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20 MARINE REVIEW. _ MARINE REVIEW Daveted to the Merchant Marine, the Navy, Ship Building, and Kindred Interests. Published every Thursday at No. 418-19 Perry-Payne building, Cleveland, Ohio, by THE MARINE REvigw PUBLISHING Co. i ; i includi 19 shillings. RIPTION--$3.00 per year in advance; foreign, including postage, $4.50, or seta: racks anise 10 cents each. Convenient binders sent, post paid, $1.00. Advertising rates on application. Entered at Cleveland Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. The shipping bill has passed the senate with certain amendments. - To go into those amendments singly would confuse the reader, and there- fore the Review will merely deal with the bill as it has passed. It is quite likely that the bill will pass the house, as it is impossible. in that body to talk it to death, but it cannot be stated as a certainty that it will pass. Many western senators gave the bill faint support in the senate, or Op- posed it altogether, and their attitude may reflect the views of their asso- 'ciates in the house. It would not take very much of a republican deflec- tion in the house to defeat the measure. But the bill ought to pass. Last year American vessels carried only 8 per cent. of the foreign trade of the United States--the lowest in its history. It has been steadily growing less "site the civil war. The cause of it is perfectly clear. Great Britain has her commerce established. She carries 52 per cent. of the shipping of the world. She earns $200,000,000 per annum in carrying American freight. Her organization is so complete that she embraces all the ports of the world. Like any other great business England's shipping has been strengthened in innumerable ways and fed from a thousand arteries, so that it is utterly impossible for a new and struggling industry to make headway, under natural conditions, against its complete and perfect mechanism. That.is why, bold, daring and masterful as they are, the Americans have been unable to resurrect their shipping on the seas. How did England obtain this gigantic lead? Through the most natural of causes. The United States had it when the wooden clipper ship was the queen of the seas. She had it because wooden ships could be built cheaper in the United States than elsewhere. But the civil war came and swept away her burden bearers from the seas; and coincident with that great event came the evolution from wood to iron. . During this period capital in the United States was taken up with internal development--railroads and many lines of manufacture. Shipping offered no inducements, on account of competition from other nations. England was blessed with convenient deposits of iron ore and coal. She could make iron cheaper than any other country and she built iron ships and afterward stéel ships. A steel ship is better than a wooden ship. It is stauncher, lives longer, gets lower insurance rates, etc. And, therefore, in obedience to the in- exorable law of cheapest and best, England began to build the ships of the world and to carry the water-borne commerce of mankind. She was with- out a rival; and with incredible swiftness she established her agencies of commerce in every country that had a coast line. Of the twin sisters, industry and commerce, commerce has the more tenacious life. She dies hard. Industrially the United States is surpassing Great Britain, but commercially Great Britain is far and away supreme. That is due to the centuries upon centuries spent in opening avenues of trade; in organiza- tion. The impetus of a thousand years of strenuous effort is back of her. But it is said that the United States has the greater natural resources, and through the development of transportation can assemble the raw materials for the manufacture of steel more cheaply than any other nation, Therefore, she can make steel more cheaply than anyone else. True, she can. It will not be a very great while before she will be a regular exporter of steel to new countries, instead of a spasmodic one. It will not be a very great while before she is on an equal footing with Great Britain in the construction of steel ships, as far as cheapness of material is con- cerned, if she is not so already. She pays her workmen, however, a better wage and a ship costs more to build in the United States than in Great Britain. However, the United States is asking no odds in the mere con- struction of a ship. What it wants is a chance to establish the commerce of shipping. It can be done now in ten years with help; it can't be done in a hundred years. without help. The Review is not in favor of perpetual aid to American shipping. It is only in favor of such aid as is absolutely necessary to assail the bulwark of English organization and to put the American merchant marine upon its feet. It was a great natural con- dition which gave England its start; it must be an artificial condition, if you are pleased to call it so, which will give the United States its start. The baby must be fed before he can grow; he must be strengthened, trained and developed before he can fight. The time to strengthen Ameri- can shipping is now. Granted encouragement today, ten years hence it will need no aid. The shipping bill is a plain, common sense proposition, It is good business and good statesmanship, for it is advanced at the most opportune time for the country to take advantage of:it, We have the goods to sell,-we can build the ships to carry them, but we®have né established avenues of commerce over sea.: It is to establish thesé linés of trade that aid to