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12 MARINE REVIEW. [April 5, THE SHIPPING BILL. A STRONG REPORT IN ITS FAVOR FROM THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE--CARDINAL POINTS OF THE MEASURE, General Charles H. Grosvenor, chairman of the house committee ne merchant marine, presented to the house on Monday of this week t 1e amended shipping bill with a majority report upon it signed by every Republican member. The report is in part as follows: : ce "Our abundant natural resources and our industrious and increasing population make it of great value to increase the means of profitably ay posing of our surplus productions, and, as our export trade is increased, so will be home consumption and employment. Our exporting competi- tors have for a long time been devoting themselves to increasing "ae export trade and getting possession of markets. Africa is an example ot the methods pursued of partitioning territory or recognizing spheres of influence,' possibly eastern Asia being eventually destined to receive ann! lar treatment. China may be left_open to fair and equal competition with respect of trade with the United States, in which event one of the vee if not the largest, fields for the trade and commerce of other nations wil be open to those possessing the facilities for taking advantage of oppo-- tunity. The nation first in the field with its own productions and its own means of transportation will achieve the largest success, for which reason China must remove the barriers which now almost entirely exclude for- eign intercourse. Other parts of the world in which our commerce holds so small a share would repay particular study." : The need of abundant establishments for the construction, docking and repairing of ships "an adequate navy" and "'a great fleet of merchant vessels," all in readiness for an exi- ALGIERS FLOATING DRY DOCK. hows the actual wage expenses on five differ- os . same size, under as many different flags, to American vessel, $1,385; British vessel, $851.69; German vessel, $646.33; Dutch vessel, $553.62; Norwegian vessel, $510.72. The report then discusses the other policies that have bee suggested for the upbuilding of the American merchant marine and the reasons for i 'ection in comprehensive and conclusive detail. Se tee of the people of other nations to any policy having in ; : nt of foreign with American ships in our foreign. feade ere ae the selfish reasons therefor shown. 7 Tie princi- ple of the bill advocated by the committee," says the report, "is in It is that our export trade shall be open on the ae terms, so far as assisted by the policy, and the money of the United States is concerned, to every one of our citizens who may choose to nea 40M and upon terms of equality to all, according to service rendere 3 e application of this broad principle to our present needs, it is hoped and expected, will in due time give us a vastly increased merchant marine and a vastly in- creased sale in old and new markets of our products, as well as an Ameri- can postal service to every port to which the vessels receiving compen- sation go; and it will also (most important to our national honor and safety) give us a great fleet of vessels auxiliary to our mavy and indis- pensable to military operations abroad. THE SUBSIDIES ARE NOT EXTRAVAGANT. A table is quote ent steam ships of 2 be as follows per month: Immediately following the detailed summary of each provision of the bill the question of whether the compensation is too liberal is considered, and in which connection it is shown that the aids given their merchant ships by foreign governments during the last year for which the official data' were available are as fol- lows: gency, is asserted by the report to be "a self-evident proposition." On these grounds other nations have fortified themselves by increasing their sea power in all of the ways referred to, with the double object "of strengthening their facilities and power for carrying on foreign com- merce." The report gives tables showing our sea-going sail and steam tonnage, in comparison with those of the principal maritime na- tions. In sail Great Britain has de- clined 45 per cent. since 1873-4; the United States has declined 40 per cent.; Norway has remained station- ary; Italy 'has declined 59, Germany 40, France 64 and all other nations 26 per cent., the average for all 'being the same as that for the United States. In steam sea-going tonnage since 1873-4 the table shows there has everywhere been an increase, the following percentages showing its magnitude: Great Britain, 311; United States, 68; France, 200; Ger- many, 693; Spain, 275; Italy, 395; Holland, 399; Russia, 430; Norway, 1410, and all others, excepting Japan, 504. Japan's statistics only go back one decade, during which her in- crease has been 382 per cent. There was an average increase in the sea- going steam tonnage of all nations of 8386 per cent. since 1873-4. The committee's analysis of this table says: "It appears, then, that with our great population, we stand at the very foot of the column." OUR LOSS IN THE LAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. Our own share of our own foreign carrying, it is shown, has dimin- ished from 26.1 per cent. to 8.9 per cent. during the last quarter of a century. References to the last report of the commissioner of navigation are made to indicate where tables may be found showing a list of the vessels now under foreign flags that are owned by American citizens, and the forty foreign vessels of 126,818 tons purchased by our government before the commencement of the Spanish war. The report states: "Had the war continued for another year, or had it occurred with any stronger