The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-14
WORLD WAR BRINGS GREAT PROSPERITY
 TO JAP SHIPPING.
Immense Fortunes Made By Owners of Freight
 Steamers.

| TOkio, March 14.-The great boom
 and prosperity for Japanese shipping
 as result of the war is being taken
 advantage of here to the utmost. For 1 tunes are making in the shipping bus 1 mess and prices for freight steamers have risen to practically linitIess fig l ures
 The continuing demand for more sh3pS has induced the Japanese De- partment of Communications to sum-
 marize the exact situation of Japan
 csc shipping. The investigation
 shows that Japan's progress is not due to the war alone, though it has of course been immensely stimulated by it, but has been going on for the last fifteen years. Japan now has 2,132
 vessels of over twenty tons register with a total tonnage of 1,6O4,90O while the number of vessels of over 1000 tons is 416 with a total tonnage or 1881, sos. There are 66 merchant
 steamships, each of 5000 tons, or over, now sailing under the flag of Japan. Six new freight-carrying steamships have been launched with in a month.
 The shortage of shipbui1ding mater ia1 is being felt in all docks, but as far as the stock is available the work is
 being pushed on day and night and some ship owners have been offered prizes for the completion of a ship before contract dates. A striking ex- ample of quick building was the steamer Taisho Maru, recently com p1eted for the Hokuyo Steamship Go. which was launched within three months and @ half after the laying of the keel, and trimmed for naviga- ton in three weeks, That a, ship of 5000 tons was completed in such a short period is a record in the annals of Japanese Shipbuilding.
 Japan's great commercial fleet has come into existence since 1884 when Japan really began to build ships of iron For a period of about 200 years, between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, the building of vessels of over 50 tons. net was pro- hibited by the government and it was not until the arrival of Commodore Perry from the United States that Japan became awakened to the neceS- sity of laying down ocean-going /ves- sels The first steel vessel was built in 1890.
 In recent weeks the ocean trade has shown signs of increasing activity and everywhere is heard complaint of shortage of tonnage. In the cement market, for example, the paucity of freight space has caused a big con gestion. At the Moji alone 6O,OOO barrels consigned to Singapore are waiting for ships to take them away. The congestion in cement is partly due to a controversy over carrying rates, the shippers offering 5 cents per barrel as against 45 cents some time ago. The shipping companies are standing out for a dollar a bar rel. Similar disputes are arising weekly in other lines of goods as the boom in trade advances.
 On the New York Yokohama. or Shanghai line the boom is now at it's height on account of the temporary closing of the Panama Canal and the prolongation of the route. Return ing to the, Far East the vessels from the United States are loaded with war munitions for Russia
 On the Bombay route trade is more active than ever, because the Japan | ese-Indian trade in cotton and other goods is progressing with wonderful rapidity. On the outward trips ev- 1 erv liner has her hold full of miscel- l laneous articles for India and on the | homeward voyages raw cotton fills up every inch of space. The average 1 rate per ton has ruled at 25 yen or about $12.5O during the past week. >
 A new plan has been started by i some shipowners who have made the most of the recent shipping boom to 1 stabilize their position against pos | sible reaction after the war is over. It | consists in floating big banking es- designed to deal in all forms of loans secured on the mort | gage of ships The project has al- ready assumed a definite form.
 The house under contemplation will have it's headquarters in Kobe and | branches in some important cities in terested in thare. The auth horized capital will probably by $5,0OO,O00.