Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-04

voiced in the paper of Daniel A. Tomp-
kins of Charlotte n C. in a paper on the
topic. Southern Development and Ameri-
can p-sea Shipping" Mr.. Tompkins
was not present at the meeting, put MS
paper was read by the secretary, in part
as follows: u.
During the time of slavery We had Ut
tie except farm products TO ship from the
south. For these We could aHoro ~ u.
mend upon English and other foreign
ships But now must abandon policies
which fitted slavery and adopt new ones
fitted 10 free institutions and diversineo
pursuits We need ships now as badly as
the farmer needed factories in 1880. We
must have them If we would escape de-
preston like the farmer had when cotton
went to cents a pound.
I'VE not only need ships to extend our
commerce abroad, but we need them 10
suppleme Mt our navy.
we are building the Panama canal at
a probable cost of 2c0,Oo,ro. For whose
benefit? Not ours, unless we do some
thing to get American ships. England col
lects annually between $500, and
$500 900, $50 for deep-sea freight-as much
as we do for our cotton crop or wheat
crop. o.,o, 400
I'VE pay England annually s200OOO,00O
deep-sea freight money. England pays
more than slOUD.oDO annually in subslii g
10 keep her shipping interests protected.
The bill proposed in the last Congress car
ried subsidies which could not nave aSSre-
gated over s3.C0O.GD0 If all the lines pro-
posed had been established. England could
not have won the South African war, ex-
cept for the aid of her merchant ships at
transport.
Responsibility for Car Shortage.
The Loading OF Cotton" was an inter-
esting and important subject discussed by
l.. Green. freight traffic manager of the
Southern railway, of this city. He declared
the greatest responsibility for car shortage
lays with the shipper or the railway COM
pany who fall to utilize the full space of
fox cars. Applying this argument to the
cnI Gyirg of cotton, Mr.. Green said
The lailv avs themselves are as much
to blame the shippers for failure to get
tn best results from the use of equipment
in handling cotton. They have for years
n'oved ,he crop of cotton from country
tations to compress points with an aver
age of about twenty-five bales IN car.
1t has been demonstrated that with care
full loading ffty-one uniform bales OF un-
compressed cotton can be loaded In stand
ard box car. and an average of forty-two
bales can probably be obtained Our COM
pany and some others of the south. have
undertaken TO enforce the loading of I'M
compressed cotton for its Initial move
ment to the compress point to the fuIl
loading capacity of cars. and II this can
be sccOmp iSted you will readily see that
the efficiency of equipment used in the
f~st movement of the cotton crop will be
increased approximately 30 per cent.
Unit of Loading.
For many years the unit of loading COM
pressed cotton has been fifty bales to the
car This unit was adopted for two rea-
sons: first, because of the practice in buy
ing and selling cotton to use a unit of
loo bales This number could not be loaded
in an ordinary car and il was advan-
tage to load three fourthS in one car and
one-foUrth In another
s COnd. the standard car when this load
ing unit adopted was thirty-four feet
in length. Compression was not so good
as at this time, and fifty bales were about
all that could be put end on the floor
OF a thirty-four-foot car. The present
standard car is thirty-siX feet in length,
and II is easy to load sixty bales of cotton,
as now compressed, on the floor Of a thirty
six-foot car. Fifteen additional bales can
be placed on top of those bales that are
an easy matter to load seventy-five bales
of compressed cotton in a box of the
present standard, and the railways are try
ing to secure such loading. If their eff
forts succeed, the efficiency of cars used in
the transportation of compressed cotton
will be increased nearly 80 per cent.
Some of the congresses have contracted
to make seVcnty-fve bales the minimum
load. We hope to make contracts with all
OF them on this basis. Many of the south
ern spinners have agreed 10 cooperate by
ordering their shipments in units of seven