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24 | THE Marine REVIEW AID TO SHIPPING. In a recent issue the Philadelphia Press prints a letter from Theodore Justice to Francis B. Reeves discussing the question of ship subsidy in all its varied phases. This letter of Mr. Justice was elicited by a letter from Mr. Reeves which communicated the objections of a southern senator to ship subsidies. Mr. Justice, in taking up this phase of the case, in meet- ing the objections of the southerner, at the outset holds that the chief reason for supporting the subsidy bill is "patriotism," and he then continues as follows:-- We need to build up a mercantile marine to furnish auxiliary ships and seafaring men to supplement our splendid navy, without which the United States are very much in the position of the Russian navy that collapsed in its first contact with the Japanese fleet, because those splendid Russian ships, equal to any in the world, were manned by inexperienced seamen. Russia, like the United States, has no school for its officers and men outside the naval establishment. Japan's pre-eminent advantage arose largely from the fact that her mercantile marine furnished an unlimited supply of auxiliary vessels and trained seamen, and it is doubtful if any European nation, with the single exception of Great Britain, could have successfully competed with her. The American merchant marine, by national aid, can be built up in a very few years to exceed that of Japan. Our southern people are justly proud of our splendid young navy, and in so far as they understand it, seem as anxious as citizens from any other part of the country to make it efficient, but they do not seem to comprehend that without a mercantile marine, in case of conflict with any first class navy, ours would be in the position of a man with one hand tied behind him, for we have practical- ly no mercantile marine to act as auxiliary to the navy. The American nation should build this up regardless of its-cost, and if the southern people could see the im- portance of it their unquestioned patriotism would impel them to make the matter a national rather than a sectional one. : As an illustration of the extent of our present weakness I call attention to the report of Admiral Sampson, who stated that although we were victorious in every conflict in the war with Spain, at the close of the Spanish war we had completely exhausted our auxiliary resources, so that if we had had a single defeat on the ocean, or if the wat had continued longer, this weakness would have been brought painfully to the attention of every patriot, wheth- er he be a descendant of the heroes who fought at York- town or Cowpens in the south, or of those in. the north who aided in the defeat of Burgoyne. Our present tariff has enormously developed our inter- nal resources, and we bring our exports to our seacoast and transfer them to. transportation lines flying foreign flags, whose annual profit is estimated at over $200,000,000, every dollar of which is spent abroad, whereas if it were earned by Americans, as it can be if this bill is passed, this immense sum would be spent at home, and every section of the United States would be benefited by this addition to our income. Besides this, think of the hundreds of millions of dollars that would be spent in building up a navy. As $1,000,000,- 000 in 1906 is being expended by American railroads in new construction, some idea may be formed of what ad- ditional sums would be spent among our people in build- ing a mercantile marine. It has been estimated that the labor and material for this would amount to $1,000,000,000, so that when the cost of building an adequate mercantile marine is added to the sums now earned by foreign carriers of our com- merce, we would have a total of $1,000,000,000, which dis- tributed among the American people would be about $14.50 per capita, Can any of our people from either the south or west say that this would be of no benefit to all of the people living in the south or the west? Thomas Jefferson, a southern patriot, advocated ship subsidy in the early part of the history of this nation, which built up our commerce so that at the time of the breaking out of the Civil. War, when so many of our ships were swept from the sea by Confederate cruisers, 80 per cent, of our commerce was conducted under the American flag. About this time the iron ship was substituted for the. wooden vessel, and in the beginning Great Britain had an immense advantage over us in building the vessels that carried American commerce as the tariff had not then built up this infant industry with us, which now is a giant that is ready to build up a new mercantile marine © that will beat the world. France and Germany had no protective tariff on ships as they now have, and this per- | mitted the import of-free ships, and these nations bought their ships in Great Britain. The result was that their commerce continued to dwin- dle, and it was not until they followed the British example and heavily subsidized their ships sailing to almost all parts of the world that they began to build up a mercan- tile marine which now carries the greater part of their commerce, and today German ships carry half the pas- sengers that a few years ago sailed mainly in British ships. For the result of this commerce you must look at the en- ormous profits spent among their own people which have accrued to them from their ship subsidy bills. These have given them the building at home of some of the finest steamers in the world, distributed millions of money for material and labor among the German peo- ple, as well as trained thousands of seamen, who furnish an auxiliary naval reserve for these fighting ships, an element that we lack. One decade of the German policy would make us sec- ond only to Great Britain, and two decades of it would make us master of the maritime power of the globe, with the Stars and Stripes floating over magnificent steamers on the high seas. Does this not appeal to the pride of the south? Today, owing to our neglect to do what the leading nations of Europe have done in subsidizing ships, 90 per cent of our commerce, amounting to $2,500,000,000 an- nually, is carried under foreign flags, and less than Io per cent of it under the American flag. : Foreign ships come to our shores bringing $1,000,000,- ooo of merchandise, which does not give them a full cargo, so part come here in ballast in order to get a full cargo, amounting to $1,500,000,000 of exports. If foreign vessels find it profitable to come here for our immense commerce, and if they are kept alive by sub- sidies, it follows that we are grossly negligent if we fail to follow this example of Great Britain, Germany and France. We need to investigate only the example of the latter two: When they had laws permitting them to buy free ships in England, their foreign commerce dwindled away, but when they subsidized their ships it responded with prompt expansion. Thirty years ago German com- merce was insignificant--today Germany is second only to England in foreign trade and prestige, and the United States in time can exceed them both. We are asked if we could expect foreign people to trade with us when we do not do some trading with them. Foreign people buy merchandise of us only when they can buy it cheaper than they can get it elsewhere, and