The Coolidge examiner., 1937-08-05

Washington. ID. C.-WNU Service
traffic makes
l. London the worlds fore
most river port. Since Ro-
man galley days-when Brit
ons traded grain, slaves, and
dogskin for European salt
and horse collars - COM
merce has flowed between
London and the continental
countries along the Schelde,
the Rhine and the Elbe. Aft
er Drake nerved England to
smash the Spanish Armada,
London ships gained in time
the lions share of ocean
borne trade.
Names immortal in discovery and
conquest are linked with this water
front. From here Frobisher went
seeking the Northwest passage. and
Hawkins to Puerto Rico and Vera
Cruz; from here Lancaster made
his voyages to the East, before the
downfall of Portugal and the rise
Of the British East India company.
Raleigh sailed from here to explore
the Orinoco. to popularize tobacco
and. tradition says, to start the Irish
planting potatoes.
1t was London's daring money
which sent Sebastian Cabot to found
the Russia company, opening trade
with that land. London merchants
and shippers promoted the Turkey,
African, Virginia and Hudson's Bay
companies.
London emigrants helped colonize
in the Americas, in Australia, New
Zealand. China, India. Africa and
the rich islands Of the sea.
English Spread From Here.
From this water front went the
English language. In brakes day
only few millions spoke it. Now
it is world tongue. OF all letters,
kilograms. books and papers print
ed now, it is estimated that 10 per
cent are in English. London alone
uses enough newsprint every day
to cover a ranch Of $3.50 acres
or nearly Is square miles of paper
"The smell from that big paper
mill at Bayswater is one of the
marks l steer by on foggy nights"
a Thames pilot will tell you.
Exploration of London's crowded
docks reveals not only what amaz-
ing piles of food a great city can
normally eat, but also what odd
items, from live bats to rhino horns,
are mixed in the life stream of
world commerce.
Imponderable, in variety and
magnitude, are these fruits of mans
barter. Here, too, his work ranges
from rat catching and opium sam
pling to dredging the Thames and
handling annual cargo enough to fill
a road with loaded trucks from the
Yukon to Patagonia.
To say that every day some 500
craft, big and little, pass through
the Thames mouth tells only half
the story. More significant is what
happens on the docks.
Commission Ends Confusion.
Even London people themselves
don't dream what incredible activity
is here. Few ever see it. Confusion
on this crowded river, in days gone,
grew so intense that waiting boats
often lay unloaded for weeks; goods
were piled in disorder on river
banks, and pilfering was enormous.
One river bandit stole almost a
whole shipload of sugar! To COM
bat this chaos the West India mer-
chants built their own fortlike docks.
With more trade came more
docks, and more toll-rate wars and
other confusion. This ended in 1909
when the Port Of London authority,
a Royal commission, took full con-
troll under act of parliament.
1t paid 23.0OO,O 900 pounds for pri-
vately owned London docks, spent
millions more to make the lower
Thames the worlds longest Deep
water channel and to enlarge and
re-equip cargo-handling facilities.
1t has dredged mud enough out of
the Thames to build Chinese Wall,
and has constructed the worlds
most extensive dock system. One
of its cranes, the London Nam
moth" lifts $50 tons!
Finally, with characteristic Brit
ish financial genius, it sold its deb
entures on the stock exchange, and
now its operations usually pay all
costs and interest and leave a profit
which is used for more improve
ments.
Giant Docks and Yard.
The PLA is not in trade. It is
merely custodian of merchandise
that may range from wild animals