New-York tribune., 1884-01-14
NOTES ON ND OSTRY AND TRADE.

Boston DIsCoURAGED.-Why Boston should have
been chosen as the place for an exhibition of for
eign goods 1t is hard to say. The city of Yankee.
notions, the financial centre of American textile
industries was just the place, one would have said
where an exposition Of foreign invention and skill
likely TO come TO grief. The imports Of Boston
average about onee-ighth Of the imports at New
York, and yet it was imagined that the place where
imports arc small, because buyers do not come.
would be the better spot for an exhibition. No
wonder the experiment has proved a failure, and
the Custom House officers now in charge of the
building and the property exhibited The deficit
is said to be $4,000. There not few separate
importing houses in New York which have exhibited
more foreign goods to greater number of buyers.
and yet sustained larger losses, without calling
their performance an Exposition.
MACHINE HoB-NMLs.-A machine has been in
vented that will turn out ton of hObnsils a day.
and with only three men to work it, does the work
that 100 men have been doing by the hand process.
Since 1910, when Massachusetts, put the first nail
making machine into operation, the industry has
grown so fast that 253 900 tons of cut nails alons
were made in this country in 1880. but the hand
process has still been used for hob-nails, and for
some other varieties largely in demand.
NEW BAR AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
"A suit was begun IN the NewOreans District
Court recently to restrain b. ID. Wood & Brothers
from supplying coal to oow-bOats without the
sent of Mr.. Eads. The Woods leased place for a
coal yard at Port Eads in December, 1882. and have
engaged i'll towing vessels to and from NewOreans.
BY their competition, 1t is alleged the tow-boat
monopoly was compelled to reduce its charges from
70 cents per ton for towing vessels f 800 tons and
upward from sea to city ana from city to sea, the
Iaf ofn 1auf 70 Ton ba
monopoly causes the suit to be brought. it is
stated in order to break up the competition and re-
cover the power to exact three times the rate now
charged. The monopoly only one of the many
plugs with which the mouth Of the great river was
stopped up far efectually than by the bars OF
sand or mud which Mr. Eads removed. The COM
petition, whether agreeable to the tow boat assOci
alton or not, was a benefit TO the city and tO tho
whole commerce Of the Mississippi Valley, for
charge of 81 800 for towage 900 ton vessel at
every trip in itself a very sufficient reason why
the removal of bars at the mouth of the river should
prove of less benefit to commerce than was ex-
pccted. Until New-Orleans cOntrivcs To drcdge ont
and clear away the artificial bars called mOnopoes.
of which many ObStruct its commerce, the city
will never grow rs it should.
FRrE CANALS AND TIE GRAIN TRAFrIC.-The
City of Buffalo received G5, ,33l 5G7 bushels of grain
by lake last year, against 4S,546,9i3 in 1882. But
the shipments from that city by the Erie Canal re
only ~ 500 POI bushels of grain last year, against
20GS3, $50 bushels III 1852. The increase in re-
ceiptS was 1G,S0O000 bushels, and the increase in
canal shipments about 13,O0O,00O bushels 1t does
not appear therefore that the bOatmen were as well
able to restrain railroad charges" after the aboli-
ton of tolls as before, for the railroads charged
higher rates in 1883 than in 1852, and yet took
more of the grain from Buffalo that came thither by
lake The difficulty is that the bOatmen, exactly
like the railroads, want to charge all they can get
and the canals are restrained by the railroads quito
as much rs the railroads by the canals But 1t does
not follow that their mutual restraint is not bene
| fetal to the public