuits of five lights each, controlled from a master switch on the main switch panel. Headlights are also controlled from this panel, including four marker lights, two in the upper deck and two just above the floor line of the car. Color

changing devices are provided by which green, yellow or red display may be obtained for each of the two upper marker lights. A telltale signal in the motorman's cab gives indication when all the doors of the train are ciosed. Six small emergency lights are also provided in the car body which light automatically when connection with the third rail is cut off.

Electric service is operated with one motorman and one conductor per train, and one brakeman for each two cars. Former enginemen were trained as motormen, and have taken up the new work with complete success.

Roy B. White, general manager of the New York terminal lines of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, is in charge of operation of the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway.

New Savannah Line Appointments

Effective January 4th, the following appointments are announced by E. R. Richardson, Vice-President and General Manager of the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah:

Mr. W. I. Percy is appointed Assistant Superintendent with office at Pier 501, North River.

Mr. William Tanis, Port Steward, with headquarters at Pier 52, North River.

The object of these appointments is that these men will be, in accordance with the policy of the company, put through a course of training in preparation for their succession to the positions of superintendent and commissary upon the retirement by age limitation of the present incumbents of these offices.

Mr. Percy entered the service of the company as an oiler in 1898 and has progressed steadily through the during the construction of the steamers City of Chattaranks. In 1905 he was made a Chief Engineer, and nooga and City of Birmingham at Newport News, Va., Mr. Richardson selected him from the chief engineers in the line to represent the company as inspector. All the officials are confident he will be a worthy addition to the supervisory organization.

Mr. Tanis has been employed by the company since 1907, when he entered the line as clerk and steno

grapher to Mr. Storey, the present commissary. He commissary department, and in recognition of his has been continuously employed since that time in the years of faithful service he has been appointed to the new position of Port Steward.

Mr. Richardson also announced the appointment of Mr. F. C. McCrary, formerly Traveling Freight Agent, to the newly established position of Commercial Agent, with headquarters at Pier 50, North River. He will be succeeded as Traveling Freight Agent by Mr. F. L. Valdez, who has been Chief Clerk in the Eastern Traffic Agent's Office for some time past.

Mariner's Harbor Warehouses

A. J. Grymes is president and C. J. Sauer is treasurer of the Mariner's Harbor Warehouse Corporation at Mariner's Harbor, S. I., which has a number of warehouses including a four-story pier warehouse, 100 x 400 feet, a six story brick building 63 by 86 feet, two onestory brick structures and two acres of enclosed ground space for outdoor storage. Mariner's Harbor Warehouse Corporation is in the free lighterage zone and lighters can be loaded and discharged at the corporation's pier. There is a private siding of the B. & O. Railroad Co., connected with the corporation's property, the warehouse concern and the railroad having a storage-in-transit division.

New Against Mail Subsidies?

Day by day indications become stronger that the Shipping Board-Fleet Corporation desires managing agents of Government vessels in established trade routes to purchase the same promptly, Washington advices state, according to the New York Commercial, which also says: The same advices also declare that little or no enthusiasm for the Board's desire is apparent among the managing agents on the basis of terms the Board would impose. In this connection a report has persisted for some weeks to the effect that a recent buyer of a transatlantic service is of the opinion his ships should be granted a substantial

mail subvention. Postmaster General New is said to have declined to entertain any suggestion for mail subventions that would interfere with his efforts to make the Postoffice Department pay its way.

On the other hand, Chairman O'Connor and other members of the Shipping Board are quoted as feeling that Congress can be persuaded to pass legislation in favor of mail subventions to cargo ships purchased from the Shipping Board-Fleet Corporation. Recently discussions in Washington have led to rumors that the Shipping Board-Fleet Corporation may take away from several operators of Government ships their managing agencies and turn the latter over to one of the recent purchasers of board services in order that this purchaser may overcome likely losses on his own transatlantic

route.

According to section of the Jones' Act this matter is wholly in the hands of the Postmaster General and the Shipping Board.

