New-York tribune., 1909-01-16
SEA TRAFFIC.
Some NezD Light on the Functions
of,the Ocean Liner.

Of the Service Discussion q the Rates Ss;+G Of
P6Sean E IFnRsR9r5ai0hi TRsREated i2no pp II 594 G. P
Putnam's Sons
The scientific. or at least economic, aspects
| of railroad transportation have been the subject
| Of so many monographs that hardly expects
! to find the older and more widely spread sea
| carriage a field for study Yet PROFESSOR
Smith shows us in this thoughtful volume that
| those who have written about the sea nave Deen
| chiefly engaged with its romance and with tiie
! biographies of individual men and ships and
| with technical details. Who built the Ship ne
! says just when. just where, how long she was
! to the inch how wide, how deep. the material
the tonnage the exact size Of her engines the
| number of strokes a minute. her speed, her rec
| ord her captain-of such information there Is
| abundance and TO spare but as to what these
| ships did there is astonishing silence. What
| they carried, where they carried it. for whom
! at what rate under what method OF manage
| ment these are the subjects Of a well digested
| study of the ocean service which is believed 10
! be the first in this particular field.
The development Of the organization OF the
| shipping business has been simultaneous with
| the nerfection Of communications In the eigh-
! teenth century q single exchange OF letters IN
! any BARGAINING transaction took as much time
| as the long round voyage. If a man made
| quotation by mail it might be three months De-
fore his transatlantic correspondent could accept
/ or decline In 1887 there were heavy failures OF
| American merchants IN London owing 70 the
non-arrval Of large remittances, shlppeo Oy
| the New York packets that were greatly de-
| layed during the prevalence of extraordinary
east winds which blew for two months. says
! the author:
ocean Carriers n the face of such dicuy of over
| sea communication and the natural response eG
/ usually became a commercial unt-a trading Unit
her commercial operations hens nIdnte tpat cart
pedIer or a trader the Indians seeks MS
oods concerned s haS to be IN the the place
possibility of detached control of moving merchan-
! rlaritv of exchange of goods is difficult TO ar
9e6end e9a 1t Is HP93 s.oment Of lines
rnands such organization Of commercial opeTations
stav at home and send their goods by the depend
| able carrier This was almost impossible IN the
| slow going and disturbed century preceding the
| peace OF 1915
The growth and development Of line traffic as
distinguished from the service Of Independent
vessels seektr5 employment without regard TO
schedule Is traced from the beginning. -Four
principal Gates stand out prominently in this
survey The actual starting OF transatlantic
line business is placed in 1915: the year 1910
saw the first steamship line; 1850 signalized the
advance Of such lines TO economic Independence,
as evidenced by their severe competition with
each other and with the packets. and by the
carrying Of steerage passengers, and lSIO may
be taken TO mark the virtual disappearance OF
the packets and a great advance in steamers
Since then the Improvement has been constant
and gradual, without epoch making dates. Lines
for the transportation OF freight only have come
into being in connection with ports that could
not be expected to produce many passengers,
and as a counterpart to this traffic we have
within a few years express steamers from New
| York to the number Of about score in which
the requirements OF large crew and passenger
| accommodation and extensive bunkers and ma
chinery for fast speed have practically eiiml-
mated the carriage of freight
II is q common matter OF remark that Ameri-
cans having goods to ship from New York to
Rio de Janeiro frequently find IT TO their advan-
| tage TO use the route by way of Liverpool The
| writer knows this to be a natural and not an
artificial method just land IL is an obvious
advantage to double the length of a journey in
miles in order to profit by the better service of
trunk line. Europe and especially Liverpool.
has developed connections with all parts OF the
| Old World and with South America. Africa and
Asia Europe was the pioneer in getting these
| services because those parts OF the world were
her economic dependencies. Furthermore these
countries are all cultural dependencies OF Eu-
| rope-South America is Latin. South Africa and
| Australia are British, and Asia, which for years
| has been a great European market is sprinkled
| with European possessions With emigrants,
with mall with colonial ambitions. with manu-
featured export and raw import, Europe had
| need Of connection with the ends Of the earth,
| and where the need the lines promptly
| came Some were subsidized. but most of them
were not III the mean time country did not
| have these strong needs to communicate with
| Africa and Asia and South America We were
| sbovering wheat corn cotton and meat into
| Europe by the millions of tons Manufactures
came back over the route with millions Of emil
grants and hundreds of thousands Of returning
| American tourists. Hence, to meet these heav-
! lest needs arose the worlds fastest steamship
! lines BY them New York but q little
! further from Asia, Africa and South America
| than Liverpool was In point Of time New York
was often no further away by this devious route
| than she would have been by direct one. be
| cause the small American demand for direct
! service would have commanded only slow steam
ers. At the same time the livelier demand and
| the subsidies paid have given New York good
connection with the far corners of the earth as
If was possible for her to have without sub
| sides. Furthermore, an analogous situation in
| favor OF New York exists in other quarters. for
| the commercial bond between the north At
| Iantic ports Of the United States and the Gulf.
| Caribbean and West Indian ports is stronger
than that of those regions with Europe. We
| feed them and buy their produce, and hence
have more and better lines TO them than Europe .
has so that the quickest and best way to and
| from many of these ports is by way of New