Seattle is connecting salt water up Sal- time Panama opens, Seattle couver American-Hawaii and the Pacific Mail, 1,250,000 tons a year were crossing Panama. By rail, the rate on this freight from Pacific to Atlantic would have been will boast a ter- This shows a general view of warehouse and bulkhead shed, with As if in confirmation of the coastal cities' hopes, big European liners have announced new services making ports of call all along the Gulf and the Pacific. The Hamburg-American is to have a monthly service of ten steamers through "Panama to the Orient". Italian lines have been subsidized to the extent of $400,000 a year for service to South America-this, in anticipation of capturing the enormous emigration traffic now setting in from Italy to all countries in South America. A Hawaii line freighters has added eight more steamers to its service. Up to the time of the passing of the Panama Bill, the Pacific Mail, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific, had expended twelve million for Panama passenger liners. of Japanese companies, which already. handle 70 per cent of the oriental traffic of the Pacific, and receive subsidies of $100,000 a trip from the Japanese Government, announce three different liners from Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagasaki through Panama to New York. When the California-Atlantic began traffic from the Pacific to the Atlantic three years ago, less than 40,000 tons of freight a year were crossing Panama. When the Company failed in the beginning of 1913, with their line, and the $20 a ton. By water, it did not average $10; and during the months of a rate war, went down as low as $3 and $5; so that these three years of traffic by Panama saved shippers twelve and one-half millions in freight. It looks as if the railroad man's prediction as to Panama being "a frog pond for lily pads" wasn't going to come to fulfillment, doesn't it? But hold on— what has that to do with rates? The foreign steamship lines by law cannot engage in coast-to-coast traffic; so that leaves rates untouched so far as they are concerned. In fact, for export traffic, the foreign steamship pools have jacked up rates threefold in three years. Formerly, you could send cotton to Europe for from 12 cents in 1910, to 15 cents in 1911; it is 45 cents in 1913. Grain was 3 cents across the Atlantic in 1910 and at the opening of 1913 it was 10 cents. Not much relief in rates on foreign shipments, is there? And the foreign pools, charging these rates, paid dividends of from 10 per cent to 25 per cent in 1912. How about the coastal steamers, which are to reduce rates between the Atlantic DRAWING SHOWING CONTEMPLATED CHANGES IN PORTLAND'S HARBOR It is proposed to dredge out Swan Island below the city. In addition to extensive terminals now installed by six transcontinental railroads in this city, the Seattle Port Districtvoted $8.100.000 for the construction of dockage facilities, for the acquisition of the site and erection of six concrete wharfs, 1.400 feet long and 150 feet wide, to accommodate forty large steamships at one time. and Pacific? All the steamers, both on the Atlantic and Pacific, except the CaliforniaAtlantic, are owned by, or leagued with, the transcontinental systems; and the Panama Bill forbids the use of the Canal by railroad-owned steamships. Where does this leave matters? Says Mr. Schwerin, Manager of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company: "If the Canal had been free to the vessels of the world, every transcontinental road would have been forced into the hands of a receiver. Thousands of ships would carry all the freight that now goes by rail and incalculable ruin would follow. But foreign ships cannot come into the coast trade. All the coastal lines but one are owned by the railroads; that one line has failed; and the railroad ships cannot use the Canal. Where does that leave you as to rates? Take wheat as one of the most important export commodities of the West! It is 600 miles for western wheat to the Pacific. It is 2,400 miles for western wheat to the Atlantic. The rates today are 221⁄2 cents for the 600 miles west; 24 cents to 25 cents for the 2,400 miles east. The difference seemingly in favor of the West vanishes on examination; for, at Montreal, say, harbor charges are only one-fourth of a cent in and onefourth of a cent out. At Vancouver and Prince Rupert, there are no elevators, no automatic conveyor systems, no beltline civic railroads. Wheat must be sacked and sacking costs in bags and extra handling from 5 to 8 cents extra a bushel. If the railroad-owned steamship lines cannot use Panama, it is a pretty even wager they are not going to make rates proportionate to distance east and west. The same of shipments south! While Houston is only 700 miles plus to Kansas wheat fields, and Atlantic ports are 1,300 miles plus, the rate south is 30 cents plus, the rate east 12 to 16 cents plus. Why did the one line independent of the railroads fail, if it had such bulk of freight? Because its rivals monopolized harbor fronts on the Atlantic Coast. It could get a cargo eastbound; but westbound, all sorts of extra expenses-embargo, for instance-occurred on the docks of Atlantic ports. Shippers, who patronized the California-Atlantic, were "penalized” (Continued on page 450) A THING OF THE WATER AND THE AIR-THE HYDROAEROPLANE-CURTISS TYPE THE AERIAL ADVANCE By EDWIN BALMER Naval experts criticize the action of Congress in appropriating enough money to build only one Dreadnaught the Pennsylvania-in the face of the tremendous naval activities of other nations. In a similar manner we are delinquent in the matter of adding to the military service anything like a sufficient number of airships France, Germany, and even conservative England all realize the tremendous importance of this new arm of the service. Americans may delude themselves with the happy impression that New York City and other great ports are impregnable to assault. This is probably true by way of the sea, but by way of the air they are at the mercy of the invader. So far as aeronautic advance for military purposes is concerned, the United States trails along with such insignificant powers as Denmark, Sweden, and China. The writer of this article very pertinently asks: What would you have Congress do to increase our air forces? The people must answer that question.