considered contrary to the elementary law of trade. To what extent the foreign exchange situation will overcome these abnormal conditions remains to be seen.

Shipping Board routes.-The war also completely revised the division of ownership of the world's merchant marine among the sea-faring nations. This also will affect routing. Thus American ships are plying to-day on routes where before the war the Stars and Stripes were never seen. We reproduce here a chart which shows the network of steamship trade routes covered by Shipping Board vessels:

But if the free play of competition is allowed to replace governmental control, the ships of the future, as of the past, will seek the best paying employment regardless of the flag they fly, subsidized vessels excepted.

New lanes of world commerce.-Finally, the war has brought into the realm of probability the realization of long-hoped-for plans, such as a tunnel under the English Channel, under Gibraltar, and under the Bosphorus. Moreover, it has given new significance to such arteries of land transportation as the Cape-Cairo Railroad, or that running from Constantinople to the very gate of India. The map on page 41 shows the world's most important transportation lines:

A project which is being widely discussed at present and which, if completed, is bound vitally to affect the routing of world shipping, is the plan of deepening the St. Lawrence river to permit its use by vessels drawing 25 feet or more. The project is being energetically pushed by an organization known as the "Great Lakes

1 From "The Americas" (National City Bank of New York). Vol. 5, No. 7, April, 1919, p. 22.

THE WORLD'S MAIN RAIL AND SHIP LINES, EXISTING AND PROJECTED Gaps in the Present Solid Inter-continental Railway Routes are indicated by Broken Lines

St. Lawrence Tidewater Association" with headquarters in Chicago and executive offices in Duluth.

"The Canadian government has spent money freely in the past upon the St. Lawrence route and is committed to large expenditures in the future. It is now engaged in reconstructing the Welland Canal, to give it a depth of 25 feet, which will cost $75,000,000 to $100,000,000. That work is about one-third done, and it will be of small service unless the St. Lawrence is made navigable at a similar depth. From the foot of Lake Ontario to tidewater at or near Montreal is 181 miles by the river, of which 113 is international boundary. It is said that expenditures required to make the river navigable would be confined to 46 miles of the 181, or a distance of about the length of the Panama Canal. Argument for the feasibility of the improvement centers largely upon the claim that the improvement of a comparatively short stretch of river will connect large bodies of navigable water." 99 1

It is estimated that improvements which would make the river navigable would at the same time produce approximately 4,000,000 horse-power between Lake Ontario and Montreal, the income from which would pay interest on the entire expenditure. Estimates on the required improvements are from $250,000,000 to $300,000,000.

Effective competition between land and water carriers will follow these accomplishments. In business, the man who wins is he who looks ahead a little farther than others. It is the same among nations.

1 See Monthly Letter of National City Bank of New York, October, 1920.

REFERENCES

GREGORY, KELLER, AND BISHOP. Physical and Commercial Geography, Chaps. XI and XII (1910).

GUARANTY TRUST COMPANY OF NEW YORK. Shipping's Share in

Foreign Trade; Fundamentals of Ocean Transportation. (1919). HOUGH, B. O. Ocean Traffic and Trade, chap. V (1915).

JOHNSON AND HUEBNER. Principles of Ocean Transportation, Chap. V. (1919).

KIRKALDY, A. W. British Shipping; Its History, Organization and Importance, Book II. (London, 1914).

NATIONAL BANK OF COMMERCE IN NEW YORK, America and the New World Trade Routes in Commerce Monthly, Nov. 1919. SARGENT, A. J. Seaways of the Empire; Notes on the Geography of Transport. (London, 1918).

SMITH, J. R. The Ocean Carrier, Chap. III. (1908).

Industrial and Commercial Geography, Part II. Chap. III-XI. (1913).

TALBOT, F. A. Steamship Conquest of the Sea, Chap. XI. (London, 1912).

UNITED STATES SHIPPING BOARD, DIVISION OF PLANNING AND STATISTICS. Trade and Shipping between the United States and the Principal Regions of the World in 1914 and 1918. (1919). Relative Desirability of Ships Operating in four Trade Routes. (1919).

CHAPTER III

SUEZ AND PANAMA

Isthmian canals as milestones of progress.-Man's conquest of space, generally speaking, is a hard struggle; progress is slow, and nature's obstacles are only gradually overcome. But there have been great moments in the history of transportation, moments when the rate of progress has been phenomenally accelerated; such as came when the waters of the Red Sea met and mingled with the blue depths of the Mediterranean in the Suez Canal; and again when the Isthmus of Panama was pierced. Nature had challenged man's ingenuity and perseverance by blocking the entrance into the Indian Ocean from the northwest and into the Pacific from the east, by two amazingly narrow strips of land, thus forcing the baffled mariner around dangerous capes thousands of miles out of his way. Man took up the challenge and won. He battered down both doors leading into those vast and almost deserted waters, and now we are free to speculate which is the back and which the front door-Panama or Suez.

An inter-oceanic canal, as such, is only an opportunity; the intended advantages remain potential until trade and shipping experiences translate them into actual facts. Therefore the changes wrought by new routes do not become apparent in a day. For business is conservative; its inertia is surprising. It often clings to established customs and arrangements long after the superiority of new methods has been established..

Early history of Suez Canal.-A striking example is the