shipping is necessary. When the lines are established | [March 20,2. there will be no necessity for aid. The American organization will then fight its own battle with the organization of the British empire. The bill, as passed by the senate, is divided into two parts. The first refers to ocean mail subsidies and authorizes, until July 1, 1910, contracts for carrying the mails for terms of from five to fifteen years between the United States and such ports as will best serve the postal and commercial interests of the United States, the contracts to go to the lowest responsible bidder and to expire in 1920. The steamships carrying mails are to be classified according to tonnage and speed and paid from 1 5-7 cents. iq" 2 7-10 cents per registered ton for each 100 miles on the outward trip and are to be acceptable and suitable for auxiliary cruisers in case of war. A certain proportion of their crews are to be Americans and they are to carry One apprentice boy for each 1,000 tons of register. The yearly ex- penditure is to be not more than $5,000,000 until July 1, 1907, and after- ward not to exceed $8,000,000. The right of congress to amend or repeal the bill is not to be considered an impairment of contracts made under it. The second part deals with general subsidies and deep-sea fisheries. The general subsidy is limited to sail or steam vessels classed not less than A 1, of over 1,000 tons register, and having a speed of not less than 8 knots, engaged in the foreign trade or with the Philippine islands, For the first five years after accepting bounty they are to be paid 1% cents per gross ton for each 100 miles sailed, and thereafter at the rate of 1 cent per ton. The voyage, however, must not be less than 150 miles from port, the crew must at least be one-fourth American, and the vessel must carry at least half a full cargo and one apprentice boy for each 1,000 tons of register. No steamship can receive both mail and general subsidy, and those receiving the latter are to carry United States mail free of charge. Vessels receiving subsidy are to be taken for the public defense at fair valuation, and are not to be sold except by consent of the secretary of the treasury. To vessels engaged in deep-sea fishing for not less than three months of the year, there is to be paid $2 per gross ton per annum, and to each American citizen, serving as a member. of the crew, $1 per month while so employed. At least one-third' of each crew is to be composed of American citizens. The plan of the directors of the United: States Steel Corporation to fund a portion of the preferred stock of the company is, in our judgment, wise. Undoubtedly it is the sober conviction of those who have the heayi- est investments in the company. They probably believe that the corpora- tion will never be unable to pay interest upon its bonds. The proposition is to retire 40 per cent. of the preferred stock 'by the issue of 5 per cent. bonds; and to issue additional bonds to obtain $50,000,000 in cash for working capital and to acquire other properties. The effect of this will be to reduce the fixed charge upon the corporation's earnings, - Those who desire to retain their preferred stock can undoubtedly do so; but it is clear that those whose interests run into the millions in this giant corporation are satisfied to obtain a less rate for their money with the added surety of ,, being able to depend upon it. As in England there is growing in the - United States a class of capitalists who are satisfied with a very low rate" of interest so long as they are assured that their principal is absolutely Ay secure, INSTITUTION OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS. _ An important meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects will open in the hall of the Society of Arts, London, on March 19. The Earl of Glasgow, president of the institution, will occupy the chair. The list of papers is as follows: "On Torpedo Boat Destroyers"--By Sydney W. Babnaby, Esq., mem- ber of council, "On the Stresses in a Ship's Bottom Plating due to Water Pressure'"-- By Ivan G. Boobnoff, I. R.N. of St. Petersburg. Liquid Fuel for Ships'--By Sir J. Fortescue Flannery, M. P., member. "The Navipendular Method of Experiments, as Applied to Some Warships of Different 'Classes'"--By Capt. G. Russo, R. I. .N., member. 2 On the Necessity for Fixing a Standard of Stability for Sea-Going Ships =by Prolj ctl, Biles i1: D., member of council. The Straining Forces in Crank Shafts'--By Prof. Stanley Dunker- ley, associate. ae " Lorsional Vibrations of Shafts"--By Herr L. Giimbel, associate. mprovements in Propeller Shaft Bearings"--By 'A. Scott Younger, Esq., B. Sc., member. "Modern Scientific Develo mien dike Fui ee fp --By W. Laird Clowes, Esq. D an e Future of Naval Warfare "Distortion in Boilers due to Overheating"'--By C..E. Stromeyer, Esq., member of council, "The 'Corrosion of Condenser Tubes and : se Prof. E; Cohen of Amsterdam. oo eo-wal Conductors" y "The Methods of Handling Material over Ship Building Berths in American Ship Yards'--By W. A. Fairburn, Esq., member. "A Comparison of Five Types of Engines with respect to their Un- pene Forces and: Couples"--By Prof. W. E. Dalby, M. A.,' B. Se, apsocia' ce ie ; a ' "A Note on Simipson's Rules'"--By J. McFarlane Gray, Esq., mem ber of council. eo. . : Eien pera oary ' 85% _President L. W. Hill of the Eastern Minnesota railroad is quoted saying that oo naan deliver at its Superior docks during the. com: Season about. ¢,UU0,000 tons, of.jron.ore. Last s. moved fi these docks '2, 27,000 tons. . ' obs . ose aes here mel oo eAY ae