Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-31
SHIPPING FREIGHT
RATES SOARING FOR
CARGOES FROM HERE
Schooner Chartered for $4,000
to Take 200 Ford Automobiles
From Philadelphia Port
to Australia
LOCAL BUSINESS NOTES

Shipping freight rates from the port Of
| Philadelphia are soaring out of all
bounds. The Ford Motor Company has
virtually completed negotiations for the
| charter OF the sailing schooner John
| Twohy from A. y. Cummins &c Co. for
$4,000 to take 200 Ford cars to Australia.
The John Twohy is just in from Buenos
Aires with n cargo of bones, which she
| Is now discharging at a wharf on the
Delaware. This vessel was purchased
| outright about a year ago for $4,000.
The deal with tho Ford Company is only
awaiting the final arrangements as to
| insurance.
The Maritime Register published the
freight rates on coal by ship from this
| port to Boston on September IL last as
! so to 90 cents per ton. Today the rates
are 81 per ton, and from Philadelphia to
! Newport or Providence I e rates are s2.l0
per ton. Everything thTt can float has
been pressed into the service and the de-
| mand Increases
Some of tho shipowners are loud in de-
| nunciatlon of the new shipping bill de-
| ciarng that II interferes seriously with
the obtaining Of the proper sort of crews
| to work the vessels. Amerlcan-born
| sailors, they say, are not shipping under
the new law, and only colored sailors
are available
"Thore are lot of poor white rum
| aways," said one shlpowner but they
tcannot pass the examination required by
the new law, and even they are not avail
able In any great number"
The enormous number of ships COM
mandecred by Great Britain at the out
break of the war and since then, and the
number that have been sunk has created
demand that is out of all proportion
with the supply. 1t is n we'll known fact
that tramp steamers sailing from Atlantic
ports with freight for Great Britain,
France and Mediterranean ports, and re-
turning In ballast are earning more in
freight in three trips than the original
cost of the steamers Some of the steam
ers carrying oil in cases to Europe are
getting 20 cents, where n few months ago
they were glad to get II cents. One such
steamer sailed from this port not many
days ago with q cargo Of about 1000 tons,
and her freight bill for the single trip
was s77.777 The freight rates on lumber
from Gulf ports to Brazil are now quoted
at s3S per 1000 feet. Offers of a profit of
100 per cent on ships now building on
the Delaware have been made and re-
fused.
Some OF the large department stores are
anxiously watching the condition of the
linen and linen damask markets. AL
ready prices for damasks In ireland and
Scotland have gone up as high in some
cases as 2l0 per cent, with no prospect
for lower quotations in sight There are
no linens or damasks coming from any
OF the continental countries in Europe
Belgium, Germany and Russia were the
countries that in addition to Great Britain
supplied the American market. but they
are hopelessly cut off. The most serious
feature of this linen situation is the cha
otic condition of affairs in the neighbor-
hood Of Riga, in Russia, where virtually
all the flaxseed is raised to supply the
flax growing countries. Flax Is an an
nual plant, and must be planted each
year. and IL no seed is available there can
be no linen.
Everything in the form of velours ia go
Ing up in price. The principal manufac-
tories in Europe for these goods, and also
for tapestries, are at Lyons, France. So
many of the workers in these factories
have been called to the colors that the
plants are nearly all idle. and therefore
there are no goods to meet the demand.
Some months ago the large department
stores in Paris had placards hung up in |
their establishments warning their GUS
toners that In future they could not |
guarantee fabrics, principally silks In |
certain colors, on account OF the dye |
shortage in France. Up 20 the present |
none OF the silk manufacturers in the |
United States have sent such notices to |
the department. stores, nor have the stores |
been warned in any way that there Is |
likely to be a withdrawal OF certain colors |
in the near future:
Wholesale paint manufacturers find |
themselves almost in the same position |
as the dyers, on account of the embargo |
on aniline colOrs from Germany. They |
are falling back TO a large extent on |
chromates. A prominent chemical manu-
featuring house in Philadelphia has an
nounced that they are manufacturing red |
prussiate of potash, said to be the first i
made in the United States commercially
That beautiful dull red color. known as
Pompeian red. Is becoming very scarce |
II is a red oxide of iron and comes from |
the territory around the Persian Gulf. |
1t exists in veins from two to four inches |
in thickness, about 30 to 40 feet below the |
surface. 1t is the same ingredient that |
was used in the temples in Egypt and |
after the lapse of centuries Is as bright |
and fresh today as when It was applied. |
-
As to the dye situation. virtually every |
one engaged in the business is creed |
that 1t would require a capital OF not less |
than So, 100000 to erect plant to manu-
facture dyes to compete with Germany. |
They explain IT by using a tree as an IL
lustration in this way:
A chemical plant starts out to make a |
certain base for cOlors. This is repre-
sented by the trunk of the tree. In the |
process a certain byproduct develops, |
which in turn develops another and that |
still another. etc. till you have branches
and ramihcations spreading out in all
directions.
These by-products are utilized. many OF |
them as standard drugs and for other |
purposes. Finally come the colors known |
as aniline dyes. Because Germany has |
utilized these by-products and found a |
market for them. she can afford TO sell |
the dyes at smaller profit than II they /
were allowed 10 90 to waste.
For that reason 1t is said that a chem
ical plant In the United States intending /
to compete with Germany must not only /
utilize all these by-products. but find a |
market for them as well. And II is de- |
clared that this cannot be accomplished
without 6 tariff sufficiently high to pre-
vent the importation OF cheap German
dyes when the war Is over. Otherwise |
canifal will not taka tha risk