The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-02-10
..op1IOTS BUSINESS IN WHICH
MORE THAN $4,000 VESSELS
ARE ENGAGED.

Times More Freight Handled
One Year Than the World
Sends Through the Suez Ca
nal. Many Tragedies.
Few persons realize the enormous
arrests represented in the COM
700 If the Great Lakes. Eighty
- cent. of all the water tonnage of
Nth America is carried on the
loot Lakes. Thirty thousand craft
oil classes today are engaged in
lake trade, and the lake ship
.de are from one to three years
.hind on their orders from lake
.;novners. Although one-half of all
no vessels built in the western hem
,obnre in 1908 were for the Great
a,os trade the need for more bot
ans has become so acute that steam
hin companies engaged in the trade
ooontlv have been obliged to go to
rno,ish and Scotch shipyards with
brders.
The freight conveyed over these
waters during 1908 was more than
ovon times as much as the whole
Eorld carried through the Suez ca
nal in the same time. Four thousand
weight steamers, ESQ big passenger
Stoamers and about $4,000 pleasure
md other craft comprise the enor-
mons Great Lakes fleet; which uses
inward of 100000 tons of coal in
single year. or enough to heat every
bopse in Chicago for three years.
The Pittsburg Steamship Compa-
nv which is merely the carrier of
The United States Steel Corporation,
alone owns ships with a combined
capacity of 100000 tons of ore on
single trip. If the ships of this
company alone were placed end to
end they would cover distance of
eight miles, and during the eight
months of Great Lakes navigation
each year they carry as much freight
from Lake Superior to Lake Erie
ports as all the vessels of the world
take through the Suez canal in
whole year,
Worlds Greatest Ports.
In weight of freight annually han
dled Buffalo and Duluth are the
worlds greatest ports, while the ton
mage handled at Ohio ports alone ex-
ceeds that of all the ports of France.
During 1907 approximately 100000
\ GOO tons of freight were shipped in
Great Lakes bottoms. This would
be enough to fill 100000 Acton
freight cars, or a train that would
girdle the earth and extend from
h New York to San Francisco in addi-
ton More than 80 per cent. of this
Immense total consisted of 37,513,-
600 tons of iron ore, 100000 tons
of coal, O,598,927 bushels of grain,
1,159,757 'tons of -four, 14,888,927
bushels of flaxseed and more than
\ 1,O00 100000 feet of lumber.
Greatest of all lines of lake traffic
is that in iron ore, and some 500
giant steamers are engaged solely in
its carriage. This ore commerce has
doubled during the last six years,
and the steel men believe it will be
doubled again during the next ten,
for three little patches of the Great
Lakes country produced in 1908
nearly half of the worlds total sup
ply of iron.
During 1908 >2OO,OOO,OO0 bushels
OF grain and 100000 barrels of
flour were shipped from lake ports.
The years lumber shipments aggre-
gated nearly 1,500,000,000 feet, or
enough to build more than $4,000
houses of eight rooms each.
Taking the 800" canal as its CEN
ter and drawing a circle having a
radius of $50 miles, it would be
found to include four of the world S
greatest pOrts-Buffalo Cleveland,
chicago and Duluth. Within the cir
Gle or upon it's circumference are
Such other ports as Detroit, Toronto,
Dunkirk, Erie, Conneaut, Ashtabula,
Lorain, Sandusky, Toledo, Gary, Mil
Waukee, Ashland, Superior and Port
Arthur.
The eight states along the Great
Lakes are in reality the heart and
power of the nation. Within their
borders dwell 100000 people, and
upon their shores center the great
est industries of the world.
Cannot Meet Traffic Demands.
With all the great shipyards
Stralning every effort to meet the de-
mands of the lake commerce ship
pers agree that they never will be
quite able to meet the requirements
OF the traffic. Everywhere from Du-
luth to Buffalo the shipping is
crowded, in many cases dangerously
80 The greatest ocean ports never
nave known such blockades as Du-
IuJn has seen on more than one oc-
caSlon, During one month alone