New-York tribune., 1907-10-27
OVERSEAS TRAFFIC.
BristoHs Belated Efforts to Regain
Prestige.
Bristol. October II.

port from which CABOT sailed Tor the discovery
of North America is costly inheritance. In
| volving investments in dock improvements more
or less adventurous and speculative and bur
| dens for taxpayers as inevitable as semi-annual
! te-dues. The old town. which sent twenty
! four ships to the siege of Calais and amassed
wealth in the slave trade in sugar and tobacco
| commerce with the American and West Indian
| colonies and in privateering operations in the
wars with France and Spain, cannot sleep so
| long there is any chance Of regatning its
prestige as the second British port To hon
orable tradition of maritime enterprise is added
the poignant sense of a lost opportunity Ruin
Gus for Bristol as were the American Revolu-
tion and the suppression of the slave traffic, the
construction of the Great Western, the pioneer
Atlantic liner, might have opened the way for
successful competition with Liverpool and
Southampton if there had been a more en-
lighteneG policy in increasing the docking ac-
commodations and In anticipating the require
ments OF commerce. The private companies
wasted time and neglected to keep abreast
with the forces Of competition elsewhere, and
the ancient corporation. desparing Of success
In any other way, purchased the harbor prop
critics and entered upon expensive scheme of
deep water improvements seven miles from the
Cabot column. The municipal authorities have
displayed remarkable energy in these belated
efforts to provide the town with scientific ia
cilities for attracting and handling a great
foreign commerce. The taxpayers have also
shown exemplary patience in bearing increased
burdens.
The projectors OF the new harbor works have
assumed that the Lustanias. Deutschlands and
other mammoth liners will never come until
there are deep water docks for receiving them
and improved facilities for dispatching pas
senEers mails and Cargoee. The plant will be
supplied on scientific lines when the Royal Ed
ward Dock now nearly ready to take water. is
completed and opened, early next year. There
has been an increase in foreign trade in con-
sequence of the enlargement of the floating har-
Dor in the city itself. and the construction of
the Portishead and AvOnmouth docks at the
river entrances from the Severn: and IL has
been contended that expansion of overseas
trade, especially with America and Canada, will
follow the completion OF the deep water quays
and basins, where Sir John Ards Assouan
plant is employed. Certainly the big liners
In the transatlantic service viii never come un-
less accommodation IS provided for them in ad-
vance at high cost; and this will he done when
the piers are carried out u tidewater. the
trance lock a hundred feet in breadth finished.
an immense basin flooded. and all the mech
anism put In readiness for the loading and
loading Of vessels OF the heaviest draft and the
dispatch Of passengers and mails To and from
London At tho existing docks IN Avonmouth
and Portlshead there is already a complete
plant for tho West Indian. Black Sea. Argen-
tine East Indian and coastlng trades. with
granaries, warehouses. transit sheds. coaling
cranes. slaughter houses. timber stacking
grounds and railway lines. These facilities will
be greatly enlarged when the junction cut opens
into the new dock. where oceangoIng vessels
Of the greatest dimensions can be accom-
modated. When the craving dock. the timber
channel and other improvements are finished
and every hydraulic crane and floating pontoon
Is in readiness, Bristol will be one of the best
equipped ports in Europe for foreign trade
Will there be any adequate return for the cap
ital investment Of not less than $25 900 600 in
these new harbor works? That is not a ques-
tion which easily be answered There are
two main factors in the problem: the practica-
bility ~ active competition with Liverpool as a
distributing and collecting centre for cargoes
and with Southampton and Plymouth in ocean
passenger service. Bristol is prosperous city
with important manufactures and Industries
and population of more than $4,000. but Ian
cashirc and Yorkshire are not behind IT, and
while railway connections with the north and
east are close, II can hardly expect rival Liv-
erpool either In tho shipment OF exports or the
distribution of imports While the municipal
authorities providing port facilities a long
way in advance Of the requirements of the coast
wise traffic and such trade as there is with
foreign countries. IT may be necessary to wait 4
long time for the phenomenal increase of car
goes and shipping which viii justify the lavish
expenditures in deep water works II the dis
trcts around Bristol were Industrial rather than
agricultural the results would be less problem
attic but with conditions they are the port
is centre of coastwise traffic rather than for
cign trade The growth of the city will be pro-
NOTED by the new harbor works. and special
lines Of manufacture dependent upon foreign
trade may be introduced. There will be many
indirect benefits from the energy shown in the
dock policy. even If the movement of cargoes be
disappointing and the reduction of taxpayers
burdens illusory. A wideawake port prepared
to handle three or four times as much
commerce as II has already is in the way of
growing and prospering. a cautious timorous
town. which abandons the struggle for suprenl-
acy and condemns the investment of public
money in harbor works as wasteful and ex-
travagant. is on the down grade and without
hope of arrestng the decline of its fortunes
Can the transatlantic passenger traffic be
diverted from Liverpool and the Channel ports
to Bristol? The projectors of the new docks
have not considered 1t hopeless undertaking.
The Lusitania and the Mauritania can be
berthed in the great basin now under construc-
ton. and even larger vessels. If the tonnage of
liners be increased in the international struggle
Tor speed records. This is an important cOnsid-
GRAFTON. for the terminal facilities for accom-
modating the levathans must ultimately limit
their size and draft Bristol will be prepared
TO receive thirty knot liners If they are built
put IL Is doubtful If any pilot would be willing
to take them up the lower Severn, where the
channels are narrow and circultous the sand