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making up the cargoes. Employees and agents of the company are to be German subjects. It is expected that by giving a more frequent service, and perhaps lower freights, the conditions of trade with the African colonies will be rendered more favorable.

The new English subsidy is intended to alleviate the depressed economic conditions of the West Indies, particularly of Jamaica. Owing to the increasing competition of beet sugar with the West Indian cane sugar, the British West Indies have been steadily sinking in importance. Political discontent has also developed, and in 1899 an acute crisis arose in the Jamaican Legislative Council, the elected members refusing to vote the budget on account of the poverty of the country. The home authorities, understanding that the political troubles are of economic origin, have determined to extend the market for Jamaican and West Indian fruits. It is thought that the new ship-subsidy will enable West Indian planters to dispose of their products in the English market. A contract has therefore been made with a prominent shipping firm for regular sailings between Bristol and West Indian ports, the expense of the subsidy to be borne partly by the imperial and partly by the colonial governments.

V. INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE.

World's Demand for Timber and Supply.-The imports of timber by the principal nations were as follows: During the last five years the average importation by Great Britain was 84,720,000 cubic feet of timber-99 per cent of its total consumption. Germany, in 1898, imported, net, 317,700,000 cubic feet, or 24 per cent of its total consumption; France, during the last five years, has imported, net, 105,900,000 cubic feet, or 33 per cent of the total consumption; Belgium, 63,540,000 cubic feet, or 47 per cent of its total consumption; Switzerland, 49,420,000 cubic feet, or 35 per cent of its total consumption. A population of 215,000,000 in middle, western and southern Europe imports from 12.3 to 14.1 billion cubic feet of timber, produced on 25 to 50 million acres of forest land. The exporting countries contribute to this supply as follows: Austria-Hungary, 249,040,000 cubic feet; Norway, 120,020,000 cubic feet; Sweden, 352,300,000 cubic feet; Russia, 416,540,000 cubic feet; United States, 116,490,000 cubic feet; Canada, 162,380,000 cubic feet. The price of timber is rapidly rising, and the supply fails to increase owing to widespread deforestration in new countries. Within fifty years there is likely to be a timber famine. There is little possibility of supplying the demand from tropical countries for two reasons: (1) the unsuitability of the tropical woods to serve as substitutes for conifers and hard woods; (2) the rapidity of decay. A thoroughgoing and widespread reforestration is the only remedy.

Competition with the United States Steel Corporation.— The formation of the United States Steel Corporation has caused some question as to the extent to which the new company would be able to monopolize the iron and steel trade. The following list of large independent companies in the territory covered by the United States Steel Corporation is instructive. The list is taken from the Iron Age, of February 14, 1901. It indicates the general nature of the independent enterprises, and shows also the extent to which each controls the production of its raw materials:

PLANTS IN CENTRAL WEST.

1. Jones & Laughlin, limited, Pittsburg. Practically self-contained. Produce steel billets, bars, structural material, light rails and specialties.

1 Condensation of paper read before International Congress of Sylviculture at the Paris Exposition, on deficiency of wood production in the world. Rafhael Zon, in "The Forester," March 15, 1901.

2. Republic Iron and Steel Company. Consolidation of bar mills; largely self-contained; owning some or producing some pig iron and making steel billets.

3. Otis Steel Company, Cleveland, Ohio. Steel plates; make their own steel.

4. Cambria Steel Company, Johnstown, Pa. Largely self-contained. Makers of steel rails, structural materials, bars and specialties.

5. Carbon Steel Company, Pittsburg. Makers of open-hearth steel and steel plates.

6. Wheeling Iron and Steel Company. Producers of pig iron and steel and different lines of finished products.

7. Oliver Iron and Steel Company, Cleveland. Bars and specialties.

8. Ashland Steel Company, Ashland, Ky. Have no ore; produce pig iron, steel, wire rods and wire products.

9. Sharon Steel Company, Sharon, Pa.

Largely self-contained.

New plant. Will produce pig iron, open-hearth steel, tin plate, sheets and hoops.

10. Crane Company, Chicago. Large manufacturers of pipe. II. National Enameling and Stamping Company, Granite City, Illinois. Open-hearth plant; manufacture their own steel.

PLANTS IN EAST.

1. Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, Scranton, Pa. Largely self-contained; manufacturers of steel rails and billets; are building a large steel and rail plant at Buffalo, N. Y., which will have a surplus of steel, and may be the nucleus of a series of independent enterprises.

2. Pennsylvania Steel Company, Steelton, Pa. Maryland Steel Company, Sparrow's Point, Md. Control ore mines in Cuba. No coke as yet. Produce necessary pig iron and steel; make rails, structural material and track material, furnish raw material to Central Iron and Steel Company, Harrisburg, Pa. Large producers of steel plates.

