The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-05-10
The daieha 9ay Eagle Thmrsdau goruime 7ay To- 1884.

cost the government rhmsttbesr. There
Is no question about the. justice Of
this. In thousand was3sthe United
States will be comp.nsslted for such
| expenditure. In The. first place
| there is the honor of. Il. That is dis
tinctly worth while. Then there is the
increase OF facilities az mail transpor-
tation- That is important But most
important OF all is the, Utility Of Amer
lean passenger ships in case of war.
Both the New York and Paris were
built as auxiliary cruisers apr the Brit
ish navy. Whersthey became Ameri-
! can ships it was understood that IN
case OF war they Ishouit Il be.turned over
to the navy deparsment,on demand. If
such an unhappy time were to come
they would prove very valuable. On
short notice tlay could be transformed
into cruisers of great powe>and speed.
/ They are SO constructed that gums
could be readily mounted. and while
{ they could not be armored go as to
meet in battle any of the foueign men
of-vvar. they are so rapid that they
could.readily escape from tlsem and do
| great damage TO unprotected COM
merce. The ships which arc now being
built for the American line by the
Cramps. of Philadelphia, will be pro-
vided with these apPiiancoSsand many
others In case OF war the American
line feet would be one of tho most
valuable branches of the United States
navy"
"Do'yon think, then, that the United
States viii ever be commercially 81.
preme on the sea-?
II see no reason to doubt #. We
have made up our mindsto it, and we
generally get what we make up our
minds to. One of the things which
may lead to it is tho use OF the great
lakes as an international waterway.
OF course no man can tell whether or
not this will ever really be brought
about, but it does not seem more i'm
probable that the Erie canal will be
enlarged into a passageway for ocean
going ships than it must have seemed
years ago that it would be built at all.
I have not studied this subject, and
know very little about the engineer
ing difficulties which might be encouu-
tered. It is possible that they would
be so great IA to make it impossible to
proftably enlarge the channel, but
that does not seem Likely. II the time
ever comes when ocean steamships
may enter New York harbor and sail
thence by the Hudson river, Erie canal
ana the lakes to Chicago and other
great interior ports a revolution will
be worked in the commerce of the
country such as we have never before
even dreamed Of
What do you think, Mr.. Griscom,
would be Chicago's position then
among the cities of the world? Would
She surpass New York;"
"No, do not believe that that win
ever be possible. New York Will re-
main the metropolis Of America and
will probably become the greatest city
of the world. But Chicago would, of
course, be greatly benefited. and other
lake cities, like Buffalo, Cleveland and
Detroit, would grow to a magnitude
and Importance as yet unthought OF.
If such great ship canal is CONNER
cial possibility. it will undoubtedly be
accomplished, and it will be the great,
est Of all Americas great achieve
nents."
HAS the maximum Of speed in ocean
vessels been reachedY'
Eyes, very nearly. Increased speed
means increased size. as matters stand
now, and the harbors of the world will
not permit an increase Of size. The
entrances to them are too shallow. For
instance, at low tide there is only
thirty feet of water over the New
York harbor bar. The biggest steam
ships now draw twenty-eight of that
thirty feet. That leaves at the out
side only a two-foOt possibility of in
crease of size, and there is no ikeli-
hood that method viii be devised for
cutting and keeping clear q deeper
channel through bar situated as is
that of New York's harbor.
mo greater power can be developed
IN ships of the present size until a new
fuel is devised. At present six-fif-
teenths of an ocean passenger steam
chinery. All this enormous percent
age is utilized to Its high possibility
in obtaining the speed of the present.
and with each extra knot the amount
of fuel and the weight Of machinery
increases In more than geometrical
ratio. For instance, one famous ship
has a maximum speed of 2l.6 knots an
hour. Another has beaten her By only
seventy-nine minutes on the voyage
across the Atlantic, but in order to at
tain this increase Of speed she has 70
burn six hundred pounds of coal to
the others three hundred pounds. As
long as this is true it viii be Of course
impossible to build ship whose in
creased speed will be Of any CONNER
cial irnportance-shat is, O matter of
dollars and cents IN saving of time TO
passengers or shippers"
''Is there any pathway open now, so !
far as you know, toward new fuel?"
Nothing practical, 1 think. 1t has |
been demonstrated that oil is an en-
tirely successful fuel, and, of course. /
it takes Up much less space and weighs |
less than coal. but there is not enough 4
of it The Pennsylvania railroad. for |
instance, made extensive and elab- /
crate experiments with il, and finally |
found that they could use it success
fully. They then had a locomotive /
fitted up TO burn it This done, they
began to look into the supply. After
a months investigation they found !
that IL the Pennsylvania railroad /
should adopt oil as fuel they would 1
alone use every drop produced III the 4
state OF Pennsylvania every year. icav-
ing none whatever for use in lighting
or other purposes l do not. By this,
mean to intimate that a new fuel will /