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1899.]. MARINE REVIEW. 7 o AMERICA'S SHIPPING BILL. ARGUMENTS THAT ACCOMPANY THE BILL AND WHIOH ARE MADE Ar PART OF IT AS INTRODUCED IN THE FIFTY-SIXTH CONGRESS. The fundamental and principal reason and purpose of the United States aiding and encouraging our own: shipping--helping to create it when it does not exist to the extent necessary to the defence and advance- ment of our just interests--and promoting its capacity to carry our sur- plus productions of every kind to the countries and peoples that need or wish them, as well as to add to the strength-of«the nation in times (often coming suddenly) when our power and immediate means of self-defence may be taxed to the utmost, are stated in the title of the bill--to promote the commerce and increase the foreign -trade of the United States and to provide auxiliary cruisers, transports, and seamen for government, use 'when necessary. If this title or the preamble is true, the necessity for legislation of this character is demonstrated, unless it be shown that our present condition is dud to the fault of American ship builders and ship owners, or to the paying of too high wages by manufacturers and others employing the labor of our people. It will scarcely be pretended that either of these alternatives exists. -The condition of our commerce dur- ing many years is shown in the very instructive reports of the commis- sioner of navigation for 1897, 1898 and 1899, and also in the reports of the secretary of the treasury for 1898 and 1899. "From these reports and other government documents it definitely appears (a state of things long well known in all the productive and busi- ness circles of the country) that our exports have not kept pace with the 'increase of our population, or with the increase' of our productive re- sources and power in producing food and food products, and in the pro- 'duction of manufacturing industries' of all' kinds which convert the raw material of our country into higher and more valuable forms, and thus find a necessary field of employment for the intelligence, scientific and mechanical skili and enterprise of our citizens. The larger this field is, 'the greater is the capacity of our citizens to utilize and enjoy the products of the farm and the shop, and thereby to enlarge and make profitable the home markets as well as the foreign ones for everything that is produced 'or manufactured. It scarcely need be said that the home market is one lof the principal and great essentials to the prosperity of any nation which 'possesses the abundant and almost universal natural resources of those 'possessed by the United States. It means the co-operation and mutual assistance of all the people in the development and increase of all their 'industrial energies. The full fruit of this development and increase must be found in our increasing our exportations of all our products and manu- factures to every part of the globe where purchasers of them can be found. Such has been the wise and profitable policy of all the nations possessing in any considerable degree the natural or artificial resources necessary to these ends. Such nations have done this steadily and persistently, and have by subsidies and' other aids to their' commercial and shipping in- terests, such as exploiting corporations for foreign trade, and by trading posts, banking facilities, etc., obtained: great advantages over the pro- ducers, manufacturers, and the shipping interests of the United States. It is an obvious truth that the volume of the foreign trade of any nation is very largely influenced and increased by the fact that its own ships are the means of its communication and trade. Their influence on all the agencies of such a trade is naturally, and properly directed to the develop- ment and increase of the trade of their own: country. And so, while the United States have slept and been indifferent to these considerations, the trade with and markets of most of the nations using such things as the producing and manufacturing nations have to sell have fallen to and been absorbed by others than the United States. The great bulk of our ex- port trade must depend upon shipping. No theory or doctrine of protec- tion or free trade, no theory or doctrine of finance or currency, can af- fect the fact that our only means of communication and intercourse ee more than 90 per cent of all the inhabitants of the globe is shipping. In order that the United States can fairly compete with other nations in the "markets beyond' the seas, it is essential that our means ol communica- tion and intercourse with the buying nations should be put under the protection of our own flag and on a footing of equality, at least, with our competitors. In the present..condition of national. affairs and nea on those parts of the globe where perhaps the largest opening for t rae of ourselves and our competitors all a ie the future, the most e cacious means to these ends must: be adopted. ae It is an unpleasant fact that at the present time more ee 85 Per cent of the foreign commerce of the United States is conducte ay meals of foreign ships, and not only -with the countries under whose Bee ships sail, but with other countries having little or no ocean marin ae result of which is, as above suggested, that there is a constant, pose a and successful influence exerted in favor of the papers an tie all factures of the country whose flag is borne by the trading ae an aie the accessories of government.aids and of mercantile an - mani oa fluences in the ports and countries to which such ee go. A ee a speedily to endeavor, by every st Mes 4 hand thet too ing in the foreign markets relerred (0, mot to. eae Pain pctitar: anise wise and just polity for their own See every cost necessary to success their shipping neauRO ST 1 eee ties and aids that necessarily flow from 1t, we cee Bae Ae responding policy, and by the most liberal inducements a eet merchant marine. and try. by every fair means, to eat nes eHenIa fa Ceunied and which "we oe a ier the' idea of helping 'the ship course of policy does not chiefly rest ae United States on their own building and ship sailing interests © to all our productive-and manu- account, but upon the element--common eine: 'Easential' 'cooperating facturing industries--of their Be ae vined The main thing is 'to enable means of general prosperity and weltare. i j ies of the United States to regain the producing and all other eae world. Thete is no honest and our just position in the market } ' are States Peuctriots worker in the manifold fields of tabonin ha ele casas who is not concerned in such an undertaking. Ba fe Geneeeoi the resources, capacity, and enterprise can not