3. Bethlehem Steel Company, South Bethlehem, Pa. Steel makers, sellers of special billets, makers of armor, guns and high class-forgings.

4. Lukens Iron and Steel Company, Coatesville, Pa. Large producers of open-hearth steel and of steel plates.

5. Phoenix Iron Company, Phoenixville, Pa. Produce open-hearth steel, roll beams and shapes, and build bridges and buildings.

6. Reading Iron Company, Reading, Pa. Do not yet produce steel, large manufacturers of pipe.

7. Passaic Rolling Mill Company, Paterson, N. J. Manufacturers of steel for own purposes. Roll shapes and build bridges and buildings.

8. Tidewater Steel Company, Chester, Pa. Produce pig iron and steel.

9. Diamond State Steel Company, Wilmington, Del. Manufacturers of open-hearth steel, sellers of billets, manufacturers of bars, track material and plates.

10. American Iron and Steel Manufacturing Company, Lebanon, Pa. Produce no steel. Puddle iron, roll bars, make track material, bolts, nuts and rivets.

The Iron Age states that one-half the iron ore tonnage of the Lake Superior ranges is in the hands of the United States Steel Corporation, and that its present capacity for pig-iron production is about 6,200,000 tons, the total output of the United States. The new company, it should be added, controls between forty and fifty thousand acres of coal in the Connellsville region, which gives it a practical monopoly of this fuel. Improved processes, however, are rapidly increasing the output of coke from inferior coal, and this will tend to break down the monopoly which the Connellsville region has for so long enjoyed. Recent Events in the Railway World.1—Under the stimulus of the numerous extensive consolidations noted in these pages in March, the development of community of ownership in railway management has gone on apace during the few months just past, approaching steadily that control of all the large lines in a few hands which has been pointed out as the logical outcome of prevailing tendencies. Complaint has already been made by the heavy western shippers of freight that as one of the results of the division of railroad transportation into groups, each controlled by one banking house, it is now useless to make the rounds of the various railroad offices seeking concessions on shipments. Some railroad authorities think the increased revenue by reason of the abolition of rate-cutting, and because of a few small advances in tariffs, will amount to $50,000,000 a year.

Foreshadowed in statements made shortly after Collis P. Huntingdon died, that his death would lead to rearrangements of the Pacific Coast railroad system of the most far-reaching kind, came the announcement in the first days of February that the Southern Pacific, with its 7,545 miles of road, had been bought by the Union Pacific. This may well be called the biggest thing of its kind in the railroad history of 1 Contributed by Ferdinand H. Graser.

the country. In the combined system there are 15,000 miles of railroad, two Pacific Ocean lines, and one Atlantic Coast line, running from New York and New Orleans to Galveston. The original transcontinental road, from Omaha to Ogden and thence to San Francisco, becomes after thirty-two years from construction one single line, instead of the original two, Union Pacific and Central Pacific. The "community of ownership" between Union and Southern Pacific will do its work in the line of securing stability of rates, avoiding duplication of service, and opening the way to such economies in operation as experience may show to be feasible. The Harriman syndicate the same controlling the Union and Southern Pacific-has also come into possession of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway.

As a natural effect of this combination, arrangements are under consideration for a union in management of all the roads in the southwest controlled by George J. Gould. Such a union would embrace the Missouri Pacific, St. Louis & Iron Mountain, St. Louis Southwestern, Texas & Pacific, International & Great Northern, Wabash, Missouri, Texas & Pacific, Denver & Rio Grande, Rio Grande Western and Rio Grande Southern, Colorado Southern and Colorado Midland. If this is effected the whole will be placed under the direction of the Missouri Pacific. It has even been said that the Illinois Central, Chicago & Alton, Chicago & Southern Illinois, St. Louis & San Francisco, as well as the Kansas City Southern, will enter the great combination. The sum of $300,000,000 would not be too high a capitalization for such an enterprise, stretching from the Gulf to the Northwest.

Those interested in the St. Louis & San Francisco have already purchased control of the Kansas City & Fort Scott, and the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham system, completing a line 3,002 miles long, of which the Memphis contributes 1,250 miles. The Memphis extends from Kansas City to Birmingham, Ala., with branch lines in Kansas and Missouri. The 'Frisco has lines from St. Louis and Kansas City and Ellsworth (Kans.) into Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indian Territory and Texas.

On January 30 the Southern Railway Company secured control of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company, thus gaining a short line from St. Louis and Cairo to the Gulf. The valuable terminals of the Mobile and Ohio, at Mobile, used in connection with those of the Southern, will enable the latter to develop traffic through that port to an extent which would not be practicable to either of the two lines operated separately; and the previous acquisition by the Southern of large and valuable terminals at East St. Louis will enable the Mobile & Ohio to develop business at and from the St. Louis gateway to an extent and in a

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