The morning call., 1892-06-11
OCEAN CARRIERS.

San Franeiscans should not lose the op-
portunity of seeing the Liverpool, the larg-
est sailing ship which ever entered this port,
and. with the exception of the France and
the Maria Rickmers, is the largest sailing
ship in the world. She is only 3400 tons
register, but she is 333 fee. long, AZ feet
beam and q feet deep, so that she can
carry over 5000 tons of cargo. She arrived
here with 500 tons of coal in her hold.
Her arrival is timely. because just now
public attention is directed to the subject
of ocean competition with land transporta-
tion. The well-known firms of W. r. Grace
& Co. and Balfour, Guthrie & Co. are fol-
lowing the example Of the SuttOns. and
dispatching large and swift-sailing vessels
from New York and ether Atlantic ports for
San Francisco Grace is loading the clip
per-ship Charles E. Moody for this port
and announces that it is to be one Of fleet
Of clippers to be started atintervals. Balfour.
Guthrie 81 Co. have several vessels loading.
one Or two of which are cleared for the Sound
and Portland, but most of them will come
here. At the present moment S7.777 tons of
merchandise are aflOat for this port, having
been dispatched from New York, Baltimore
and Philadelphia. The Grace and Balfour
fleets will probably add to this volume.
II these two fleets only consist Of three
vessels each. or six vessels together they
will probably carry COO tons of freight
This is equivalent TO the quantity which
would be carried in 1900 large freight cars,
or in crossing the mountains, in 80 trains
of 10 cars each. The bulk of this business
will be taken from the railroad and will
make a sensible difference in its freight
traffic. A railroad completes at disadvantage
with an ocean carrier 1t would take 90
trains to haul over the mountains the guam
tity Of merchandise which tie single ship
Liverpool brought into port last Tuesday.
In all the traffic in which speed IS nom
essential the car canuot compete with the
ship.
This development Of maritime intercourse
between New York and San Francisco is
one of the most promising steps toward the
emancipation of the port from the thrall-
dom under which it has groaned. The
railroad may succeed in main tanning its
control over the Panama line, but it can
not get monopoly of the ocean. And the
development Of marine architecture is
rapidly accelerating the speed of naval car
riers and Increasing their carrying capacity.
They are building in England freight
steamers which can make an average OF 10
knots an hour IN all weathers with trifing
expenditure Of coal. What the English can
do we can do. If we can reduce the aver
age time Of a ireight-carrier from New
York to San Francisco to 60 days the rail
cars will only have an advantage Of some so
days over the ship; for the average time Of
freight trains across the continent is not
less than month.
Complete emancipation will not come
until the trade of San Francisco can turn 10
account the Panama Railroad or the Nica-
Tagua canal. As to the Panama RailIoad.
the present compact by which it is bound to
oppose competition with the combine be-
tween the transcontlnental pool and the
Pacific Mail may be broken to pieces prob
ably whenever the trouble is taken to go to
Paris and draw the attention Of the
assignees Of De Lesseps' company and the
French courts 10 the nature of the bargain
it made five or six years ago. The assignees
will not most likely submit TO nave thein
come of the property restricted for the sake
Of enriching foreign corporations.
In the meantime, if we cannot get all we
want, let US do the best with what we can
get An enormous share Of the transcOnti.
mental freight can be diverted from the rail-
road to clipper ships, if the people realize
that by such competition reasonable rates
may be obtained from the monopoly. The
men who control the transcOntinental line
Will not abate one jot of their extortion
until they are forced TO; and they cannot
be forced to until they see the business by
which they live drifting into competing
channels.