tobal and for $6.40 per ton at Balboa. Since that date the prices have been $6 per ton at Cristobal and $7 at Balboa. These are the prices charged for coal trimmed in the bunkers when the ship uses her own hoisting engines. When the canal authorities provide a hoisting engine, a small charge of $1 per hour is made for the use of the engine. The price at Balboa is higher than at Cristobal because of canal tolls and other expenses. The coal delivered at both the Pacific and the Atlantic ends of the canal is brought from the Atlantic ports of the United States.

The advantages of routes via the Panama Canal as compared with alternative competitive routes, in the matter of relative expenses for coal, can best be shown by comparing the prices of coal at a few important stations along different routes. It would, however, be misleading to compare prices prevailing at the present time. If the prices that prevailed before the opening of the canal—that is, if the contract prices for the year 1912 or the year 1913 are taken the relative costs of fuel by alternative routes will be accurately shown. It is probable that prices after the close of the present European War will range higher than the prices that prevailed before the war, but the relation of prices at different stations will probably be much the same in the future as they have been in the past. If anything, the ad

vantages which the Panama routes had before the war, as regards relative coal prices, were less than the advantages will be after the prices of coal have again reached a normal level. That is to say, the war will probably place Welsh and English coal, with which the coal stations of the world are mainly supplied, upon a permanently higher level; whereas the effect of the European War will be but slight upon the cost and price of American coal with which stations at and beyond the Panama Canal will be mainly stocked.

In 1912 the price for Welsh coal at Port Said was 26s. per ton, or nearly $1 more than the price of $5.40 charged at Cristobal during the first year of the operation of the Panama Canal. As stated above, the price of coal at Balboa is $1 per ton higher than at Cristobal, but at the Suez Canal the difference in the price at the two ends of the canal is much greater. The 1912 price at Suezthat is, at the Red Sea end of the canal-was 36s., or nearly $2.50 more than the charge at Port Said. This high price of coal at Suez is apparently due in part to the absence of competition.

1 For information concerning the 1912 prices of coal at the leading coaling stations of the world, consult Chapter X of the writer's report on Panama Canal Traffic and Tolls. Consult also A. W. Kirkaldy's British Shipping: Its History, Organisation and Importance, Appendix XI, pp. 602-610. Kirkaldy's table is especially comprehensive and quotes prices which are stated to be "extracted from actual contracts."

The same Welsh coal sold for 34s. at Aden and at Colombo, and for 35s. at Singapore. At Colombo, Welsh coal competes with Australian, Indian, and Japanese coal.

Table 3, taken from the report on Panama Canal Traffic and Tolls, states the prices of different kinds of coal at a limited number of coaling stations along the Panama, Suez, Cape of Good Hope and Straits of Magellan routes:

TABLE 3

Contract Prices of Coal in 1912 at Selected Stations in Different Parts of the World

In comparing prices of coal of different kinds at different stations it is important to have in

mind the relative steaming value of various kinds of coal. West Virginia coal has about 95 per cent. of the heating value of Welsh coal and is somewhat better than Tyne, Durham, or other English coal. The efficiency of several kinds of coal is concretely, although not closely, indicated by statements made by the captains of vessels, who have had large experience with different kinds of coal. The captain of one vessel reports that his ship's daily consumption is 22 tons of best No. 1 Welsh, 25 tons of Tyne, 29 to 30 of Indian or Japanese, 24 to 25 of Newcastle (Australian), 30 of Chilean, 24 to 25 of New River (West Virginian), and 26 of Alabama coal. Another vessel is reported by its captain to have a daily consumption of 25 tons of best Welsh as compared with 261⁄2 tons of Pocahontas, 26 Welsh run-of-mine, 28 of Lancashire or Tyne, and 30 of Indian or Japanese coal. Pocahontas coal is particularly effective in vessels with forced draft, in which class of vessels its steam value is about equal to that of Welsh coal.

The prices of different kinds of coal sold at the same station vary roughly according to the relative steaming qualities of the coal. At Singapore at least five different kinds of coal are sold. The coal is brought to Singapore from Australia, Japan, India, and Wales. The 1912 contract price for coal at Singapore was: for Welsh 35s.; Aus

ment of vessels which is contained in the following chapter.

The size of warships is not expressed in figures of gross or net tonnage but in tons of weight or displacement. While fighting ships are of many types and of great variety of construction, they all agree in having no earning capacity as does a merchant ship. It was logical to base Panama Canal tolls upon displacement tonnage of warships and to apply measurement rules for the determination of net tonnage only to such naval vessels as transports, colliers, supply ships, and hospital ships, which vessels are similar to merchant ships in construction and use.

The Panama toll upon merchant vessels of $1.20 per net ton was established after careful consideration had been given to the general principles that should control the financial and commercial policy to be followed by the United States in managing the canal, and after studying the probable effects of this and other rates of toll upon the volume, of traffic that would use the canal, it being important that the tolls should not unduly limit the usefulness of the canal to the industries and commerce of the world. The principles that should control the United States in its financial management of the canal were well expressed by President Taft in his message of December 21, 1911, in which he stated: