238

the training of railroad men in positions
the past
similar to
those from which
chiefs of the canal work have been drawn
is such as to make them in their particu-
It is not
lar fields absolute monarchs.
These criticisms are

criticize the program as interminable and
not as practical in methods and probable
character of results as the present con-
dition of the science of reinforced con-
crete should have.

undoubtedly reaching the committee, as
they come from various directions and
it is to be hoped that its members will
take enough interest in them to bring
about an improvement in the program
with the practical needs of engineers of
this generation in view as the important
of
The qualifications
consideration.
those doing the work and having it in di-
to education
rect charge, not alone as
but as to interest in the work and pe-
culiar adaptability to this sort of inves-
Abil-
tigation, are also most important.
ity to interpret results and to modify
methods to procure the desired results,
without danger of making tests to suit
all
is essential
theories,
preconceived
along the line, but especially in the su-
pervisors of the work.

MANAGEMENT
PANAMA

At last the President has discovered the reason for his difficulties with the operon the ation of the construction force

Panama canal and has taken the steps which have long seemed to some of those outside the worry of actual contact with the problem to be those most likely to secure ultimate success.

as already stated, The fact is that, the importance of the Panama canal work been greatly and its magnitude have A very slight consideroverestimated. ation of the work in progress in and show about New York City alone will greater expenditures within the same period of time and upon problems quite as These problems are in new and strange. the hands of various organizations, but some of these organizations have as many kinds of difficulties as are to be found at Panama and all together, they have many

more.

New York is but a single city.
There are others and there are other de-
partments of the U. S. Government fairly
comparable, period for period, with the
Much of this magnifying
Panama canal.
of the work would seem to be for effect
if the failures in the plans tried did not
show that the fault is rather in the lack
of proper perspective in the view of the
work.

The methods of carrying on government
work require many yards of red tape for
the protection of the public purse, many
more than the railroad men whose serv-
ices have been specially desired, have
in the
been required to
which they have grown up.

use

in work Then, too,

surprising, therefore, that they should
resent interference with their work by
men who are, at least in their opinions,
rank
less competent to judge of it than them-
selves, though their superiors in
It is only to be expected
and power.
that they should chafe under the restric-
tions of the red tape bureau and refuse
to be governed by the petty exactions of
a $2,500 clerk whose signature must be
obtained to every voucher and who must
follow the law regarding advertisement
for bids, delivery of goods, vouchers for
payment, etc.

The Corps of Engineers of the United
States Army is a body of highly-educat-
ed men who have, by the force of the
work put upon them by Congress, been
obliged to devise a machine for operating
the financial side of the work, which is
very nearly perfect in its safeguarding
These
of the funds under their control.
men have grown up under this system,
are fully acquainted with its necessary
defects in loss of time and increase of
cost and are able to operate their ma-
chine successfully, when a railroad man,
probably past middle age, would not have
either time or patience to familiarize him-
self with it, not to speak of submitting
It has been the
himself to its guidance.

opinion of some engineers from the be-
ginning, therefore, including the writer,
that the management of the canal work
under government control belonged log-
ically to the Engineer Corps of the Unit-
ed States Army and that there would be
the management if
great difficulties in
placed anywhere else.

The problems of the canal are no great-
er for the engineer officers than they are
for other engineers, and the engineer offi-
cers have in the past shown themselves
capable of solving, with reasonable sat-
isfaction, all the problems that have been
submitted to them, either themselves or
through the aid of their under-paid civilian
There is no reason why they
assistants.
should not do equally well with the Pan-
They will not do the work
ama canal.
with the expedition and possibly not with
was expected of the
the economy that
But that manage-
civilian management.
it now
ment has proved not only difficult but
practically impossible, so that
seems certain that the work is not so
it would have been if it
far along as
had been put into the hands of the Corps
of Engineers, U. S. A., at the beginning.
Success to the work under the present
control.

240

THE CEMENT TRADE:

nearly

A preliminary estimate of the Portland cement production for 1906, made by MuENGINEERING in October, 1906, 10,NICIPAL stated that an increase of 000,000 barrels might be expected over This would make The the production in 1905. the production 45,000,000 barrels. actual figures, just reported by the U. S. Geological Survey are 45,610,822 barrels, a fairly satisfactory agreement. to 481,224 was an increase of about 25 per cent. in the production of puzzolan barrels and a reduction in the producThe tion of natural hydraulic cement of about 10 per cent., to 3,935,275 barrels. total production of all kinds of cement in 1906 was practically 50,000,000 barrels, valued at $54,000,000.

There

The production of cement per capita of population was 206 barrels, as compared with 161 barrels in 1905, and the end is not yet.

This production is very near

ly the same as the consumption, for the imports during 1906 were 2,321,000 barrels and the exports of domestic and foreign cements 961,000 barrels, leaving an excess of imports of about 1,360,000 barrels, or about 3 per cent. of the domestic production.

of value The value of the cement produced has the In 1904 also increased. Portland cement at the mill was only 88 In 1905 it was 94 cents cents a barrel. a barrel and in 1906 it was $1.12 a barrel. It is not safe to increase the averthis figure age mill price much above unless there is a corresponding increase in the cost of other building materials, otherwise there will be a closer adherence to the older building materials and a lessening in the demand for cement.

of 30 large works being 8.5 per cent. in
1905, and 10.7 to 11.4 per cent. in 1906.
English trade conditions are not so rosy.
though there is some increase in trade
in its domestic cements.

MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP FAIL-
URES.

It is interesting to note the strong ef-
forts which are made by certain period-
failures
the
icals more or less closely related to finan-
advertise
cial leaders, to
which occur in municipal operation of
public service industries.

