Courtesy of International Marine Engineering I. WASTE IN THE WEIGHING OF FREIGHT: ANTWERP The cumbersome scales at the far side of the platform require on one side a series of weights equal to the goods on the other. This system requires that every ton of freight weighed has to be lifted on to the scales, and then lifted off again and on to a truck-an expensive duplication of labor that could be obviated by the use of platform scales. New York should have improved upon this costly method of weighing, but it has failed to do more than a very little in this direction II. WASTE IN THE WEIGHING OF FREIGHT: LIVERPOOL This English port uses the same antiquated system as that used in Antwerp. New York, as appears in the two facing pictures, has improved slightly on this method, but still wastes enormous sums by failing to use platform scales, which would eliminate the repeated lifting of every ton of freight weighed III. WASTE IN THE WEIGHING OF FREIGHT: NEW YORK The Government weighs merchandise (for customs levies) by antiquated methods; the owners of the merchandise do not accept the Government weights, and to check them exactly they use the same antiquated methods. The result is a tremendous expense for extra labor and a costly delay in much of New York's commerce. These wasteful methods must be reformed before the port can become as useful to the foreign commerce of the Nation as it should be IV. WASTE IN THE WEIGHING OF FREIGHT: NEW YORK On these scales, which are weighing Brazilian coffee in a steamship terminal in Brooklyn, the balance is obtained with unequal lever arms, so that the metal weights weigh less than the goods. This is an improvement over the methods in use at Liverpool and Antwerp, but it still requires that all the goods be lifted twice in the process of weighing A TOBACCO WAREHOUSE IN LIVERPOOL The Stanley tobacco warehouses, owned and operated by the Mersey Docks and Harbor Board; an example of the wise provision of commercial facilities offered by the unified system of harbor control in this great English port was comfortably more than 31 million net registered tons, and this commerce was of the most diversified character. The diversity is proof in itself that the foreign commerce of New York is not only a tremendous element in the life of the community, but of the Nation as a whole. than the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which have been so popular for factory sites in the last twenty years. Because of the water transportation over the excellent coastwise steamship lines reaching all the points from Portland, Me., to Galveston, and the lines through the Canal covering the whole of the Pacific Coast. many manufacturers of heavy products can serve the country more cheaply than they can by manufacturing nearer to the centre of population with the necessary railroad method of distribution. Concerns having factories already situated hundreds of miles away from the Atlantic seaboard are finding that it pays to ship their products East by rail to tidewater and then to the Pacific Coast by way of the Canal, rather than to use the long rail haul overland to the Coast. When the New York State Barge Canal is completed, those who have boosted it fully expect that it will have a beneficial effect in sharing with all the states around the Great Lakes some of the advantages which now accrue chiefly to the few seaboard cities having terminals for the lines using the Panama Canal between the two Consider lumber from Puget Undoubtedly the Panama Canal is having a healthy effect on the volume of business done in the Metropolitan district. Low freight rates to the Pacific Coast by Sound: There is no particular object in coasts. Two men required to help a truckman haul a load up an incline into a freight car from a pier in Brooklyn having lumber shipped rapidly, for under any circumstances it is necessary for it to season for some time after leaving the saw mill before it can be worked up into a final product. By observing the shaded area on the map on page 214 it will be seen that lumber from the Pacific Coast will probably be delivered even as far west as Keokuk, la., and St. Paul more cheaply by way of the two canals than it can be hauled by rail overland. The American - Hawaiian Steamship Company has already established a large terminal for Pacific Coast lumber LOADING EXPORT FREIGHT The three piles of boxes represent three handtruck loads. Making up these sling-loads at the side of the ship instead of using electric trucks very seriously delays its sailing at Poughkeepsie to serve as a distributing point for the Barge Canal traffic and also for New England by means of the Central New England Railway. If the Pacific Coast lumber can economically be hauled westward through the Barge Canal and to the lake ports it is probable that a number of the heavier kinds of manufactured products on which there is no necessity for quick delivery will be sent eastward through the Barge Canal and transferred at New York to ocean liners using the Isthmian route. Another thing that will add to the NEW YORK'S CHELSEA PIERS FOR TRANSATLANTIC LINERS Built and owned by the city, and admirably adapted to their work of handling transatlantic traffic, they were leased shortly after construction for a period up to thirty years at a rental that amounts to less than the interest on the investment. A definite harbor policy, and a continuing authority to carry it out. are needed in the management of the port of New York HOW LONDON MAKES A WORLD MARKET FOR MERCHANDISE This is a building provided by the Port of London Authority for the display and sale of rubber. Centralized storage and sales rooms of this kind have a great effect in determining the location of the world market for any commodity. In England, an additional service is the official grading of merchandise, which enables the owner at once to prove the value of his goods and borrow money on them |