borers Re ep uigarsioAnt People of 'any other country may be apserted st eed by our own RMN he face of this, the foreign commerce COnCmgR: shipping has decreased from 80 per cent in 1846 and 66 per cent in 1860 to 11 per cent in 1897. Other manufacturing nations, influenced by the considerations before stated, have aided in ship building and in establish- ing and supporting lines of sea connection under their own flags with distant countries, and have thereby enabled their own citizens to establish trading houses, banking houses, and other facilities for the sale of their productions in those countries; and they have thus, in a very large de- gree, secured a comparatively exclusive market for their own goods. Besides this, the cost of their shipping, owing to prices of labor, and so forth, being generally lower than those paid in the United States, has been considerably and sometimes very much less than that of ships built in the United States. The result of all these circumstances has been to deprive the United States of the supremacy, or at least the equality in foreign trade, which it had in earlier days, and to very greatly retard the sale of. American goods in these far-away countries in which the products of the industry of the United States ought to have an equal opportunity for disposition. It may well be repeated in this connection that by just so much as the export trade of the United States is increased will the industries and labors of our own people be benefited. To regain a trade once lost or greatly curtailed requires extraordinary and persistent effort and ex- pense. Once regained, it can support itself under equal conditions. It is a well-known fact that the largest markets of the world not al- ready well developed are to be sought for and found in eastern Asia. These markets are convenient of access from our Pacific coast, and will be almost equally so from our Atlantic coast when the canal crossing the Isthmus of Nicaragua shall have been built under the auspices of the United States. It is obvious that the struggle of certain nations for po- litical and military supremacy and spheres of influence in eastern Asia, as well as in Africa, has been, and is, with perhaps a single exception, founded upon a desire to obtain a dominating influence over the markets of those regions. In the commerce of those markets the United States ought to have a fair opportunity to compete. This cannot be effectively obtained without our own ships and our own flag. The sooner adequate provision is made to this end the less will be the difficulty and the greater will be our reward. To attain these objects no expense to the common treasury in aid of ship 'building and ship trading can be too great, for the trade, once established, will be permanent; unaided now, it will be lost for 'a long future. In view of our existing treaty relations with other countries, it is manifest that the ends before referred to can only be presently and effectively attained by the enactment of a law giv- ing direct aid and encouragement to the increase of our merchant marine and to the establishment of American lines of communication and trade with foreign markets, and especially with those above referred to. The substance of the proposed bill may be stated as follows: I. In order to obtain the earliest possible action pursuant to the policy of the United States above referred to, the bill provides for bring- ing under our flag and the protection of our laws the few foreign built ships now actually owned and contracted for by American citizens, and in which and in their trade American capital has been and is actually invested. These ships have been built and their trade established under a foreign flag, because the ships could not be built and fitted out here and operated at a cost that would enable them successfully to compete with the ships and trade of foreigners, aided as they have been, are, and will continue to be in various ways, by their own governments. II. The American registry of these foreign-built ships is conditioned upon their owners building here and putting into our own trade at the earliest practicable time new vessels of a tonnage fairly proportionate to that of the admitted ships. III. None of these foreign-built ships, or of the new ships so to be built here, are permitted to engage in our ceasting trade; but they are permitted to engage in trade with such other ports belonging to the United States as ships under foreign flags are permitted to trade with. IV. All the owners of American trading ships now existing are re- 'quired to undertake the construction of new tonnage fairly proportioned to that of the ships claiming the benefit of this act. V. All these ships are required to carry the mails of the United States free of charge. VI. All the new ships must be built so as to be readily converted into cruisers or other auxiliary aids to the military power of the United States whenever needed for such purposes. VII. When needed, they can be taken or employed by the United States at any time. VIII. All these ships are bound (in addition to the indispensable training of their crews) to constantly educate and train American boys for the various necessities of naval operations. IX. All the foregoing mentioned conditions and requirements being complied with, American vessels are to be aided and assisted in regain- ing and increasing our trade to distant ports by a compensation graduated (with one exception) upon the distance sailed and upon the size and speed of the ships. X. The exception referred to in the last paragraph applies to sailing vessels and to slow steamships, the maintenance of which is also essential to our maritime progress and prosperity, and also to the strength of our military power. XI. Vessels engaged in the deep-sea fisheries are also provided for upon the same policy of supplying to the United States a body of intel- ligent and experienced American mariners at all times, ready to serve our country when needed. XII. The respective compensations arranged in the bill have been computed, it is believed, upon the lowest basis consistent with the attain- ment of the great and urgent objects already stated, and the aggregate compensation is limited to a sum not exceeding $9,000,000 a year. The foregoing paragraphs present the scheme and main points of the bill. The other provisions are incidental and of detail. The provisions of the bill are believed to be in harmony with the last annual message of the president of the United States and with the recommendations of the secretary of the treasury, the postmaster-general, and the commissioner of navigation, and, it is hoped, will commend themselves to the patriotic judgment of congress.