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Show oo RIVALRY OF ATLANTIC SEAPORTS That Boston is New York's most formidable rival for foreign trade wad the comforting message of Calvin Tomklns, commissioner of docks and Ferries, in New York, to the Boston Chamber of Commerce. His specialty being docks, ho looks at the question from thc materialistic viewpoint of facilities fa-cilities offered He places Boston ahead of all other cities in tho fight, he told the Chamber of Commerce, Monday night. "Simply because you are going to run trains from various parts of the country to the sides of tho great oco.ui steamships, whero passengers can embark em-bark without the slightest delay, and with no Inconvenience You have accomplished ac-complished wonders in the way or docks and other timo-saving innovations inno-vations which has set New York seriously seri-ously thinking. Boston has the port right here on the ocean. Boston has the business. Boston has the railroad rail-road facilities to handle thc increased in-creased volume of business that is sure to come to this port, and that cannot be said of New London,, Mon-tauk Mon-tauk Point or Jamaica bay. New London and Montauk Point may figure fig-ure in thc passenger travel portion por-tion of the business In tho future, as Southhampton, England, has done In recent years, but these ports aro i , a i? -U Is -t somewhat visionary al tmV jlme,,as ti - compared with such established ports 11 as Boston and Now York." fl Competition, of course, is mever a Stii matter of facilities alone. The forces fl ' that direct the course of traffre, like .f H tbo forces that bring a great popula- l tlon logothor In one city, arc compli- I f f cated in the extreme, and it is easier I I to analyze them after the event than ' 1 to predict the course they will take. I ( It may seem obvious enough now that I i the Hudson and the Mohawk valley I 5 predestined Nov York to commercial I) supremacy hut it was by no means f so obvious when the nation was 4 II ' young, and when Philadelphia and II ; Boston were greater cities. -) Yet strategic position is not every- HI thing, even In tho matter of terminals. U London and Liverpool hold their own Wl ' despite experiments at short cuts. Mr. Jf Tomklns Is probably right In saying 5 I that neither Boston nor New York J lil f need worry just yet over the rivalry KJ f of Montauk Point or the newer com- jil petitor for the big liners, New Lon- 1 don. The status quo counts for much, -1' i and a trifling saving of tlmo or coal m by sea counts for little against a well- 'm worked-out co-ordination of land 'i transjxjrtatlon. Lines of communlca- iH I tion have never In the past run on Sir' mathematical lines, and they are not .? likely to run so there aro too many It factors Involved. Tow York's danger 1 ' . , of losing the great steamship ter- P ' mlnals is not serious, and oven if she M did, she would not he appreciably ft hurt Paris and Berlin flourish with- I out being terminals at all. As for IP Boston, It Is only at a banquet that one 8 ' 1 1 would speak of her as a rival to New I ' "t York, but her outlook for sea trado . has not been better since the great days of tho clippers. Tho vigorous f and enlightened policy In regard to .? docks, to which Mr. Tomklns alluded, A Is already bearing fruit, and "will still j Ul further strengthen tho position of the ' I jl port when the plans are fullj carried j M into effect. Springfield (Mass.) Re- f yf publican. lei |