And now comes Public Service, appar-
ently a new periodical, although the num-
ber just received is called vol. ii, no. 1,
which is devoted almost exclusively, if
one may judge from the one number, to
Some of these papers go
this object.

so far as to suppress all facts not favor-
able to their point of view, thus giving
biased accounts of the proceedings, and
all of them carefully refrain from men-
tion of failures in private ownership of
public service industries.

accounts

may

While such one-sided have their effect for a time, the lack of justice in them is bound to show sooner or later and the result is the fluctuations in public opinion on this subject which have so much influence in unsettling conditions and making hard times for both public and private owners, particularly As usual, the truth lies somethe latter. of the where between the two extremes and a well-balanced, fair investigation facts in each case will show where it The truth is, there is inis located. competence in management on both sides; both sides; there is nepotism on both sides; there are political employes there are defalcations on both sides; and it is quite possible that if the whole truth were known there is practically as much of each on the one side as on the other.

on

By our system of doing business in the dark with private owners of public service corporations, we make it possible for them to make more money than the city is able to make from its own plant, opWhat the erated in the open and by men seeking their own political advantage. foreign

The variation in the prices of cement
in various districts is shown by a diagram
prepared by D. C. and W. B. Jackson
Thus in 1905
for years 1902 to 1905.
the average mill price of Illinois cements
was $1.127; in Kentucky, Missouri and
Kansas, $1.073; in Michigan, $1.053 and
the order
In 1904
Michi-
in Indiana $1.002.
highest,
Illinois,
three southern
of states was
the
gan, Indiana and
These figures fluctuate ac-
states lowest.
cording to local demands.
similar activity in
There is
Thus in Canada there
cement markets.
in-
were 1,541,000 barrels made in 1905 and
2,152,000 barrels made in 1906, an
crease of 40 per cent. and the average
price at the mill was $1.42 in 1905 and
$1.49 in 1906. Imports decreased in 1906.
being 694,505 barrels as compared with
917,558 barrels in 1905, so that consump-
tion increased by about 25 per cent, as in
In Germany the im-
the United States.
provement in the trade is shown by the
dividend statements, the average dividend

private owner makes from the patrons
of his plant the city must often make up
directly from its own treasury, although
there are many instances of overcharg-
ing of patrons among city plants also.
of
What is needed is not so much municipal
In these
ownership as publicity of accounts
corporations.
public service
days a city goes into the discussion of a
new contract with a public service cor-
poration with blind eyes and with the
officials in a dark room, so that the re-

242

pert state authority before they became sulting contract is only by accident envalid, there would be sufficient check from Were the contracts This looks better than mutirely equitable. every side. made in full knowledge of the results better nicipal ownership, sometimes, if not alof the operation of the company, Where it has been tried it has ways. Why not try tellterms could often be made for both sides, been quite successful. contracts could be made certainly the ing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth for a while?

more easily, and the suspicions of undue
influence would not be so numerous.
the contracts were approved by an

If ex

THE QUESTION
DEPARTMENT

Have you any compiled data on municipal ownership, giving names of municipalities owning and what public utilities owned in the United States and abroad?

H. C. B., Chattanooga, Tenn.

The "Municipal Year Book" ($3) gives statements regarding the public or private ownership in municipalities of more than 3,000 population, of waterworks, sewers, electric lights, gas works, street railways, telephones, central heating, ferries and wire conduits.

Bulletin No. 20 of the United States table of data Census Bureau gives a gas works and regarding waterworks, electric light plants owned by cities of over 25,000 population.

Albert Shaw's book on "Municipal Government in Continental Europe" and "MuGreat Britain" unicipal Government in

and Meyer's "Municipal Ownership in
Great Britain" give names of many for-
of
Own one or
eign cities which

their public service industries.

more

Being engaged in the composition of a
scientific work upon dust and its elimina-
tion from macadamized streets in civilized
countries, it is of the greatest importance
to me that I secure information concern-
ing the methods of elimination of street
dust used in America, such as oiling and
tarring of streets, tar macadam and bitu-
I will, therefore,
lithic pavements, etc.
to you if you would
be very thankful
have the kindness to inform me regard-
ing literature which has appeared upon
the subject, monographs, papers and arti-
cles in periodicals, with exact prices of
With reference to the articles
the same.
and descriptions appearing in periodicals,
it would be most satisfactory if I had
these only and not the full annual vol-

The literature umes of the periodicals. may be in either English or German. Chief City Engineer, Germany.

The use of tar and oil and various other dust-laying materials has been so recently begun in America that there are no books Bitulithic and bituminupon the subject. ous macadam pavements are not strictly in the class of dust reducers, for they are intended for use in the same class with asphalt, wood or brick in permanent The treatment of roads with pavements. oil, tar, asphalt or chemicals to reduce It the dust nuisance is a difficult matter. is seldom that a permanent pavement can be secured by the methods used in laying dust, and it is necessary to repeat the treatment at intervals more or less frequent, according to the kind of material, method of application, quality of road surface, amount of travel, weather conSince bitulithic and tar macditions, etc.

adam are mentioned in the question, the answer will be divided into two parts, one concerning the permanent pavements and the other concerning the methods of treatment for laying dust.

Pavements.

The SO

methods

1. Permanent is more generally called tar macadam Some used in England than in America. of data regarding materials, construction and cost in England will be found in Greenwell's "Roads, Their Construction and Maintenance" (5 shillings), also in Aitken's "Road Making and Maintenance" ($6). Baker's "Roads and Pavements" ($5) contains brief descriptions of bitulithic and various kinds of bituminous macadam pavements in which tar and asphalt are used, as they are laid in America.

The back numbers of MUNICIPAL ENCINEERING contain the best collection of