The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-12-14
| he Way OF Wheat
By FREDERIC J. HASKlN

BUFFALO, N. Y, Dec. 6-This city
has become one of the great grain ports
of the world. The great bulk of Ameri
can wheat, swept together from the
great prairie states, pours through this
narrow gateway like the sand through
an hour glass. The great blocks and
bars of Superior copper, for and with
which the whole world is fighting, find
their way to Atlantic ports by way of
Buffalo. Coal and ore travel this way,
too, and the package boats carry every
thing from toothpick to piano. The
total traffic of the great Lakes now eX-
ceedS that of New DIRK harbor In
places where the channels of navigation
are narrow, as just north of Detroit,
this tremendous transcontInential water
traffic may be visualized as an unbrok
en- procession of steel vessels. There
is always at least one in sight.
The war has not been an unmixed
blessing to the lake traffic, because
almost every vessel that could be got
ten out through the Weland canal has
been put into ocean service, and also
because the traffic eastward has SO
heavily outweighed the west-bound
freight.
Fortunately the Wellaed canal will
not accommodate boat more than forty
three feet wide, so that few ships more
than 260 feet long have been taken
away from the lakes. The big freight
steamers of three hundred feet and over
are still in fresh water. So also are
great many old hulls that have been out
of commission for years, but are now
earning good money. A number of big
hulls have been laid down in the ship
yard, toe, and it is probable that an
other year will see many a new boat in
the lake traffic.
The great difficulty about the lake
traffic has always been that the grain
and copper and ore moving east greatly
outweighed the westbound traffic, so
that many vessels returntd party empty.
The war has aggravated this difficulty.
The shipping companies have been I'M
able to get enough bottoms to accommo-
date the rush of copper and wheat
brought on b, war prices; but the boats
have often had to return empty be-
cause the West seems to be too busy
with its farming and mining to buy the
building materials, the wire and nails,
and other manufactured products that
it usually gets from the East by way of
the lakes.
This disadvantage has been largely
compensated, however. by this phe-
nomenally high rates on grain. on
copper, and by an almost exceptional
passenger year on the Lakes. Partly
no doubt brcause it was an exceedingly
hot summer, and partly because they
could not go to Europe, thousands OF
people sailed the Lakes who had never
done so before. The swift paddle
wheel steamers that make the short
runs, and the big twin screw steamers
that go from end to end of the Lakes
were crowded all summer.
These vessels are now as large and
we'll equipped as most ocean going YES
sells, and it is the boast of the COM
panies that a passenger steamer has
never been lost on the Lakes.
Unfortunately, this is not equally
true of freight vessels. A few of them
go down every year. and in bad years
the losses are heavy. These of course
are covered by insurance. The small
owners usually insure with some COM
pany, while the larger boat-owning in
terests set aside a sinking fund to cover
losses by storms. The only men who
really suffer are the sailors that go
down with the boats.
The dangers of lake traffic are caused
by sudden attack of the storms, and by
the confusing quality of fogs and snow
storms on the Lakes. In summer, sud-
den squalls which no weather warning