The following is a brief list of articles, and of sections of articles, of interest to all railroad men:

CHAPTER XIX
FOR MARINE TRANSPORTATION MEN

Problems of the Near Future

The immediate future of marine commerce cannot fail to be very greatly affected by changed conditions. No one believes that England, Germany, France, Russia, Austria, Japan and China will be able, before the middle of the century, to establish a stable adjustment of the international difficulties which surround them. No one knows what changes the Panama Canal may make in the movement of freights within the first ten years of its operation. No one knows to what industry the United States may next apply the methods by which the country has created the age of steel.

Coal and the steam engine may both, within a few years, be displaced as factors in marine transportation. Sweeping tariff changes in the United States, in Great Britain and in Germany may vitally affect the movement of freights. Transatlantic passenger traffic, not only a huge business in itself, but also important, so long as it is sea-borne, in its effects upon transatlantic freights, may become aerial instead of marine.

Technical Subjects

Confronted by the approach of a period so full of changes, the uttermost alertness of outlook is merely elementary prudence on the part of everyone engaged in the business of marine transportation; and the new Britannica reviews all the many fields of knowledge which are of importance in this connection. It supplies technical information regarding the construction of ships, the management of shipping lines, marine engines of every kind, shipboard and waterside appliances for the handling of cargo, the development of harbours and the dredging and embankment of rivers, the building of docks, warehouses and dry docks, ship canals and canal locks, navigation, lighthouses, lightships, buoys, lanes of traffic, marine insurance, cold transport—every conceivable subject with which shipping men are concerned. Articles by contributors in twenty different countries, deal with all the world’s ports, industries, exports, imports and shipping. The financial and legal aspects of the business are exhaustively covered. Tariffs, legislation affecting marine transportation, and such questions of international policy as the command of the sea, the right of search, and the position of neutrals in wartime are discussed by the highest authorities.

In addition to all this, the Britannica articles on these and similar subjects contain historical sections which, in conjunction with the articles on the history of all countries, show how past changes, as sweeping as these which are now anticipated, have affected commerce. Whether your present position—or the position you are endeavouring to make for yourself—in relation to shipping is such that this coming period of transition promises to affect you favourably or unfavourably, you need to be forewarned and forearmed, prepared to keep what you have or get what you want.

An Outline of Sea Trade