power, the conditions of the United States in respect of the supply of aux- iliary aids to our military operations would have been of the most serious character." The American vessels permanently registered for foreign trade are shown to number 954 or 569,364 tons, and further details on this point are indicated as being in the commissioner of navigation's report, the pages in all such references being named. The report shows that during 1899 there were seventy-nine sail and steam vessels of 36,107 tons, built in the United States for foreign trade. Our average annual construction of ocean steamships (most of all of which were for our coastwise trade) for ten years past has been only 21,000 tons per year, compared with jhe British average construction of 968,000 tons per year, The cost of ship building, it is stated, is in Great Britain at least 20, and probably averages 25, per cent. lower than in the United States, as shown by the evidence of those who appeared at the hearings in both the house and senate committees having the bill in charge. That people will buy where ships are built cheapest is obvious, and this accounts, says the committee, for the fact that Great Britain practically monopolizes the building of the world's ocean tonnage, notwithstanding our possession of the energy, enterprise, skill, capital, ship building material, harbors, ship yards and machinery for building the ocean trade ships. The cost of ship building and of operation, however, as will be shown later, does not com- prehend all of the obstacles to our success as a maritime power, the aid given by other nations to their ships constituting an important factor, A PHOTO SHOWING PROGRESS OF ITS CONSTRUCTION. The floating dry dock which is now under construction at the Mary- land Steel Co.'s works, Sparrow's Point, Md., for Algiers, La., is 36 per cent. completed and at the present rate of progress will be 50 per cent. > TOHOW : completed before May 1. Ninety per cent. of the material has been 1. To aid ina real practical way-- received. All the bottom plates are in position and many of the athwart- ship bulkheads are erected. The riveting up was begun March 11 and soon fifteen pneumatic riveters will be busy. In the machine shop the centrifugal pumps are well advanced. The multiple punch, the only ma- chine of its kind in this country, is reported to be doing wonderful work both as to output and extreme accuracy. Great Britain 6.5 6 $ 5,851,525 Germany o2... 3, *1,894,620 Kranicé 2233 7,632,242 italy ee 2,185,266 Russia. (os. A 1,371,187 ANStTia Se 1,724,249 Spal eee 1,629,927 Portugal = 23 63,300 Netherlands .5 223 259,971 Notway 5025 136,948 mWeden (20,0102 31,844 Denmath 7.3 a 82,455 Japan ee 3,492,107 Potal. os oe ee $26,355,641 *Besides land transportation aid. : This is as against a total of sim- ilar aid by the United States of only $998,211, which latter is below the average by $300,000 or $400,000, due to the ships receiving such aid being employed by the government during our war with Spain. Special refer- ence is made to the American line, and its owners praised for their cour- age and patriotism in running their ships under the American flag at such a great loss each year. Cardi- nal purposes of the bill are summed up as follows: and no doubt, under existing condi- tions, the only possible way--in bringing, to the greatest extent pos- sible, our own foreign trade back into our own hands, and thus say- ing to our country certainly more than $100,000,000 _ transportation money annually, which now goes to increase the wealth of other nations. 2. To greatly increase the exportation and sale of all kinds of our superabundant productions, and especially in the vast regions of Eastern Asia, evidently very soon to be opened to the trade of the world. This is a trade that the nation best prepared to engage in will necessarily get the greater proportion of by its own ships under its own flag and with its own postal facilities and its own commercial establishment for the disposal of its productions. : To bring into existence at the earliest possible time a great Amer- ican fleet of merchant vessels, built in our own country, with our own material and by our own labor, as a most necessary means of national aid and national safety in times of international war, or other disturbances, the probability of which is unhappily not small, even now. a To increase the number of our citizens who will be educated in seafaring work, and who will thus have the skill and be better able to defend the honor and interests of our country on the seas, however sud- denly the occasion may happen. 5. The bill, we think, will, if the proposed compensation is large enough, accomplish these great and important purposes. : en. (Grosvenor's report concludes: "It will, of course, take a con- siderable time to reach the desired end, but the sooner the policy is entered upon the sooner and easier will be its accomplishment. The means proposed are open to the capital, the enterprise and the skill of all our citizens alike, and on equal terms. There is no ground for any form of monopoly. There is absolute safety to the treasury in the fact that no Payment can be made until in each and for each voyage the work is actually performed. As we have before stated, it is certain that no vessel --great or small, fast or slow in the list--can afford to make a single voy- age without also having a large commercial income from the same voyage and in doing which commercial business she is fulfilling one of the great purposes of the bill. In view of the foregoing considerations we earnestly recommend the speedy passage of the bill with t ant d - ' assa e q s reporte in connection with g the with the amendm Pp