-Editor's Note. "N EVER lost a passenger"the boast of very, very few carriers by land or wateris the record of the only regular aerial passenger carriers, the rigid dirigible balloons almost daily flying over Germany. To better appreciate it, just a few figures. As quoted from the reports of the Zeppelin Company concerning flights of their balloons from January 1st, 1912, to December 1st, 1912, or 334 days, Zeppelin airships were operated during 308 days, were in the air for a total of 1,167 hours, during which they covered 41,145 miles and carried 10,291 people. A single dirigible, the Viktoria Luise, made 225 trips with an average duration of over two hours, traveling 17,735 miles, and carrying nearly two thousand passengers. The figures for the flights of aeroplanes now cannot even be estimated. The number of aeroplanes in America alone, is now only approximated; it has long been impossible to do better than guess in rough figures of thousands, at the number of safe and successful flights made each month within the boundaries of any great nation. Accidents and fatalities are still occurring, but fatal flights are becoming a smaller and smaller fraction of the total flights each year. With the risks arising from pure dents are due either to air eddies close to the ground or to attempts to avoid obstacles in landing; no fatality would result in such cases if the flight was over water. For, over water, unusual air eddies are rare and even when a hydroaeroplane is out of control and falls from a moderate height into water, the pilot and any passenger usually escape with nothing worse than a wetting. From the point of view of the American sportsman, therefore, flying both by balloon and by heavier-than-air machine, have made most satisfactory advance in the few years since Santos Dumont was wrecking his little balloons over Paris, and the Wrights were gliding down the dunes of Kittyhawk. And the portion of ONE OF THE MONSTER ZEPPELIN CRAFT dare-deviltry eliminated, a seat in an aeroplane in flight, has become at least, approximately, as safe as a seat on the saddle of a spirited horse. As the flying boat has been perfected and has become popular, and flights over water are being preferred to flights across country, the dangers of flying are being further reduced. It is claimed by the manufac THE GONDOLA OF A DIRIGIBLE RESTING ON THE WATER turers of the flying boats and also by officers at the navy aviation camp, that at least eighty per cent of aviation. fatalities are the result of accident, when the aeroplane is at an altitude of two hundred feet or less, and that such acci BIPLANE EQUIPPED WITH QUICK FIRING GUN that advance, which has been made in America, has been due almost entirely to the development of the aeroplane and hydroaeroplane for sporting or "exhibition amusement" purposes. The Government and military and naval circles, which abroad have been the most active agents of advanced aviation, here have been most distressingly dormant. From the philosophical side it is, perhaps, much to our credit that it is not America which has developed the dirigible balloon along with the aeroplane. The great modern balloons abroad are, either in fact, or in spirit, war balloons; with practically no exception, even those, which now carry passengers or have had passenger accommodations, were built under government subsidy for war pur poses. In Germany, for instance, where by far the greatest advance has been made in dirigible balloons, a recent table shows twenty-two dirigibles effective at present of which half are frankly war balloons, and the others are formally or tacitly in the aerial reserve. These may not have painted upon them-as is stenciled upon every freight car in the Empire-their exact carrying capacity in men and munitions of war for the crisis when, at the outbreak of war, they will be taken over; but for each there is a definite duty in the defense or in the aggressive movement of the imperial forces. AN EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD VIEW SHOWING DETAILS OF THE GON DOLA OF A DIRIGIBLE "The fourth arm," (as they call the aviation division in France, where the aeroplane and balloon details for some time have been a recognized army unit) is added to the infantry, cavalry, and artillery units. The Germans are beginning to consider their aerial forces "the third arm," raising the aviation division not only to the rank of an army unit but considering the forces commanding the air as a major military division together with the army and the navy. In Berlin, it is already proposed to appoint a new under-Secretary of State attached to the Ministry of the Interior to deal with aeronautical matters. The new powers, which not only German military experts but also the ex perts of England and France assign to this "new arm," certainly justify its consideration as a major military unit. In England the terror of German aerial forces has caused the hysteria which brought about the passage of the recent measure au thorizing the firing upon unknown craft seen cruising overhead. Recent cables also relate the concealing of English arsenals and magazines underground, and the protecting of them with a cover of armor, earth, and sod, from attack from overhead. England until recently completely occupied in launching six dreadnoughts for every four that take the water in Germany, in the last few months has aroused and is setting herself the task of meeting, ship for ship, the Teutonic dreadnoughts of the air. France, at the same moment in which it is augmenting its already great army to match the German army increase, man for man, is busy building great war balloons-and 'war balloons of the rigid, German type, abandoning the non-rigid French designs of the early experiments. ONE OF THE SPANISH MILITARY DIRIGIBLES A VERY RECENT TYPE OF FRENCH MILITARY MONOPLANE In America, we have been made to understand, as fully as oft-repeated warnings in the magazines and newspapers could make us |