Florida's Lumber Needs

Rivaled only by the huge demand for building material following the San Francisco earthquake, the lumber trade with Florida has raised the problem of obtaining available light draft ship tonnage to move lumber and timbers to Miami, Ormond Beach and other shallow ports there.

To carry lumber to the growing cities in Florida fourteen sailing ships and three steamships are loading at Puget Sound mills, four sailing and one steamship taking lumber cargoes at Gray's Harbor and five vessels getting ready to sail from the Columbia River. This fleet has already been headed by many shiploads of building material, and, according to lumber operators in the Northwest, the demand is so large that future orders are booked for delivery for a year ahead.

What is expected to be one of the greatest races ever held between commercial ships in American waters will start from Gray's Harbor, Wash., when the sailing schooners Alvena and Irene leave for Miami.

Known as "the twin pearls of the Pacific", the ships are exact in size, tonnage and sail speed. The race will be matched in every respect, one carrying short dimension stuff and square timbers, the other frame lumber and shingles. Seamanship will play the important part in the

contest.

Unwilling to await the arrival of lumber carrying ships, one mill is sending two huge scows with a total of 3,000,000 feet of lumber to sea under the towage of the tug Roosevelt. The two barges are expected to negotiate the Panama Canal and enter the harbor of Miami, where deep draft ships have difficulty. The success of this venture will encourage other mills to thus transport lumber and shingles.

The demand for shingles of heavy type has created the manufacture of one thirty inches long and half inch thick at the weather edge. These long shingles are used in Florida bungalow type dwellings.

J. F. Schumacher's New Quaker Line

How true it is that "you can't keep a good man down!" This is apropos of the establishment late last month of the Quaker Line, owned by the Interocean Steamship Corporation, incorporated in Delaware by J. F. Schumacher, of New York, and president of the company. For nearly a year Mr. Schumacher has been assistant traffic manager of the Export Steamship Corporation, owned by Henry Herbermann, whose Philadelphia agent, by the way, Mr. Schumacher will be, and who will promptly see to it that it constitutes "a tidy business in itself". For several years Mr. Schumacher was vice consul for the Netherlands in the State of Florida. He has visited practically all of the important ports of the world and is well posted regarding them, their shipping and their commerce.

None of the younger generation of shipping is more popular than is Mr. Schumacher, and none is destined to make a greater success than is he, if he doesn't try to do too much himself, and break down, as he did as the Eastern manager of the Dollar Line which a couple of years ago he helped establish in its round-the-world successful business, and which led to his recuperation during a number of months preceding his advent in the Export Steamship Corporation, which he retires from on January 10, with the best wishes and warmest regard of his former associates, with whom, as pointed out, his Philadelphia agency of the Export Steamship Corporation will keep him in intimate touch.

occupied by the I. M. M. in the Bourse Building, at PhilaThe new Quaker Line has taken over offices formerly delphia.

The

The company is to start with a fleet of eight large steel freighters, classed 100-A-1, owned by the Oriental Navigation Company, of New York, and the Columbia Pacifiv Shipping Company, of Portland, Ore. These vessels have a sea speed of 12 knots and are equipped with all modern appliances for rapid handling of cargo. Philadelphia terminal of the line will be at Pier 27, North Wharves, owned by the Reading Company. The first sailing will be the Orleans, leaving Philadelphia January 29, followed by the I'est Joppa, February 12, and the Orinoco February 26. The line will quote conference rates on a differential basis.

The company is to be represented at Los Angeles by the McCormack-McPherson Company, at San Francisco by the Williams, Diamond Company, and at Portland by the Columbia Pacific Shipping Corporation. Mr. Schumacher states that sailings will be made on schedule time, regardless of tonnage offered, with no diversions from the direct sailing plan. He adds that a complete survey

of the territory has convinced him that shippers will sup

port a direct line to the Pacific Coast.

Mr. Schumacher has had wide experience in shipping, and is regarded as one of the ablest men in his special field. He was formerly connected with the HollandAmerica Line, is a clear-headed, experienced and able executive, full of well-directed energy and an indefatig

able worker.