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"TAE MARINE REVIEW 23 ers, the builders, the mechanics, the seamen and the manufacturers, merchants and farmers of America-- all of our people interested in shipping and in trade-- owe a vast debt of gratitude to Senator Gallinger. THE WISDOM OF THE JAPANESE. The plans made by Japan for extending her com- merce show that the militant spirit she displayed in the late war will be in evidence in more peaceful pursuits. | Nothing is more remarkable about the Oriental Yankees than the quickness with which they grasp western ideas and apply them to their own conditions. Japan is situated to the Orient as Eng- land to the Occident and everything points to her in- tention to become a great manufacturing nation, a great commercial nation and a great carrying nation. Colonization and sea power leading to commercial supremacy seems to be her motto. In the course of his speech on the shipping bill Senator Gallinger in- timated that unless the mail subsidy to the American line running from San Francisco to Australia was increased: he had it on good authority that the ser- vice would be suspended. It now develops that Japanese interests, according to a reliable source, have acquired an option on these American ships and they will be transferred to the Japanese flag in case the pending shipping bill fails to become a law dur- ing the present congress. This line, according to Senator Gallinger, not only performs the best service, but now receives the lowest compensation of all lines running to Australasian ports. The service is so swift and satisfactory that numbers of Australasian. business men, even when bound to Europe, are brought en route to the United States. Since 1896 our exports to Australasia have increased almost 150 per cent, amounting to $27,401,000 in 1904, which Senator Gallinger attributes "to the extraordinary effi- ciency and regularity of the ill-paid American steam- ship service out of San Francisco." Under the Jap- anese flag these ships can. be operated largely with the cheapest Asiatic labor and receive liberal subsi- dies from' the Japanese government.. It is not ex- pected, however, that if they are acquired by .the Japanese they will be continued in the trade between Australasia and San Francisco for the benefit of American commerce, but will rather be transferred to some route that will aid Japan. : Coupled with this information is the report, also apparently authentic, that Japan is reaching out for -- the Pacific mail steamers and has secured an option on them also to be exercised unless the shipping bill passes. All familiar with the subject remember how the Pacific Mail Company has been compelled to exer- 'cise every ingenuity to meet the competition of the Canadian trans-Pacific lines. It has even been said that the Pacific mail steamers work their ships al- _most to our ports with Chinese crews and then bring them in with American crews, placing the Chinese on smaller craft until the ship starts on her return voy- age when they are picked up and worked to the Orient: and back when- the same dodge ° AS: "repeated, Under the Japanese flag 'there would. be no such diffi- culty and the subsidies would, be more liberal. While the United States at the height af lier paar perity is hesitating to spend afew millions: in: sub- sidies, Japan, fresh from a tremendous financial drain of the late war and with half the population and in- comparably less resources, is reaching out with an open purse for steamship lines. Secretary Wilson, of the Tokyo legation, has sent the state department the particulars regarding two steamship lines now being established between Japan and South America with which this country isso anxious to open up communications. The first is a Japanese enterprise called the Toyo Kisen Kaisha, which already owns the American Maru, Nippon Maru, and Hongkong Maru,' sailing between China, Japan and San Fran- ctsco, by way of Honolulu. According to Mr. Wil- son, two steamers of 13,000 tons each have been ordered by this company to be built at Nagasaki. The keel of one has already been laid and the two are expected to be completed within two years. Until they have their own steamers the company will em- ploy chartered British vessels. It is expected that the new vessels being so large, will be placed in the San Francisco trade and the three vesels mentioned will be run to South America. The route will be from Hongkong via Japanese ports to Honolulu and San Francisco, thence to Panama, Guayaquil, Callao - and Iquique. The company counts largely on Chinese passengers and goods for South America, especially Chinese laborers for the development of Peru, while nitrates for fertilizers and Peruvian sugar are expect- ed to furnish the return cargo. Commencing on the possibilities of this trade, Secretary Wilson says: It is not unlikely that an important commerce between Japan and ~ the countries of. South America may follow this opening of cheaper communication. The Japanese expect to find a market there for manu- factured silk. matting, straw braid, straw hats, porcelain, fans, paper, matches, bamboo articles, lacquer-ware, wooden manufactures, etc. South American articles of export which would find a market: in Japan are leather, hides, cotton, wool, nitrates, sugar, fodder and wheat. The starting of regular Japanese lines to South America indicates the far- reaching commercial enterprise of the Japanese and their determina- tion to have a-:merchant marine of the first magnitude. With a large seafaring population, low wages, cheap coal, and liberal government subsidies to steamship companies, the Japanese 'will reach out for a good share of the lucrative carrying trade of the world, Evidently the Japanese believe that commerce fol- lows the flag in peace as in war. The steamers John C. Gault and Russell Sage, forme:ly operated by the Lake Erie Transportation Co. between Toledo and Buffalo, are for sale by George E. Hardy, care of Hardy. & Dischinger, Toledo, O. The boats are in excellent condition and it is understood that the price. at which they are to be sold is very reasonable. a a The steamer building at the Bay City yard of the Aimer- ican Ship Building Co, for the Gilchrist Transportation Co. of Cleveland will be named in honor of John Sherwin of Cleveland. Mr. Charles O. Jenkins announces that he ae changed the name of the Mack Steamship Co. to the Jenkins See meeP Co,